Angry Metal Guy
It gets a bad rap around here, I know, but I’ve admitted before to being a post-metal fan. I’m not alone in this among the writers but I won’t out Doom_et_Al or Sentynel or the other post fans in case they’d rather keep it to themselves. What do I like about post-metal, I hear you ask. Well, since you were so nice as to inquire, let me tell you. What hooks me about the best bands of the genre – the likes of Isis, Cult of Luna, The Ocean, Neurosis, to name but a few – is their ability build atmosphere and tension, layering delicate melodies and mellifluous harmonics in repetitive, swirling streams, before you slam into a wall of crushing guitars that rewards you for your patience. In some senses, it’s all about the pay off but, at the same time, that pay off feels so much greater because of the journey the band takes you on. With their sophomore effort, Harbinger, Miami trio Bleeth ask whether the same can be achieved in dramatically shortened form.
I settled down with Harbinger and a nice blanket over my aging and creaky knees, expecting to enjoy deeply and over the course of at least an hour. Imagine my surprise when a mere 17 minutes later, the album – and it does seem to still be classified by everyone as an album – finished. While Bleeth‘s 2018 debut, Geomancer – an effort the combined Cubic Space Division with Beak – was hardly lengthy at 35 minutes, I will admit that its follow-up coming in comfortably under 20 minutes was a surprise. Into that compact run, however, Bleeth have packed a much harsher tumult, sometimes flirting with syncopated rhythms and drone (“Pendulum”), at other times going for an insistent, crunching atonal feel (“Skin of your Teeth”). This grittier edge is driven, I assume, by the theme of Harbinger, which dwells on a fear that new technology will open the door to more authoritarianism and, with it, usher in more societal struggles.
Harbinger by Bleeth
This message is delivered both in the barked, chanting tones of guitarist Lauren Palma (“False Prophets) and the harsh growls of bassist Ryan Rivas. Explosions of violent discordance (“Convenient Drowning”), reminiscent of the likes of Old Man Gloom, sit alongside slower but no less insistent offerings (opener “Initiation” and closer “Dystopia for Dessert” bookending Harbinger in this fashion). When Bleeth do step up the pace, the star of the show is drummer Juan Londoño, whose off kilter rhythms add an experimental edge to proceedings. The jagged dissonance introduced to elements of the guitar gives Harbinger a slightly (and pleasingly) unsettling edge at times (“False Prophets”).
The problem here, as an ex once told me, lies in the length, or rather its lack. There is much to like on Harbinger – as I type this sentence the howling and discordant melody that closes out “Pendulum” has my ear – but I want Bleeth to take their time over it and tease out the different elements of their sound. What makes the heavy sections of post-metal records work, is their placement alongside the slow burn dynamics of the album but an entire album – even a very short one – comprising basically only post-metal crescendo, fails to build the suspense and necessary for the pay-off to, well, pay off. I do like the sound on show on Harbinger, both from the band itself in their bleak and nihilistic sound, and the production choices, which give the record a direct, brutal punch.
Bleeth show more than enough here, and on “Initiation” and “Pendulum” in particular, to convince me that they have a great album in them but this isn’t it. Harbinger feels like an album that is missing something, and that something is subtlety. There are flashes of it but Bleeth needs to show a bit more patience and restraint, which would actually allow the overall package to hit that much harder. Bleeth have confirmed that short-form post metal is not nearly as impactful as its longer form.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Seeing Red Records
Websites: bleeth.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/bleethband
Releases Worldwide: May 28th, 2021
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Fri May 28 20:09:40 GMT 2021