Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2016 19:06:43 GMT -6
Bleedience - Bleedience
Year: 2002
Genre: Black Metal
Norway has provided the Christian black metal scene with some very huge and popular bands (at least by our standards). Antestor, Vaakevandring, Drottnar, and Grave Declaration get a lot of attention and are all fantastic bands, though this little underground band has hidden in their shadow for quite some time and was never able to really make themselves known. Meet Bleedience, a bizarre, borderline-experimental CBM band featuring Andreas Hansen from VIXIVI (another one of those obscure Norwegian projects). Throw all expectations out the window; this is not the kind of black metal that you've ever heard before.
This self-titled demo of theirs has quickly grown on me and become a favorite of mine. Their style is extremely varied and you never know what to expect from them. The variety becomes extremely obvious when examining the vocals. You have fairly standard but well-done black growls and a few different varieties of clean vocals. There are two male singers, one with a high, "airy" voice, and another with a much deeper and more full-sounding voice. Female vocals are present as well, especially on the track "Nocturne". Spoken vocals are used in "Intro" as well as "Prejudice - A Gun to Your Head". All five of these vocals styles are done incredibly well and used for the correct amount of time. The growls are the most prevalent (as is typical for black metal), but the clean vocals are given enough of a chance to shine without getting too annoying. The aforementioned "Nocturne" is almost entirely clean vocals, while most of the other songs feature mostly growls with clean vocals on the side. In "Prejudice - A Gun to Your Head", the band often jumps between the various vocal styles, rather than assigning each one to a specific section of the song like they did in "Kristtorn I". The latter track begins by sounding like normal black metal, but about halfway through, they completely change style by introducing a keyboard, and a "bouncier" riff, the kind that you want to bop your head back and forth to. This is when the growls drop out and the deeper-voiced male singer comes in. The female vocalist occasionally chimes in, as does the growler, but for the most part, the male vocalist is given a chance to shine. In "Prejudice...", however, the band switches between the styles far more often. There will be singing one moment, growling the next, more singing, more growling, and then some spoken vocals thrown in there. The variety of the vocals alone is enough to distinguish this band from the rest, though they bring a lot more than just that to the table.
The band manages to achieve some pretty great atmosphere by simply using keyboards and using them well. Their presence is made most known in "Kristtorn I", especially the clean vocal part that I brought up earlier. I know that a lot of people hate it when black metal sounds too "circusy", and that may be a concern for some people in this song, but I personally love it. It sounds very dark and mysterious. Keyboards are used throughout the rest of the song too, acting as a sort of backdrop behind the guitars, but still with a memorable melody of their own. Atmosphere is created through other methods in the rest of the songs. "Intro" sets the perfect mood for the album by using noisy guitar distortion and spoken vocals. "Nocturne Intro" and the last few seconds of "Nocturne" itself feature electronic noises that create an eerie, inorganic feel to the music that leaves you a little bit on edge. "Prejudice..." creates atmosphere in ways unlike the rest of the songs. There is a clean guitar section in the middle of it, but the outro of the song is what's really interesting. The song seems like it's going as normal at first, and then it starts to slowly distort and decrease in pitch, like a merry-go-round that's starting to break down. After that, an abrupt guitar note sounds and drums start to fade in. This continues until the drums reach full volume, then pauses, then continues again. The drums are frantic, repeating the same little rhythm over and over again, with the same abrupt guitar note sounding every few beats. It then fades out into nothingness and the demo is over. It creates a really strange effect on your ears the first time you hear it.
The actual metal part of this album is solid enough to be enjoyable on its own even without all of the experimentation. The riffs are great all around, though a little too repetitive in places (particularly in "Kristtorn II", which features only two riffs that trade off for the entire duration of the song). They are all rather memorable and fantastically written. The best riffs are in "Prejudice...", particularly towards the end when they introduce a really great melody before the song slowly breaks down. The drumming is fantastic as well. They have a real drummer, not a computer, which is really nice, and he seems to know what he's doing. He blastbeats where he should blastbeat, and he fills where he should fill. He does everything you should expect from a good drummer, and he does it without being too repetitive or uninteresting as well. The production is better than the average demo but still somewhat primitive. I like it that way though, and the mixing is good enough that you can hear everything. No instrument drowns out any of the rest, and that's what matters the most.
Overall, this is an extremely original, experimental, and great demo that you should buy if you ever happen to find it. All of the songs from it are on YouTube so you should at least give it a listen. If you're willing to allow bands to think outside the box a little, you won't be disappointed.
