Album review: Blood Vulture – Die Close

Jordan Olds first came to prominence as Gwarsenio Hall, corpsepainted host of internet metal chat show Two Minutes To Late Night. About the same time that COVID hit, he started corralling musicians from across the heavy spectrum to collaborate on Zoom-call YouTube cover versions – perfect entertainment for locked-down headbangers. Blood Vulture feels like the logical next step: a band/project with Jordan doing nearly everything but the drums.

It's no surprise that Jordan’s compositions reveal a man of good taste – he did recruit Mutoid Man as house band on Two Minutes…, after all. The twist here is that a character most famous as a comedian has delivered a serious, and seriously impressive, piece of work. An Embrace In The Flood sets the tone, its grandiose doom moves topped off by melodic, often double-tracked vocals almost eerily reminiscent of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell.

Considering Jordan’s stacked address book, the guests are kept to a minimum, with Kristin Hayter, AFI’s Jade Puget and Brian Fair out of Shadows Fall all contributing but staying within the lines of the Blood Vulture vision. Kristin’s vocals are impressive as ever on Entwined, despite the epic tune being country miles away from her unsettling, avant-garde work as Lingua Ignota.

The closing title-track appropriately encapsulates the whole album’s highly effective blend of mournful accessibility. Elsewhere, A Dream About Starving To Death best explains Die Close’s over-arching concept, its protagonist a vampire who’s outlived humanity and now faces the end of days alone. These eccentric tales of despair and longing have enough real world parallels to make for a genuinely affecting musical opus – not to mention a good argument for giving up the day job.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Alice In Chains, Pallbearer, Trouble

Die Close is released on June 27 via Pure Noise