Blacklisters - BLKLSTRS Album Review
This is an album that doesn’t disappoint and it’ll make you feel better knowing that you don’t have to go and see an anger therapist anymore – just put this in the player and let yourself vent…
rating: 4.5
Website: www.blacklisters.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/blacklistersmusic Release date: 24th April, 2o12 Since 2008, Blacklisters have been popping eardrums and making noses bleed all over the British underground. Their uncompromising noise has quickly earned them a reputation as a band who go all-out in their shows, a band who possess a sound so aggressive and confrontational that you leave the gig feeling as if youve been kicked in by a bunch of kangaroos on steroids. But people must like being kicked in by kangaroos (I know I do after listening to this album) because their reputation to play an awesome live show has seen them play at Leeds and Reading festivals and theyve also played with the likes of Melt Banana, Rolo Tomassi, Hawk Eyes, Japanese Voyeurs, Kong and fellow Northern lads Pulled Apart by Horses. Talking about up North, what is it with that part of the countrys ability to produce these huge-sounding, potential-soaked, up-and-coming bands? Its uncanny how many bands just seem to sprout up from there and clatter their way through the British underground. The band have previously released a 7, titled Swords, and an EP, titled Belt Party. Both of these have been well-received and have furthered the excitement surrounding the band, even resulting in Dan Carter of Radio 1 likening them to the heady heights of noise rock giants The Jesus Lizard. Blacklisters are a band whore an impending tour-de-force and this album is more visceral, ferocious and relentless than anything theyve put out there before. Theyve managed to push their live shows and their ability to make your speakers burn in intensity into this record and I dare you to argue against the hype surrounding them after listening to this.
The album kicks off with Clubfoot by Kasabian (a cover or not? You decide.). Youre welcomed by a skewed, pinched, nasty guitar that pushes you under its waves and holds you there until you drown, while the furious, cruel screams of the vocalist, Billy Mason-Wood, ensures your attention is well and truly nailed into this track as he bursts blood vessels while snapping his vocal cords, all in the name of making quality alternative, heavy, hardcore music. The marauding bass-line bounces and crushes against the smashed drums, making it almost impossible not to move your head along to this ugly monster of a sound which swells its body around you, squeezing every drop of energy from you while all the time telling you to wake the fuck up. http://youtu.be/MvtYJccU29Q OK47 has a frenetic, snarling bass-line which is so pent-up and tight that it can be likened to a compressed coil. The guitar shoots in different directions, the bullets bursting through Billys vocals, which quickly digress from an almost spoken-word style to a schizophrenic screamed style, giving the listener a feeling that theyre sitting in a snow-globe of acid, ecstacy, amphetamines and downers soaked in bustling chords and anguished, ravenous vocals, rather than sitting in their room listening to the song on their laptop. Dont listen to this on your first trip. It may just take your head off. Trickfuck is a suffocating, dark, all-encompassing track thats a personal favourite. The guitar of Dante Beesley chugs and sways along like a train on a rickety, broken old track just waiting to collapse over the edge - while the bass of Owen Griffiths bangs the railway tracks right out of place with the sheer, pummelling force of every note. The unyielding, harsh drumming of Alistair Stobbart guarantees a frantic pace to the track and the irritated, repeated lyrics of youre just a trickfuck, my little trickfuck will have you gritting your teeth as Mason-Wood snarls and spits each letter at you. Probably the most aggressive we hear the band on the album, and thats saying something. Had a hard day? Chuck this on and get to the gym, the punchbag will never have felt so bruised. The last track, Shush, is an instrumental thatll go down well in a live setting as a finisher. While its not as aggressive as the other tracks, it relies on the musical ability and tightness of the band to produce a huge, winding track that ends the album in a victorious, ebbed way and shows that even though the band possess a destructive, in-your-face, fierce sound they dont have to rely on that sound to come up with an equally as impressive track. Blacklisters are one of the angriest bands in the British underground at the moment, and Id advise you to get as irritated as they are. Buy this album. Listen to it. Get angry. Go and see them live. This is an album that doesnt disappoint and itll make you feel better knowing that you dont have to go and see an anger therapist anymore just put this in the player and let yourself vent