Aggression is quite often the source of inspiration and delivers a cathartic energy into a band’s music, but it is rare that this aggression is channelled into every facet of a record. From the pure visceral vocals, the lyrical content and the instrumentation itself, Death Blooms have let their anger at the world consume every inch of their new record, and the result feels like you’ve just gone 12 rounds with a heavyweight boxer.
The new five track EP from the Liverpool quartet, titled Fuck Everything, pretty much sums up how many people have felt over the past 12 months, and the music which the band has created could either act as someone’s inner monologue or their pure outward release of frustration.
Even though this is one hell of an angry record, it is really well constructed. The band know when to let their music slow down, breath and drive a more straight rhyme, but they also show elements of brutality, which you can imagine, when shows return, will have bodies flying everywhere.
Fuck Everything opens with a strange, almost computer glitch, sound before kicking into a Rammstein-esque riff in Life Is Pain. All this lays the foundation for the growling howl of vocalist Paul Barrow, who acts as a vessel for not just the band’s hate, but the listeners.
What is really commendable in Death Blooms music, is even though they may not be re-inventing the wheel when it comes to metal, they aren’t afraid to throw melody and electronics into what, essentially, is someone reaching their breaking point.
It is these moments of rest bite in songs like Anger and title-track Fuck Everything, where we feel like we are finally getting some sort of break from the bile that is being spit out by the band. But when the music kicks back in, it just feels twice as hard.
It is on the track Anger where Death Blooms really seem to shine. The band bring in a gang vocal chant, where all we hear is a snare hit and the phrase “Anger Is All You Know” repeated over and over, and if the band don’t use that as a slogan on some form of merch then they are missing a trick. But, it is on this track where the use of atmospheric keys and a melodic vocal tone really helps to shape a song that will stick in the head long after you’ve hit the stop button.
On the surface, creating a whole EP with the concept of anger at it’s heart may seem very one note, but Death Blooms manage to harness that aggression into five tracks of fierce metal, which will either get pulses racing or feel like a ten ton hammer to the face.
7/10
Standout Tracks: Gore, Anger, Fuck Everything
For Fans Of: Loathe, Blood Youth, Cane Hill
Written By: Tim Birkbeck
