Blessings – Blodsträngen
Blessings – Blodsträngen
Pelagic Records
01/08/2025
Review by Oli Gonzalez
7.5/10
Pretty much anything that comes via the Pelagic Records label is a blessing, such is the label’s commitment to signing and releasing music that truly pushes and redefines what heavy music is and can be. Today, I’m presented with the band Blessings. On the verge of releasing their third studio album “Blodsträngen”, there seems to be a supergroup feel with members from established bands within their native Sweden. An effort that is described as being for fans of Cult Of Luna, Converge, and Old Man’s Gloom. So Progressive Metal teetering towards a more Hardcore edge perhaps? Let’s see how this manifests…
I can definitely sense the Post-Metal edge on the opening track ‘Raised On Graves’. With a hint of more tribal-style percussion instruments, there’s some interesting, if not slightly unorthodox, rhythmic elements. Along with some slightly dissonant guitar and bass instrumentation, they all feel like they’re designed to create tension and anticipation for a larger climax towards the latter stages of the song. The pace and intensity pick up at around the 3.40 mark, but it’s still not quite the jaw-dropping crescendo I was hoping for. Still, there’s another 35 minutes of the record or so to go.
This early momentum spills over into ‘Strings Of Red’ (fun fact: every one of Blessings’ albums contains a song of this name). The earlier tight rhythmic feel seems to change to that of a more frantic Post-Hardcore energy. I find myself headbanging involuntarily, so it’s clear speaking to my subconscious mind, as I’m sure it will for you!
Though things slow right down in the opening stages of ‘Clean’, with a much slower ambient yet austere psychedelic vibe. The band’s bassist promised the ‘filthiest’ bass tone, and this is starting to show here with a thick, distorted low end! I’m still unsure of where this few minutes of tension-building is leading…until my senses are smashed by a wall of distorted guitars and primitive vocal growls right at the mid-point of the song! It feels like a bit of a wait, but it sure is satisfying to get here.
I’m getting reminders of Obsidian Kingdom’s masterpiece “Mantiis”, such is the experimental approach to this heavier style of Metal, but most crucially, how each song flows seamlessly into the next, with each being movements in a larger musical collective.
The experimental nature of the band is truly on display in the opening stages of ‘No Good Things’ with some textures and patterns you don’t often hear in heavier music, but blending perhaps a more rough and ready Hardcore edge that we can all appreciate and enjoy. This continues into ‘Alt Vi Kan Ge Är Upp’. At the midpoint, I can swear they’ve borrowed the organ pedals from Bell Witch or from A Swarm Of The Sun, such is the austere tone and spine-tingling quality of the melody. However, to describe it, it’s intoxicating and my headphones get turned up to maximum, especially when the pace quickens and intensity is amplified! This is perhaps THE crescendo I think the album’s been building up towards.
The intensity or pace changes attack during ‘Copper + Dirt’ to a more frenzied on-the-nose sub-2 minute blast. I can see the comparisons to Converge more than ever here, and I’m sure this could get some bodies moving and crashing into one another in a live setting!
If you need time to catch your breath after that short but fierce burst of energy, ‘Through Veils of Glass and Silica’ may well provide that in a much slower bludgeoning assault on the senses. Though your neck isn’t going to be spared as you’ll find yourself headbanging aggressively to some absolutely filthy rotten, and densely crafted riffs here, so dense that they’ll test the capacity of PA speakers in any venue globally! All before the album closes out with a rather welcome calm ambient passage, allowing you time to reflect on the carnage your senses have endured.
Well, that was…different. I had no idea what to expect. I’m sure this will be very different for most people. Too different, perhaps? Sadly, maybe too niche for the average muso, as it well and truly is a specialist listen and one that will require some patience to truly appreciate. Though make no mistake, Blessings have stuck to their guns and redefined what’s possible with the heavier side of music and have created something rather extraordinary here in the shape of “Blodsträngen”.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Raised On Graves
02. Strings of Red
03. Clean
04. No Good Things
05. Alt Vi Kan Ge Är Upp
06. Copper + Dirt
07. Through Veils of Glass and Silica
LINKS:
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