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Love Like Blood - Exposure review



Reviewer:
5.0

5 users:
8.2
Band: Love Like Blood
Album: Exposure
Release date: 1995


01. Exposure
02. Painkilling Suicide
03. Lost
04. Shed Your Skin
05. Colours Of Perversity
06. Life
07. Lethal Radiation
08. Hide

Love Like Blood (having taken their name from the renowned Killing Joke composition "Love Like Blood") are definitely one of the finest gothic rock acts that came out of Germany in the late 80s/early 90s and offered some really wonderful and inspired gothic rock pieces during the first half of the 90s.

After a delightful period of around 4-5 years with fabulous albums like "Flags Of Revolution", "An Irony Of Fate" and "Odysee", one year after the last one mentioned was released, Love Like Blood returned during 1995 with a new album, "Exposure". Sadly, on this album, it is obvious that the band's inspiration is not that present and they don't have a lot to offer, releasing an average gothic rock album.

This time they have a groovier approach which refers to, if I may say, more hard rock references, which do not surpass of course the gothic rock background and influences and thus their sound sounds more sleazy at times, bringing forth memories of The Sisters Of Mercy's "Vision Thing". Apart from that they tend to harmonize in almost all of their compositions, in songs like "Shed Your Skin", "Lost", "Lethal Radiation" etc, emotional and tranquil parts with more upbeat and groovy ones, well, they tend to achieve this wonderfully, but where the problem lies are the ideas of the band which are not inspired and quite average when the time comes to compare them to the majesty of their earlier works.

If the ideas of Love Like Blood on "Exposure" were memorable it would have been better, but what someone may notice easily is the fact that when the album ends there's almost nothing left to remember from what you just listened. You're only left wondering with a very generic opinion as if the songs were somehow the same.

York Eyssel's vocals are really expressive and dynamic, but they resemble a lot to Carl McCoy's way of interpreting and it seems to be, mainly, the only good part of the album, along with some really well-thought gothic rock oriented guitar passages. Apart from that, as I said above, the overall feeling of the album is not something wonderful nor memorable with the only composition that shines in the dark of mediocrity being "Life" (an irony?) which is a beautiful melancholic piece.

All in all, it would be better for you to check their earlier releases that are remarkable gothic rock works and leave "Exposure" only for the moment when you have bought all the other releases of Love Like Blood and you'd like to complete your collection concerning them. Apart from that, "Exposure" doesn't have a lot to offer, so just pass it by?





Written on 30.11.2005 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."



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