Bloodbound – War Of Dragons
It’s been an impressive journey for BLOODBOUND: The Swedish power metal commando has become more and more popular in recent years. All this falls back on talent and hard work: Since 2005 BLOODBOUND have not only released six studio albums and a Live DVD/CD, they’ve also toured with giants such as Sabaton, HammerFall and U.D.O. – in the process winning over a very devoted and loyal fanbase of metalheads. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that BLOODBOUND’s next career move would be a headlining tour now – armed with their brand new studio album, titled ‘War Of Dragons’. It’s basically a continuation of the successful ‘Stormborn’ (2014), but offering more fast-paced tracks, without lacking the anthemic feel the band is known for. BLOODBOUND are masters in combining melody with power and ‘War Of Dragons’ perfectly displays the evolution that the band has gone through since their debut ‘Nosferatu’.
BLOODBOUND was founded in summer 2004 by Tomas Olsson and Fredrik Bergh. Soon they recorded a demo and received contract offers for Europe and Asia instantly. The debut ‘Nosferatu’ was released in 2006 and yielded best critiques. Consequently they played shows with bands like Sabaton, Arch Enemy, Pretty Maids and Evergrey. But 2006 also brought line-up changes which didn’t pass unnoticed, particularly as singer Urban Breed left BLOODBOUND after the tour.
But soon Michael Bormann (ex-Jaded Heart) was found to fill the gap and so the second album ‘Book Of The Dead’ was recorded and released in 2007. It became the band’s first album entering the album chart in Sweden. But shortly after the release of ‘Book Of The Dead’ it was quite obvious – Michael´s other obligations did not allow enough time for BLOODBOUND. To play the already booked shows they could convince Urban Breed to return to the band. And it became more than some gigs. Urban stayed for another tour (supporting HammerFall) and recorded the next album ‘Tabula Rasa’ with the band on which more modern and progressive elements have been added to BLOODBOUND’s sound. Numerous festival shows as well as another tour with HammerFall followed.
But in 2010 the band parted ways with Urban Breed again. On their search for a new vocalist they found the man to finally give BLOODBOUND continuity: Patrik J Selleby, who was not only a great vocalist and frontman, but a friend.
A much noticed return in shape of 2011’s ‘Unholy Cross’ album showed BLOODBOUND return to their old sound, just one and a half years later ‘In The Name Of Metal’ continued in this vein and especially with 2014’s ‘Stormborn’, BLOODBOUND made a whole lot of new fans. The band has toured with Sabaton and U.D.O. in recent years, released a Live DVD/CD (‘One Night Of Blood’) in February 2016 and simply can’t wait to unleash what they’ve been working on for a while now: ‘War Of Dragons’.
LISTEN TO A SAMPLE OF “WAR OF DRAGONS”
LINE- UP:
Patrik J Selleby – vocals
Tomas Olsson – guitars
Henrik Olsson – guitars
Anders Broman – bass
Fredrik Bergh – keyboards
(currently vacant)– drums
1. A New Era Begins
2. Battle In The Sky
3. Tears Of A Dragonheart
4. War Of Dragons
5. Silver Wings
6. Stand And Fight
7. King Of Swords
8. Fallen Heroes
9. Guardians At Heaven’s Gate
10. Symphony Satana
11. Starfall
12. Dragons Are Forever