BLESSED DEATH did, unlike many other bands at the time, manage to create their personal, very recognizable style, right in the very beginning of their career. Even their initial demos showed very clearly the musical path that BLESSED DEATH intended to follow on their next releases. BLESSED DEATH`s “Kill or be Killed,” released in the USA by Megaforce Records, was significantly better and more original when compared to other, fairly typical releases at the time. It was, in my view, thanks to the very unique singer they had - Lerry Portelli`s expressive and powerful vocals with a great range…you add thrash metal to it and voila: what you have got is very interesting music. Of course, this wasn’t “utterly unique” (so to say), since one can still trace some minute SLAYER influences in their music (expressive guitar solos, for instance), yet, the song structures were definitely different. Indeed, their style was fairly dissimilar to what was being composed back then. BLESSED DEATH has always been a very original band, with plenty of unique ideas…yet, due to the unfortunate fact they formed way too late, they didn’t become as famous as other thrash metal crews. They lost the impetus yet I think they could have achieved much more, that’s for sure. I do recollect the day when I first heard “Kill or Be Killed” …it was so powerful! And it still holds up; I have purchased the cd version (Old Metal, US edition) with bonus demo songs. What a blast!!! If only “Kill or Be Killed” had been released before “Show no Mercy” …and the times when those two albums were out shaped the popularity of SLAYER and BLESSED DEATH, that’s for sure. Two classic, immortal gems of the genre. I do regret, I have managed to see them play live. I am sure that it`d be a unique experience since their music is “rich” so to say. I love their sound and the rhythm section of theirs (the Powelson brothers). BLESSED DEATH stands for awesome riffs and sadly there are no bands like them these days anymore. Therefore, you guys should stop, at some point, looking for new bands and get back to the very roots of thrash metal. Thanks to BLESSED DEATH, thrash metal became what it is these days. Although BLESSED DEATH wasn’t as successful as SLAYER, EXODUS, DARK ANGEL or METALLICA, still, surely, they helped build the thrash metal genre. “Designed for Extinction”, the album released 2 years after the debut album, is much better produced; one can easily hear that the music has progressed a lot on this release. Of course, this is still BLESSED DEATH; just played more skillfully and the orchestrations of theirs are much more mature, I would add too. Weirdly, despite these awesome albums, BLESSED DEATH didn’t achieve too much. After their second album, they also recorded two demos and fell silent until 2006. I wasn’t too happy about the disbanding I must say since I didn’t understand why they didn’t succeed. “Hour of Pain,” released in 2006, presents a rather different face of BLESSED DEATH…. their uniqueness is, let me put it like this: gone. It is still awesome music, well played and stuff, yet despite similarities to their first albums something is definitely missing. Well, I don’t know really, because the line-up was the same, there’s plenty of energy in these songs… maybe because they weren’t lucky enough to have found a bigger label to promote their music better? Who knows. In 2016, regrettably, Jeff Anderson (guitars) died. Thus “Hour of Pain” became BLESSED DEATH`s farewell album. I have always desired to see BLESSED DEATH live, but it`s never happened. Well, maybe they`ll resurrect at some point in the future and will visit Poland one day, who knows? Like DARK ANGEL who`re scheduled to come to Poland this year. That would be great.

NecronosferatuS