| CD REVIEW Bliksem |
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Band : Bliksem This Antwerp based band was bred to life in October 2006 when guitarists Toon Huet & Jeroen DeVrieze, bassist Jan Rammelloo and drummer/ backing singer Rob Martin started rehearsing, looking for a suitable singer in the process. That search would last for a year, during which the fellows continued to write new songs, but eventually they did find their perfect front(wo)man in Peggy Meeussen. Far from being beginners in the Underground scene (members of Bliksem have previously played with...in alphabetical order to prevent prejudice...Alerta, Cooperate, minus45degrees MyGirlLeftToday, Nilgai, Not Impressed, Pink Overdose, Scarlet Dew, Smudge MC, SYC, The Stitch, ThunderHeartMachine, Wretched Vixen, and You Rascal You) the band set forth to recording a self-titled 3-track demo (which they released in March 2008), and with their previous experiences combined immediately threw themselves upon their hometown's live circuit. A whole series of live appearances ensued (during which the band even managed to get such high profile support slots as playing seconds to Hail Of Bullets and Tankard)...in fact só busy where the band running from gig to gig, that they hardly found time to record a new batch of songs. However, eventually they díd take out time on purpose to spend sometime at Little Big Studio with Sven Janssen (whom mixed the recordings at...his own, I believe?...Red Left Hand Studio). 5 Great new tracks were recorded, from which the band's musical influences from Thrashed-up Stoner with great double lead guitar clearly speaks. Read a review in which it was stated that our Belgian scene has no female singers one can compare Peggy with. Well, I don't know quite how the idea got into my mind, but somehow her style (not necessarily the vocal signature, but the attitude behind it) somehow reminded me of former Acid frontwoman Kate, even if Peggy's voice is a lot more steadfast. Definitely, Peggy's voice is what makes Bliksem stand out in he scene, but the musical foundation is not something to speak jokingly about either! The solid rhythm section (boy, does that drums pound...and how delightfully pumping do those bass lines sound!) are the perfect foundation for the guitarists, who knew how to finger the catchiest tunes out of their instruments while also giving the more demanding listeners food for interest (as I said earlier, great twin lead guitar play here), and keeping both in balance. You can listen to 3 songs off the album at (www.) facebook.com/pages/bliksem (notice I ain't referring to MySpace anymore lately?...cannot log onto that anymore with the network pc I depend upon for all my Internet surfing since the buggers had to upgrade the site). Been a long time, but I guess I found myself an exiting new female-fronted Metal band from home soil to be a fan of again! 98/100 Tony. |