Review of Blodsrit - Blodsrit

How does one offer a useful opinion of a type of music one doesn't care for? It’s a tough predicament. I am not here to dissuade any motherfucker of the joys . . . er . . . grimness of listening to black metal, but I have a damn hard time recommending it to anyone. I just don't quite get the form. I have had folks try to explain . . . the . . . stuff . . . to me, and it was in the context of what makes black metal listenable or meaningful to someone. I usually come away convinced that people will say, do, and like anything to be different. Yet, as a style, it is beyond question that black metal has had a serious impact on metal as a whole. You can dislike it, but you can't ignore it. So here we have Blodsrit, who call themselves Black Viking in their press packet, and a sound that is described by the band's founder as decidedly untechnical, which is true enough: no solos, no complex rhythms, no "look'a'me" drum fills, and no frills. The vocals are growled in a very monotonous way, with no indication of emotional delineation from one lyric to the next. You get one shade of grey, and it's a grim-assed shade. The production is washed in that grey. The guitars and drums stand apart from each other, and any bass work is lost. The levels are uneven, and the drums carry all the bass tone. Guitars are thin, stark, and lifeless, not at all heavy. What strength the record possesses is the song composition, and even that leans towards the monotonous as the songs move along. Each song starts out with a particular flavor, and the band builds on that fairly well, but towards the end of nearly every track, I was wishing they would just get on with it, finish the thing, and start something else. Although not particularly a fan of technicality in heavy metal, it does serve a purpose, and this album makes that purpose crystal clear: breaking up monotony. Adding something to move the song as you rotate back to familiar territory in the composition - a little solo or flourish, a change in the vocalist's attack . . . something. Occasionally, the band does throw some verve your way, like in the opening of "I Sorg, For Syndens Saknad", where the drummer tosses a little timing change-up at you, or in the closer, "The Glorious Rise Of The Flames", where the band grabs your icy soul with a chorus as grand as it is grim. The unfortunate fact, however, is that these moments are very few and far between. Bottom line: this may be a fairly decent BM recording for an aficionado of the form, but for me it lacks excitement, percussiveness, heaviness, and intensity. It does offer a good feel for the style, as far as I can tell, and it's a better recording than some of the BM I have had recommended to me over the years, but not by much. The songwriting hints that this band is just south of something I would keep an eye on for the future - maybe in the vein of Immortal? But I just can't see myself listening to this record again.

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Blodsrit

Blodsrit

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