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Snowblood Untitled

Mon 15th February 2010


bluesoul

/incoming/snowbloodst200.jpgSnowblood's posthumous third release shows the Glaswegians churning out sludge grimier than the streets they hail from, with the overall atmosphere of the record being one of depravity and despair. Patching obvious influences together like a heavy metal Frankenstein, ‘Untitled’ combines the abrasion of Grief with the gloom of My Dying Bride and the progressive aspects of Tool.

Mysteriously recorded in a small village in the Scottish wilderness, the album comes as a cardboard sleeve with simplistic yet intricate artwork. The album has no name, and neither do the tracks. This builds up a feeling of expectation which is sadly never met by the music. Each track follows a similar formula of introducing and building up a theme until chaos erupts in the form of pure sludge mayhem, flanked by typical post-rock themes of contrasting dynamics and jarring dissonance.

Epic tracks of 20 minutes or more are usually more than welcome when it comes to doom (see Ufomammut and YOB – and has anyone heard of Sleep?), but the four lengthy tracks which compromise this release seem to merge together into one atonal sludge blur. Over the course of the album I cease to recognise whether I’m listening to “Untitled”, “Untitled”, “Untitled” or even the gritty swamp epic that is “Untitled”.

Discuss

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    •  Amy BAmy B
    • Add your comments here!
    •  Tim HolehouseTim Holehouse
    • My dying bride? Tool? erm...
      I'd say they where band who mixed more than just metal influences in what they did. From Youngys dub bass lines to Ewans precise almost hip hop influenced beats to luke's incantations... truelly where a band apart from what was going on in the Uk at the time. This record is fantastic glad its finally out.
    •  bluesoulbluesoul
    • I'd had no prior experience of the band before I got sent this album... and I definitely got Tool vibes from the quieter bits of the album, with the use of dynamics and droning vocals etc...
    •  Tim HolehouseTim Holehouse
    • Man its cool... you can only relate to what you know. I hear totally differnet things in this record to you and that's cool... its a great record and I think we both agree on that.
      I find Tool for the most part to be the biggest pile of over rated pish... but they've had a few songs and one album that where ok.
      That's my music's ace there is no right or wrong answer.
    •  bluesoulbluesoul
    • Yeah I think its a good album, its definitely growing on me, I wrote that review after only having it for a week. Its good we get different vibes from the album... and for Tool, I get stuff like the track Parabol (not Parabola) in the Snowblood album, so check that out and see if you agree or not. Tool are definitely overrated by their fucking annoying fans but I try not to let that get in the way of the great music (mostly) they make, especially on Undertow.