Blinding Light

Although the metalcore genre is pretty much plundered, annihilated and nothing but a mass of people who all look the same and play in the same damn band (and wear eyeliner, furthering the fact that, man, people suck), there are a few gems out there. It takes some digging, but a good place to start would be credible indie label Deathwish, who released this, the Blinding Light’s first full-length. Really more metal than it is core, wrapped up in the deceptively pretty packaging are nine kind of lengthy songs that bring to mind Slayer more than they do Converge. The beats are straight ahead and speedy, the riffs, pure metal, the vocals (care of ex-Threadbare powerhouse Brian Lovro) are wonderfully intense, convincing and nasty sounding. Alas, my excitement wanes a few songs in every time I spin The Ascension Attempt; there are not enough new sounds on here to keep me enthralled for the whole album, even though they do dip into the quiet side of things briefly and tech out now and again. But stay tuned, ’cause the last couple songs are scorchers. The riffs aren’t as memorable as I would like them to be (throw in a few hooky Hannemans and this would go from gold to platinum), and the production sound oscillates between awesome and distracting. Still, for a debut? Pretty great, and with time these guys could crush.