Some days ago I asked Metal Temple's editor that I would be interested in reviewing the new ANATHEMA record. As there was no record available at the moment he instead gave me another record to listen to it from a band called BAHT. What might BAHT have in common with ANATHEMA? Actually not much, unless you look back in the first records of ANATHEMA where they were much more brutal and straightforward, but then again ANATHEMA were not that close to Progressive Death Metal. I have never heard of BAHT before so with a little search I found out that they come from Turkey and that this is their first full length album since their formation in 2007.

"In My Veins" is a record that runs for approximately 41 minutes (which is usually the perfect dose for the specific kind of Metal) . The cover instantly reminded me of TOOL aesthetics (video of "Schism") but that is not necessary bad and was created by French artist Pierre-Alain D. There are 8 songs in this record and two of them with Turkish titles but as far as I can distinguish only "Neden?" has Turkish  lyrics. The band plays Death Metal with a lots of Middle Eastern elements on it which makes their music very interesting (coming from a similar culture those sounds always sound really cool to me). The songs generally are mid tempo with occasional blast beats of course and various differentiations but I don't know if the title "Progressive Death Metal" fits properly for the songs in this album. Still the music is heavy, aggressive and straightforward and I really liked Bilgehan Engin's voice which is a blend between Chuck Billy and Glen Benton both on the brutal parts and on the clean haunting chants.

In retrospect "In My Veins" is a good album with a nice mixture of eastern melodies and heavy Death Metal riffs. It came to me as a really surprise and it is one of the best things I have listened to in the last months. The album was mastered and mixed by Dan Swanö which obviously has a great impact on their sound and added to the final quality of the record. The band plays tight and the band achieves a great performance through the whole record. As a final word I would say that BAHT are not as progressive as I expected them to be and that probably deters them from going to a higher level and creating their own recognizable sound. I would like to hear more technical parts (some crazy drumming and tempo changes) and to spice up things some real eastern instruments to enhance the atmosphere of the record.