| CD REVIEW Blindead |
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Band : Blindead Founded in 1999, this Polish Doom/ Sludge Metal act was originally nothing more than a bit of fun for bassist Michal “Zima” Zimorski and guitarist Mateusz “Havoc” Smierzchalski (the latter known from Polish band Behemoth) started under the project name Personally Incorrect, but as the years passed on the fun became more serious. In 2003 the band [then also including singer Patryk “Nick Wolverine” Zwolinski (known also of Neolitic, Times New Roman, and Antigama), second guitarist Marek “Deadman” Zielinski, and drummer Konrad Ciesielski (also of Sonheillon)] recorded the 2-track demo Dig For Me. After a change of bassist (out went Zima, in came Rafa “Frost” Bauer – also known as Brovar, and known from bands such as Immemorial, Crionics, Sons Of Serpent, and the Polish Behemoth) the band attracted the attention of Empire Records, whom released the band's debut album Devouring Weakness in July 2006 to positive reception from fans (well, after all the album was given away with Polish magazine Thrash'em All's 3rd edition of that year) and media (it was a góód album) alike. In August 2007 the band (with slight line-up alterations: Piotr “Zvierzak” Kawalerowski of Mess Age, Ghost, Yattering, Hesperus Dimension, Noizzer and Panzer Faust repute had taken position at the bass, and the band added a 6th member with soundscapes and samples man Bartosz Hervy, also known from Rumours About Angels, Hrv, and Agonised By Love) recorded its sophomore album Autoscopia/ Murder in Phazes, which was released a year later through Deadline Records, resulting in critical acclaim throughout Europe and supported by a European tour and gigs supporting Neurosis. In 2009 the band undertook further gigs in Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungaria, and even made it to Holland and Belgium. In 2010 Blindead signed a deal with Mystic Prophecy for the release of this, their 3rd album, announced as the band's most complex and melodic album to date. And when listening to the album we can confirm that naming the band a “mere” Doom Metal/ Sludge band, is like attributing that same categorization to the likes of Neurosis or Isis! Indeed, there's quite some Progressive elements in the band's music, and quite a few original additional ideas worked into the music through (addition of trumpet by one Maciek Lubieniecki in “After 38 Weeks”, samples used in 4 of the 7 tracks, piano and extra keyboards added to “Dark And Gray” by one Pawel Smakulski). By the way, the album is conceptual, relating the story of a girl suffering from the mental illness of autism, from the ill-treatment of her parents through her fears and thoughts of anxiety, towards her inevitable mental collapse. Nick's vocals are immersed in layers of sadness and inward aggression, and the perfect expression for the suffering of the girl (Broken Betty's Jan Galbas adding clean backing vocals to “My New Playground Became”). Not surprisingly, the music follows the different moods, going from calmer and somewhat complex “chaotic” with a disturbingly eerie undercurrent, to moments of aural explosion, which in the case of the autistic person is too often something which happens only on the inward, personal plane, and rarely finds an expression outwardly! That the album is a concept album is expressed in two ways: 1) there's no mute passages on the album, as all 7 songs flow into each other, 2) the song titles are part of one larger sentence which reads, “Self-counciousness is desire and...After 38 weeks...My new playground became...Dark and gray...So, it feels like Misunderstanding when...All my hopes and dreams turn into...Affliction XXVII II MMIX”. Add it all up, and what you get is a great album to be loved by fans of the aforementioned, and generally by music fans into modern Post-Metal with Progressive elements. I would even dare to surmise that people into deeply dark Goth might find this album to their liking. To find out, you can listen to no less than 4 of the 7 tracks off the new album posted at (www.) myspace.com/blindead, alongside a song off each of the previous albums (and a studio video of the vocal sessions for the album – there's another studio video in the blogs). The Polish digibook edition came with a 20-page booklet including a short story based on the album's concept, and I'm not even sure in which form the European edition will be released, but certainly it's worth getting for the music alone! Oh yeah, here's another year-list nomination, expressing my personal views on the album! 98/100 Tony. |