This band from New Zealand took the 8th spot in our 2021 Top 10 Death Metal albums list. Now Blindfolded and Led to the Woods is taking their experimental sense of sonics further by releasing their first concept album that explores obsession. The technical ability of the band is put on display as they use many of death metal's brutal trappings to attack your ears, but have an eerie sense of atmosphere that balances this out. The vocals are roared in a commanding manner that finds the lyrics more articulated, even when dropping into more of a growl. There are a few different vocal colors on this song, all of them aggressive.
On the second song, there is more of an assault, punctuated by moments of melodic atmosphere, with deliberate moments of syncopated hammering to keep it from being a full-blown attack. The momentum the song builds bled over into "Red", which I only noticed was a different song as it took on a more thrash riffing style, and the vocal accents became more focused. This gave the song more groove, making it catchier than the previous song. One shift in songwriting is the more compact style that keeps everything around the four-minute mark, with the only exceptions being the longer opening and closing songs.
"Compulsion' is the lead Single from this album, and it is very rabid in its aggression. The only shift towards being accessible is the less growled vocal style, though this creates a more hardcore-influenced feel. The aggression is only reinforced on the title track, which uses a similar approach to the previous song, but with slightly more atmosphere. The drumming is stellar on this song, though you can never get too excited about the drumming on a death metal album, as being a monster is a job requirement for the genre, more so than other genres.
At a minute and a half, " Snow Angel" is grind-core in length. They get a ton of riffs crammed into it. "Black Orchids" is one of the album's most perfect compositions in how it manages to be heavy, without conforming to the death metal formula, while still delivering the kind of aggression you want from the genre. Another drumming spectacular that takes it to the next level. More of the hardcore shouted vocals appear here as well. "Tomtem" is the first song to show any influence from a classic death metal band; this time it's Morbid Angel in the powerful throb of the commanding riffs. Where it differs is how the drums are providing a faster barrage underneath it all. I like the darker, more dissonant place this one arrives at.
There is also a creepy throb that breaks up the attack they bring with "600 Grams." The ebb and flow of how the verse breaks things up shows the mature approach to songwriting on this album. The last song opens more melodically and purposefully.. Over the course of this song, they cover a great deal of ground that explores all sides of their sonic self that they have displayed thus far. The unexpected inclusion of female vocals feels like it almost takes a hard left turn to become not just another song but another band. However, the growth and nuance maturity has granted them as songwriters, tempering the brutality and dissonance to make this a remarkable step forward, showing what death metal can be.I will give this a 9.5 and see how it grows on me. This album drops on October 10th via Prostehtic Records.
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