Nosferatu is the first studio album by Bloodbound, released on 16 December 2005 in Japan and on 24 February 2006 in Europe. It tells the story of a man's quest to combat Nosferatu: a demon who is the face of the devil. While performing this album, the band would often wear corpse paint, to the confusion of critics.^[1][2]

The power metal album is described as part of the new wave of heavy metal, although there is little consensus whether it should be the British or traditional variant of the new wave. Arguments for the former include clear inspirations from Hammerfall, Iron Maiden, Helloween, and Edguy, whereas arguments for the latter boil down to comparisons to Yngwie Malmsteen.^[3][4][5][6]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Metal Crypt	[7]
Zware Metalen	Negative[3]
Metal Storm	8.6/10[4]
Metal Central	9/10[8]
Metal Temple	8/10[1]
Metal Reviews	92/100[9]
Metal Covenant	9/10[2]
RevelationZ	Positive[10]
Sea of Tranquility	[5]
Aux Portes du Metal	79/100[6]

• Thomas Olsson - Guitars, producer, sound engineering and photography.
• Fredrik Bergh - Bass, keyboard, backing vocals, and songwriting (for "Behind the Moon", "Into the Dark", "Metal Monster", "Crucified", "Fallen from Grace" and "Midnight Sun").
• Urban Breed - Leading vocals, writing (for "Behind the Moon", "Metal Monster" and "Desdemonamelia") and sound engineering.
• Oskar Belin - Drums, percussion, art direction and design.

• Richard Humphries^[11] - Thunder sound effect in "Nosferatu."
• Fredrik Lundberg - Backing vocals.
• Sofia Westlin - Backing vocals.
• Daniel Jonsson - Backing vocals.

• Per Ryberg - Mixing and mastering.^[12]
• Mark Wilkinson - Cover art.^[13]
• Göran Olsson - Photography.

As seen on both the official site and lead guitarist Thomas Olsson's interview at the Metal Covenant, the band describes the album as a concept album. Olsson further states the following:^[14][15]

"We follow one man on his quest to fight the evil demon Nosferatu (the face of the devil) and restore the balance between good and evil, light and dark, heaven and hell..."

The story, as both Olsson and the official site explain it, begins in Behind the Moon. There, the hero learns that sunlight has important powers that can be used to fight Nosferatu. He also learns that his path is to be predicted by a prophet. In Into the Dark, the hero sees a person who has been manipulated into an unspeakable act. This person cannot reconcile with their acts, and serves as a warning to the hero to think twice before turning to evil. When Nosferatu begins, the hero finds himself at the gates of hell. There, he sees the demon Nosferatu performing a ritual. After he gets spotted by the demon, he is chased away by the hellhounds. Metal Monster begins with the hero at a low. He was near surrender, until the titular metal monster appeared to save him. In Crucified, the prophet mentioned in Behind the Moon appears. She tells the hero that the only way to rid his mind of demons is to be crucified. After successfully spending a week on the cross, he is considered cleansed.^[14][16]

The site and Olsson both say that the story continues in Desdemonamelia, where the hero attempts to meet with the prophet again, but she was replaced by Amelia, the daughter of Nosferatu, who steals the hero's vision. Fallen from Grace begins with the hero's having escaped from Amelia, but to hell. After wandering for days and nearly dying of dehydration, he finds the forbidden well. Once he has drunk its water, Nosferatu is able to take over the hero's mind. The extent of that control is demonstrated in Screams in the Night, where the hero kidnaps a settlement worth of children to hell, and subsequently kills them. In For the King, Nosferatu takes full control over the hero, and employs him to his legion.^[14][16]

Nosferatu's final task for the hero, as stated by Olsson and the official website, is to reclaim the lands lost to the midnight sun at the arctic circle, this task is issued to the hero in Midnight Sun. As Behind the Moon conveyed according to both sources, sunlight can be used to combat Nosferatu. Because of this, the midnight sun shining on the hero is enough for him to regain his senses and oppose Nosferatu. Finally, in On the Battlefield, the two face each other in what both articles call the greatest and bloodiest battle of all time. The hero seemed to have emerged victorious, which is an act of repentance, and allows him to enter heaven after all.^[14][16]

Within the many reviews that the album received, such as those written by Kees van Peer for Dutch metal outlet Zware Metalen and Yann G. for the French Aux Portes du Metal, the band was frequently compared to Iron Maiden, Helloween, HammerFall, and Edguy. Other comparisons have been to Magnus Karlsson (in the context of his Allen-Lande project), Yngwie Malmsteen for Bloodbound's guitar work, and to Kamelot for their production quality by Murat Batmaz who was writing for Sea of Tranquility.^[5][3][6]

Critics often stated that this influence (particularly that from Iron Maiden) was to the point that the album lacked originality. Some critics, like the aforementioned Kees van Peer took issue with the lack of originality, where The Metal Crypt's Bruce Turnbull called the works an "homage to metal history." The Metal Storm admin Jeff (surname unknown) stated, instead, that the band operates in the same sub-genre, whereas RevelationZ's Steen Jepsen finds that the band's spirit made up for the lack of originality.^{[3][7][4][10]} Several reviewers also found the tracks in the album to be too similar to each other. Marty (surname unknown) from Metal Reviews citing a formulaic structure, and Peter Lidgren from the Swedish Metal Central because of a lack of changes in pace.^[9][8] However, these same reviews also call the sound plain good.^{[17][9][2][8][1]} Furthermore, Bloodbound is praised by many critics, such as Tommy Nordin from the Metal Covenant, for their production quality, especially their use of many tracks, and scaling of infra- and ultrasound back into hearing range.^[18][2]

The album has been streamed many times on online platforms. As of February 2024, these are the numbers. Do note that on YouTube streams (views) are not public in full precision. They are visible only two to three significant figures. And many unofficial versions exist on YouTube, too. One of these is a fan-made video clip by user Malakort with 6,700,000 views. Bloodbound themselves have also uploaded their live performances to both YouTube and Spotify with streams totaling to around 200,000. These have not been counted in the table below.