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Although they hail from Japan, BLOOD STAIN CHILD have always had a European mindset and sound.

Formed in 1999 under the name VISIONQUEST, the band changed their name to BLOOD STAIN CHILD in 2000 and began their quest towards reaching people outside their rehearsal room. They wrote more than 30 songs in less than a year and gained recognition in 2001 when two of them were used as theme songs for Japanese wrestler Kensuke Sasaki and the 30th Anniversary of a professional wrestling group (NJPW), but it was BLOOD STAIN CHILD's 2002 album, Silence Of Northern Hell, that truly got the ball rolling. The seven song opus was short, fast, heavy and to the point, displaying a black metal neo-classical edge dangerously similar Finnish legends CHILDREN OF BODOM that had metal fans labelling them both as a copycat band and one of the heaviest acts on the Japanese scene at the time.

When BLOOD STAIN CHILD issued their second album, Mystic Your Heart, in 2004 it wasn't a case of repeating the formula. Far from it. Their neoclassical sound now possessed a darker, thrashier edge in the spirit of Swedish melodic death metal, and even though comparisons to CHILDREN OF BODOM could be made the band's sound hinted at everything from IN FLAMES to NORTHER. And, in the interest of creating an album as European as possible BLOOD STAIN CHILD hired Finnish producer Anssi Kippo to produce it. On top of this, the band introduced electronic trance elements into their music as an added flavour.

"Each band member's taste in music is totally different," says guitarist Ryu. "Aki (keyboards) loves trance, for example, and Violator (drums) loves brutal black and death metal. I think we've melted these different musical tastes in one pot called BLOOD STAIN CHILD. We are always trying to find our own sound."

Their European debut, Idolator, is BLOOD STAIN CHILD's next step in that search. Their sound has continued to evolve, this time with the addition of clean vocals similar to SOILWORK and IN FLAMES on some of the songs and more pronounced use of electronic elements. They have become more melodic, but they've also become even more aggressive, if that's possible. And to ensure the desired European metal sound the band enlisted Danish studio guru Tue Madsen (The Haunted, Heaven Shall Burn, Born From Pain, Mnemic, Raunchy...) to co-produce, mix and master the album. "We aimed for more aggression, speed and heaviness than the last album," Ryu says of Idolator. "We tried to add on to the musical elements we already have. As a result we were able to construct an identity of our own that goes beyond heavy metal. Idolator doesn't belong to any other kind of music, and at the same it's full of every different type of music. BLOOD STAIN CHILD always has the three important factors; speed, aggression and beauty. We're naturally based on these three factors, so we don't lose our character at any time. We always think about how to get more power out of them."

Whether it's the crushing lead off track 'Hyper Sonic', the melodic thrash of 'Embrace Me', or the utterly brilliant 'Truth', one thing is absolutely clear; BLOOD STAIN CHILD don't merely sound like a European metal band, they are poised to give the bands that inspired them some serious competition.

Carl Begai - BW&BK