Messagepar Scumflesh » dim. juin 18, 2017 4:03 pm
Des nouvelles chroniques de BLACK BLEEDING ont été publiées!
METAL REVOLUTION Webzine (Den)
Black Bleeding is an extreme metal quartet (now a trio!) founded in 1998 in the south of Belgium. After the release of 3 Demo releases in 1999, 2000 and 2002, the band split up, where Alexx now had to gather a new line-up. So he did, and 2003 saw the release of two opuses, namely Worship and The Awakening. A few years followed before the band finally released its new album The Great Satan in 2009. Another 6 years of silence followed but then in 2015 the mega hit album A Bright Future was released.
The Awakening MCD contains only five tracks as it was initially released only as a Demo tape. It’s always nice to find one of the forgotten gems and give it additional few spins in your stereo. Now, the original label has re-released it with new artwork, layout and basically making it look like a a very decent package.
The Awakening starts with the opener “The Sleeper Has Awakened” using a movie soundbite to start with. Apart from that the track is filled with savage blackened death metal riffage and shriked & growling vocals moving the whole thing into a heavier direction. The same can more or less being said for the following track “One With The Universe”. Then comes a middle-track “Proxima Centuari” and my absolute favorite, a punisher “Lord Of The Worms”.
“Demonic Quantum Boundaries” is the closing track containing some almost smooth blues rhythms and an atmospheric keyboard outro. Exactly the addition of synths onto this last track gives this extra dimension to their music making it a very long and epic track, but without getting dull or boring.
The songs are generally a great mixture of slow, mid-paced and fast parts. The production is nice and powerful and one can hear all of the instruments presented here.
The sound of Black Bleeding is characterized by tortured riffs, apocalyptic drums, decent dark melodies and a sense of composition and a true passion for metal in general. The lyrical content deals with subjects of the death, gore, demonic and scientific themes.
I guess apart from calling is an ‘extreme metal’ I would call their music as a blend of brutal death, grind-core, black metal and even some punk.
The albums that came after this are more melodic which is why this is interesting because on here the songs all have an old school black/death feel, where there’s some melody but also more experimentation.
This release of glorious Belgium/French underground metal is back to kick your ass! So, if you’re a fan of black and death metal, you should not hesitate to check out this re-issue of The Awakening.
ARISTOCRAZIA Webzine
Non sono riuscito a scoprire cosa abbia portato la Nihilistic Holocaust a ristampare questa demo dei Black Bleeding, originalmente uscita nel 2005, oggi tra le mie mani con una veste grafica diversa dall'originale. Nulla da ridire, solo che la cosa mi causa un moto di curiosità che rimane tuttora insoddisfatto. I Black Bleeding innanzitutto sono una formazione belga, attiva dal 1998, ora con tre album sulle spalle, ma "The Awakening" precede il secondo come prima testimonianza della nuova formazione dell'epoca.
Le sonorità che scaturiscono dai cinque pezzi rimandano a un certo death metal tecnico degli anni '90, con l'aggiunta di elementi provenienti dal black metal. Immaginate i Pestilence, i Death e gli Edge Of Sanity poco prima delle svolte progressive e melodiche, riletti attraverso alcune componenti tipiche del black come l'abuso di tremolo picking, melodie nere e blast beat; avrete così più o meno inquadrato cosa ha dato alle stampe questa formazione.
Abbiamo quindi davanti una band con molto potenziale, anche se alcune idee vengono solo accennate, come nel caso dei passaggi epicheggianti di "The Sleeper Has Awakened", che rimangono un ottimo momento di stacco dal resto del brano; altre invece reggono il pezzo da sole, come nella vorticosa "Proxima Centauri", con quel suo sentore di Dan Swanö che rende il tutto una cavalcata cosmica da cui è difficile staccarsi prima della fine. Tutti i musicisti coinvolti sono perfettamente udibili, e mai si ha la sensazione che la produzione abbia preferito uno strumento a discapito di un altro, il che è un bene perché con i vari ascolti si può notare quanto tutte le menti che hanno partecipato al disco abbiano voluto mettere del loro nella musica.
Ciò che rende particolarmente piacevole "The Awakening" è la sua vivacità: in un'epoca dove death metal tecnico spesso significa sonorità meccaniche e tendenti al virtuosismo, i Black Bleeding se ne escono con una demo piena di velocità folli suonata con spontaneità. Ascolto interessante, a questo punto non mi resta che domandarmi come si sia evoluta la band negli ultimi dieci anni.
WINGS OF DEATH Webzine
Van de Belgische band Black Bleeding besprak ik eind 2015 de heruitgave van hun album A Bright Future van een jaar eerder. Hetzelfde label dat daar toen verantwoordelijk voor was heeft nu weer zo'n heruitgave op z'n geweten. Deze keer is demo The Awakening, oorspronkelijk uitgebracht in februari 2005, aan de beurt.
Nou vond ik een paar jaar terug A Bright Future al boosaardig klinken, maar een aantal jaren daarvoor kon het blijkbaar nog een stuk smeriger. De vuige mix van thrash, black en death metal gaat letterlijk door merg en been, en wordt gebracht met een intensiteit om bang van te worden. Dit is extreme metal in z'n meest pure vorm.
Door opener The Sleeper Has Awakened ben ik in elk geval al snel overtuigd van de intense kracht van deze band. Het groovende begin van One With The Universe zet me vervolgens even op het verkeerde been: dat klinkt lekker pakkend. Nou, mooi niet dus, want in het vervolg rost de band hier nog harder de pannen van het dak dan op de voorganger. Dit is echt het betere slopende hak-en beukwerk; lekker old school, zonder ouderwets te klinken.
Voor de subtielere death metal ben je bij Black Bleeding dus aan het verkeerde adres. De zwartgeblakerde riffs en de ziek-grommende vocalen zorgen voor een bruut geheel, afgetopt door de sobere maar adequate productie. Hoewel ... is er dan toch nog een verrassing aan de horizon? Demonic Quantum Boundaries eindigt met Brian Eno's Prophecy Theme (een synthesizer-stuk, geschreven voor de Dune OST). Weliswaar geen lichtpuntje, maar misschien wel een opening naar iets nieuws?
LORDS OF METAL Webzine
The Awakening’ is a re-release of the 2005 demo CDR / cassette tape by a band called Black Bleeding. This one was already reviewed in Lords Of Metal e-zine way back. You can read that particular review over here. I think I enjoyed listening to ‘The Awaking’ more than my former colleague Jean who wrote it, but I will not tear apart his review. So many people, so many opinions!
This is a release that will be cherished by those who adore former Dutch deathgrind underground bands such as I.N.R.I. or Cardinal. This Belgian act still exists these days. Apart from some demo’s they’ve released three full-lengths: ‘Beyond The Flames Of Hell’ (2002), ‘The Great Satan’ (2009) and ‘A Bright Future’ (2014) as well as a MCD ‘Worship’ (2003). For more info check Black Bleeding’s Bandcamp page.