BLOODY HEELS are a Latvian hard rock group, who formed back in 2012. During their ten years together as a band, they have achieved a fair amount! They originally released their debut EP "Summer Nights" back in 2014, before revealing their first full length album "Through Mystery" in mid-2017. Following from the success of the album, BLOODY HEELS opted to record an acoustic version of "One More Time" from the compilation. After a three-year break, the group were back to work, promoting their 2020 tracks "Criminal Masterminds", "Ignite the Sky" and "Farewell to Yesterday". A month later than the release of the latter, BLOODY HEELS' second album "Ignite the Sky" was released. Fast forward to this year and they have revealed three new promotional singles "Dream Killers", "Rotten Romance" and "The Velvet". Consequently, BLOODY HEELS third studio album "Rotten Romance" was released on June 10^th, 2022, via Frontiers Music.

The first track is "Dream Killers". The introduction sounds as though it should come from a band like U2. Within a moment, I am treated to a progressive guitar riff which is just so great. Unfortunately, the rest of the song is just a bit of a let-down. "Rotten Romance" is up next, which begins with some killer instrumentals. The chorus is slightly better than the first, but it's not overly memorable, unfortunately. "The Velvet" immediately sounds like a future ALTER BRIDGE song from the offset, moving into something a bit more emotional. Sadly, this doesn't work well in their favour; I'm just not able to feel what the vocalist Vicky White is feeling throughout. It isn't very believable! "Distant Memory" is a very relatable track, adding more electronic style synths into the mix. This is one of the better songs on the album by far.

"Hour of Sinners" is up next, which contains a spoken word segment before moving on to an otherwise forgettable track. "Mirror Mirror" encapsulates BLOODY HEELS' typical sound; it just is another song that isn't memorable on this album. "When the Rain and I Meet" is just a snooze fest from start to finish - there is honestly nothing redeeming about this track. "Crow's Lullaby" and "Burning Bridges" are another couple of equally mundane tracks from the band - there just seems to be nothing original here. "Angels Crying" starts off on a slightly different wavelength, with a funky bassline adding a certain groove to the proceedings. However, that is the only redeeming feature. The last song is "Oblivion", which begins with a space like feel. This is just as bleak as the rest of the compilation and is certainly not a closing track.

"Rotten Romance" is most certainly not a great album by any means. It really seems as though BLOODY HEELS just lack originality as a rock band, not yet establishing any form of individuality even though they have been together for so long. It is safe to say I was hugely disappointed with this record.