10th December 2019

Review: “Blood Of The Dead” by Dii Minores

Dii Minores arw one of those Heavy Metal bands that went away only to rediscover their love for playing together again in later life. Originally established in 2003 and remaining active for three years before going on hiatus that would end up lasting until the end of 2018, the band started playing again, with an almost intact line-up. Joined by a new lead guitarist in the beginning of 2019, they now comprise main vocalist Kenneth Larsson, rhythm guitarist and harsh vocalist Johan Sjöblom, lead guitarist Mikael Meijer, drummer Jim Altis and bassist Mattias Åsell Backlund. Dii Minores has released an EP in “Blood Of The Dead” and are now producing material for full length album to be released during 2020.

Dii Minores describe themselves as a Blackened, Beathened and Doomened old school Heavy Metal band. We’ll take that one step further and say that Kenneth Larsson sounds like Ronnie James Dio raised from the dead, accompanied by backing vocals that sound like they’re from the Devil himself. Indeed Johan Sjöblom’s uncleans are like gargling gravel. Musically they’re a rich blend of the music that preceded Power Metal with hints of Melodic Black Metal straight from the Norwegian Forests. Larsson has a wonderful storytelling style more evident on “Art Of War”, a tale in sublime technicolor, than anything else. Half the EP is taken by the title track that builds from a Melodic acoustic guitar in the rain to some Metallica riffs with classic 80’s horror film themes and creepy overtones. The closing verse over the acoustic work that it starts with is a fine piece of musicanship and perhaps suggests that an acoustic EP or album may appear later down the line. “Blood Of The Dead” is a piece of nostalgic fun that has us looking forward to the aforementioned full length release [7/10]

Track listing