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Blood Has Been Shed - Spirals
(Ferret Records) |
Although Spirals is Blood Has Been Shed’s third release (Following I Dwell On Thoughts Of You and Novella Of Uriel), this will be the album that will take them from the underground to the ears of the masses.
While it’s easy to label Blood Has Been Shed as metalcore, it’s not typical of most of the genres releases on the market. Instead, the band master intricate time signatures and odd changes within the albums fourteen tracks. To put it in simple terms, this is one brutal album that isn’t out and out shed or hardcore. This is hardcore mixed with metal for the musician in all of us.
The band has changed members throughout their time together, but while that matters little in the scheme of things, it’s the vocalist that tends to steal the show on this release.
The name Howard Jones might not be the most familiar of names, but his recent recruitment into Killswitch Engage will certainly raise interest in fans out there.
With a blinding flash of drums and lightning paced guitar work, ‘Age Of Apocalypse’ bolts through with extreme intensity. Jones’ vocals are downright vengeful and harrowing, while the backing musicians execute the matching soundtrack with the same level of venom. In stark contrast, ‘Prion’ is more on the melodic side of things, while still retaining an element of heaviness.
And such is the varying moods and changes throughout the album. The clever mix of the heavy intermingled with the more accessible makes for an interesting mix, and an album that never falls into the ‘too much of the same old thing’ bracket.
There are some Meshuggah influences in ‘Greetings From The Gallows’ and ‘Beginner’s Luck’, while there’s plenty of Mike Patton doing jazz sounds in ‘Rain Man’ and ‘Utah’. The instrumentals ‘Beatnik’ and ‘Weeping Willow’ are sonic experiments that can only be appreciated through headphones, but its ‘Technicolor Jackets’ that really stands out as the albums high point with the crushing heaviness of the music contrasts perfectly with Jones’ screaming vocal delivery, as well as his clean melodic moments.
The tail end numbers ‘Call Waiting’ and ‘Six Twelve’ explore different regions of melody and heaviness, while the scattered ‘Cortisone’ brings an end to what could possibly be hailed as one of the more interesting and forward thinking albums within the metalcore genre.
Even if hardcore isn’t your particular taste, there’s still enough riffs packed into the thirty-six minutes of Spirals to keep your metal cravings sedated.
By: Justin Donnelly
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