88/100
-CrimsonWarrior
Year: 2002
Genre: Black Metal
Norway has provided the Christian black metal scene with some very huge and popular bands (at least by our standards). Antestor, Vaakevandring, Drottnar, and Grave Declaration get a lot of attention and are all fantastic bands, though this little underground band has hidden in their shadow for quite some time and was never able to really make themselves known. Meet Bleedience, a bizarre, borderline-experimental CBM band featuring Andreas Hansen from VIXIVI (another one of those obscure Norwegian projects). Throw all expectations out the window; this is not the kind of black metal that you've ever heard before.
This self-titled demo of theirs has quickly grown on me and become a favorite of mine. Their style is extremely varied and you never know what to expect from them. The variety becomes extremely obvious when examining the vocals. You have fairly standard but well-done black growls and a few different varieties of clean vocals. There are two male singers, one with a high, "airy" voice, and another with a much deeper and more full-sounding voice. Female vocals are present as well, especially on the track "Nocturne". Spoken vocals are used in "Intro" as well as "Prejudice - A Gun to Your Head". All five of these vocals styles are done incredibly well and used for the correct amount of time. The growls are the most prevalent (as is typical for black metal), but the clean vocals are given enough of a chance to shine without getting too annoying. The aforementioned "Nocturne" is almost entirely clean vocals, while most of the other songs feature mostly growls with clean vocals on the side. In "Prejudice - A Gun to Your Head", the band often jumps between the various vocal styles, rather than assigning each one to a specific section of the song like they did in "Kristtorn I". The latter track begins by sounding like normal black metal, but about halfway through, they completely change style by introducing a keyboard, and a "bouncier" riff, the kind that you want to bop your head back and forth to. This is when the growls drop out and the deeper-voiced male singer comes in. The female vocalist occasionally chimes in, as does the growler, but for the most part, the male vocalist is given a chance to shine. In "Prejudice...", however, the band switches between the styles far more often. There will be singing one moment, growling the next, more singing, more growling, and then some spoken vocals thrown in there. The variety of the vocals alone is enough to distinguish this band from the rest, though they bring a lot more than just that to the table.
The band manages to achieve some pretty great atmosphere by simply using keyboards and using them well. Their presence is made most known in "Kristtorn I", especially the clean vocal part that I brought up earlier. I know that a lot of people hate it when black metal sounds too "circusy", and that may be a concern for some people in this song, but I personally love it. It sounds very dark and mysterious. Keyboards are used throughout the rest of the song too, acting as a sort of backdrop behind the guitars, but still with a memorable melody of their own. Atmosphere is created through other methods in the rest of the songs. "Intro" sets the perfect mood for the album by using noisy guitar distortion and spoken vocals. "Nocturne Intro" and the last few seconds of "Nocturne" itself feature electronic noises that create an eerie, inorganic feel to the music that leaves you a little bit on edge. "Prejudice..." creates atmosphere in ways unlike the rest of the songs. There is a clean guitar section in the middle of it, but the outro of the song is what's really interesting. The song seems like it's going as normal at first, and then it starts to slowly distort and decrease in pitch, like a merry-go-round that's starting to break down. After that, an abrupt guitar note sounds and drums start to fade in. This continues until the drums reach full volume, then pauses, then continues again. The drums are frantic, repeating the same little rhythm over and over again, with the same abrupt guitar note sounding every few beats. It then fades out into nothingness and the demo is over. It creates a really strange effect on your ears the first time you hear it.
The actual metal part of this album is solid enough to be enjoyable on its own even without all of the experimentation. The riffs are great all around, though a little too repetitive in places (particularly in "Kristtorn II", which features only two riffs that trade off for the entire duration of the song). They are all rather memorable and fantastically written. The best riffs are in "Prejudice...", particularly towards the end when they introduce a really great melody before the song slowly breaks down. The drumming is fantastic as well. They have a real drummer, not a computer, which is really nice, and he seems to know what he's doing. He blastbeats where he should blastbeat, and he fills where he should fill. He does everything you should expect from a good drummer, and he does it without being too repetitive or uninteresting as well. The production is better than the average demo but still somewhat primitive. I like it that way though, and the mixing is good enough that you can hear everything. No instrument drowns out any of the rest, and that's what matters the most.
Overall, this is an extremely original, experimental, and great demo that you should buy if you ever happen to find it. All of the songs from it are on YouTube so you should at least give it a listen. If you're willing to allow bands to think outside the box a little, you won't be disappointed.
88/100
-CrimsonWarrior