Blood Haven - Religious Suffocation
Self-released - 2006
By Philip Whitehouse
"Come and be apart of the anti-Christian society Live free from all that is ignorantness......" Or so proclaim Arizona-based black metal trio Blood Haven on the front page of their website. Okay, so mocking a band's grammar is a fairly lame way to open a review, but to be honest, even though Religious Suffocation is playing while I type this, it's hard to find anything else particularly interesting to type about them. They play black metal in the old-school, hyperspeed thrashing and primitive recording fashion. There's a bit of a death metal influence to their frantically tremolo-picked outpourings too, which is noticeable in the occasional mid-tempo crunch sections. See, I'm pretty much running out already...
The vocalist has a perfectly fitting voice for the style, it must be said - somewhat more sandpaper-hoarse than your average black metal shrieker. It works, and it fits well with the overall vibe of the record, which takes apparent pride in it's primitive nature. Thin, scratchy, grinding guitars, trebly drums, only-barely-there bass (and I'm listening with my subwoofer turned up, too)... The problem is, there's very little variation between (or even within) songs. It's all upper-register tremolo-picked riffage interspersed with thrashier, chuggier rhythms, with the singer RAAAAAARing over it all consistently throughout. There aren't any highlights, because effectively, every track is pretty much the same.
None of it is particularly bad (other than the recording quality, which is rapidly becoming unforgiveable in this age of perfectly affordable home studio equipment and digital recording - and fuck off you black metal purists, if you need a four-track recording to conjure 'atmosphere', you're not writing songs properly), and none of it is particularly arresting - it's just sort of 'there', buzzing past your ears without ever fully engaging your attention. So, it's pretty much a 'meh' from me on this one, although I could be afflicted with 'ignorantness'.
4.5/10 (UM's Review Rating Scale)
Blood Haven's Official Website
Self-released - 2006
By Philip Whitehouse
"Come and be apart of the anti-Christian society Live free from all that is ignorantness......" Or so proclaim Arizona-based black metal trio Blood Haven on the front page of their website. Okay, so mocking a band's grammar is a fairly lame way to open a review, but to be honest, even though Religious Suffocation is playing while I type this, it's hard to find anything else particularly interesting to type about them. They play black metal in the old-school, hyperspeed thrashing and primitive recording fashion. There's a bit of a death metal influence to their frantically tremolo-picked outpourings too, which is noticeable in the occasional mid-tempo crunch sections. See, I'm pretty much running out already...
The vocalist has a perfectly fitting voice for the style, it must be said - somewhat more sandpaper-hoarse than your average black metal shrieker. It works, and it fits well with the overall vibe of the record, which takes apparent pride in it's primitive nature. Thin, scratchy, grinding guitars, trebly drums, only-barely-there bass (and I'm listening with my subwoofer turned up, too)... The problem is, there's very little variation between (or even within) songs. It's all upper-register tremolo-picked riffage interspersed with thrashier, chuggier rhythms, with the singer RAAAAAARing over it all consistently throughout. There aren't any highlights, because effectively, every track is pretty much the same.
None of it is particularly bad (other than the recording quality, which is rapidly becoming unforgiveable in this age of perfectly affordable home studio equipment and digital recording - and fuck off you black metal purists, if you need a four-track recording to conjure 'atmosphere', you're not writing songs properly), and none of it is particularly arresting - it's just sort of 'there', buzzing past your ears without ever fully engaging your attention. So, it's pretty much a 'meh' from me on this one, although I could be afflicted with 'ignorantness'.
4.5/10 (UM's Review Rating Scale)
Blood Haven's Official Website
