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Bloodstone - Fight For Jerusalem (1995)

Posted By: JET 1

Date: 31 Jan 2025 22:02:26

Bloodstone's only full length album, "Valley Of The Machines", came out on the doomed Long Island Records in 1995. The mid-90s was the WORST time in hard rock history for a band like Bloodstone to release a historic treasure of 80s metal stylings. Deeply rooted in the traditional essence of groups like Dio and Sabbath, the band felt the need to sprinkle hard rock seasoning to the brew, mixing in elements of bigger arena acts such as White Lion, circa "Fight To Survive" and Ratt. The metal act was skipped over by fans however, who at the time were emptying out their wallets for garage grunge acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden instead. After releasing one album and an EP, "2,000 Down The Line", Bloodstone disappeared from the stages and the shelves.
The band was formed in Stuggart, Germany, when another German band, Ayers Rock, was split in two. Bloodstone retained three members of Ayers Rock, while Lost Gain incorporated the final two members into their fold. The band came together with singer Jochen Sakowsky, guitarists Holger Baumann & Daniel Stevenson, bassist Vito Popovic, and drummer Andrew Green.

With the band in place, Bloodstone recorded their first record, a six-track EP called "2,000 Down The Line". The EP didn't do anything particularly exciting or innovative, with the band learning their craft at this time, possibly caught in the middle of a traditional metal output, and the soundscape they would later create only a year later.

The band recorded their debut album for Long Island Records in 1995.

"Valley Of The Machines" proved to be a stellar achievement, with excellent songwriting, powerful vocals, and a killer production job. With positive messages throughout the album, one would think of Bloodstone as a Christian metal band. The group focused all songwriting efforts into a positive flow of inspiration, never really targeting the thrash or grunge audiences, who at the time seemed to have more of a negative effect on listeners, but instead creating something memorable and uplifting.

Tracks like "Fight For Jerusalem", with its anti-war theme, were superb heartfelt rockers, with vocalist Sakowsky sounding a lot like Ronnie James Dio at times. Bloodstone proved they could play hard rock as well as power metal with the beautifully crafted piece, "Prisoner Of Hell", a fine-tuned gem warning of drug abuse and its consequences. "Oasis For The Blind" could have been lifted straight from "Holy Diver", with the band making full use of their traditional metal roots, again with Sakowsky playing the part of the metal elf and expanding into the early 80s sound. The group even payed homage to one David Bowie, with a neat little cover of "Ziggy Stardust".

"Valley Of The Machines" went on to be released in Japan by the Zero Corporation under the name "Fight For Jerusalem". This made things somewhat confusing for the band, as the Japan release had a different tracklisting, with songs that weren't even included on the Long Island release.

After "Valley Of The Machines" was released both domestically and overseas, the group apparently disbanded. There was no other material released from Bloodstone, and the band disappeared altogether. Nothing has been heard about the group in nine years.

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.5 from 20. February 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 2. December 2021, 20:37

Bloodstone / Fight For Jerusalem (Sample CD XRCN-1207)

Used drive : PLEXTOR BD-R PX-B950SA Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:44.27 | 0 | 25826
2 | 5:44.27 | 5:05.40 | 25827 | 48741
3 | 10:49.67 | 5:31.58 | 48742 | 73624
4 | 16:21.50 | 4:28.12 | 73625 | 93736
5 | 20:49.62 | 3:39.18 | 93737 | 110179
6 | 24:29.05 | 3:55.45 | 110180 | 127849
7 | 28:24.50 | 3:47.52 | 127850 | 144926
8 | 32:12.27 | 4:56.15 | 144927 | 167141
9 | 37:08.42 | 4:41.23 | 167142 | 188239
10 | 41:49.65 | 3:09.45 | 188240 | 202459

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename G:\RIP\Bloodstone 1995 Japanese Pressing FLAC by alzal\Bloodstone - Fight For Jerusalem (Sample CD XRCN-1207).wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 8.1 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC C5CD93B4
Copy CRC C5CD93B4
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [666022C0] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B2774F5F] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [987ACCB5] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [96290B09] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [A4A8317C] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [237B7C9B] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [A8C02801] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [8E8842F5] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [113E4DE8] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [257ECB74] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: zNqpbEmUYN16kEobtfZ5kQMy__4-] found
Submit result: zNqpbEmUYN16kEobtfZ5kQMy__4- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
2 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
3 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
4 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
5 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
6 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
7 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
8 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
9 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
10 | (1/1) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum 4A7693F461F6B06F1DBC3F8DE9BC5BEA8804CB416E54EEEFAF8562C73777E073 ====

Tracklist :::
01. Fight For Jerusalem
02. Oasis For The Blind
03. Heart In Flames
04. Prisoner Of Hell
05. Lost Horizons
06. We Will Be Strong
07. Breakout
08. Mary, Mary
09. Save The World
10. Soldier Of Fortune

Players :::
Jochen Sakowsky - Vocals
Daniel Stevenson - Guitars
Holger Baumann - Guitars
Vito D. Popovic - Bass
Andrew Green - Drums

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EAC Rip FLAC Lossless Melodic Metal Bloodstone