Band:	Bloodway
Album:	Mapping The Moment With The Logic Of Dreams
Style:	Progressive black metal
Release date:	September 2015

01. Seeding Distance
02. The Transfinite Castaway
03. Walking Past Near The Lighthouse
04. Mirror Twins
05. Early Glade Test Pilot
06. A Hallow Bridge [feat. Dr. Mikannibal]
07. Garden Of Diurnal Fractals
08. Mapping The Moment With The Logic Of Dreams

People who have familiarized themselves with many of the repeat offenders within the community of metal album cover artists must have surely heard the name of Costin Chioreanu by now. A highly respected illustrator, the Romanian-born Chioreanu has become known for his distinct, dreamlike style, making gorgeous artwork for bands such as Oranssi Pazuzu, Vulture Industries, and more. Many may be surprised to know, then, that not only does Chioreanu's artistry cover painting, but also music. Say hello to Bloodway.

Bloodway label themselves as progressive black metal, although on this debut album of theirs, it can be difficult to gauge how valid that label really is. After the atmospheric intro track, with Mapping The Moment With The Logic Of Dreams, listeners are plunged into a world of bouncy, upbeat black metal, that appears to be focused more on a sense of groove and catchiness than on a progressive undertone with complex, detailed composition. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and tracks like "The Transfinite Castaway" and "Walking Past Near The Lighthouse" certainly have some memorable riffs lurking within them that, in a way, help to make the music stick.

And yet, for quite a large portion of this album, there seems to be a general feeling of redundancy to the songwriting, a feeling that, although the music definitely doesn't go into full on "this is shit" territory, it could nonetheless afford to be a more stylistically diverse in both mood and composition. Aside from this "catchy and crunchy BM" approach that seems to form the core of Bloodway's sound, there are other good ideas at work here. Particularly interesting are the brief use of clean vocals ("Garden Of Diurnal Fractals"), the occasional guitar solo ("Mirror Twins"), and the atmospheric breaks that pop up here and there, especially on instrumental track "A Hallow Bridge." The problem, however, is that these little techniques occur too infrequently in the album to really latch onto, and although they can thus leave listeners wishing for a new, more immersive dimension to be added to the music, that's a wish that never really seems to be granted in full.

Mapping The Moment With The Logic Of Dreams certainly isn't a terrible album, but it ultimately suffers from the fact that the sounds Bloodway explore here that diverge from the main "catchy BM" sound weren't in greater abundance. Given Chioreanu's penchant for experimentation and overall strange, dreamy artwork, I was expecting this album to be a lot more on the weird, abstract side than it turned out to be, and for the most part I'd say that Bloodway played it safe here with their songwriting. This album is definitely a far cry from Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth-esque mainstream black metal, but it was still a little more tame than I would've liked it to be. There are good ideas at work here, but going into the future I think Chioreanu and company will need to work on developing them a lot farther if they're looking to mature and find a sound that can truly be called their own and no one else's.

Perhaps you'll think differently?