A couple of years back the triumphant “Monnos” forcefully enthroned CONAN as the heaviest band in the Doom scene. Today, “Blood Eagle”, their third full length, finds the power-trio in their best shape. The British noise masters know that it would be suicidal to mess up with their trademark sound at this point, so don’t expect any dramatic changes. Actually, the band carries on in the “Monnos” vein and any changes are restricted to tweaking level. The case with “Blood Eagle” is simple: the album is packed with a bunch of primitive, very basic, riffs and then the record relies on CONAN’s trademark wall-of-sound technique to create a totally annihilating, completely devastating result. If you were impressed by the volume of “Monnos” then “Blood Eagle” will easily do the trick for you. If, on the other hand, you felt that “Monnos” was slowly deflating every time you played it, then you’ll probably discover that something’s missing here too. Nothing tragic really, but the way I see it, CONAN have always been a band trying to create big impressions but now they have lost the advantage of surprise. Regardless, “Blood Eagle” is one damn heavy mother f****r.
