BLOODLETTER – LEAVE THE LIGHT BEHIND
Review by: Brett Parmenter/ParMetal Media and The Metal Pit
Review Score: 9.5
Firstly, a quick hello to my new friends out there in Metal Land all around the world, it is a pleasure to meet you all. Now that that is done allow me to get on with what is important, the review of this magnificently ballsy new album from Bloodletter, Leave the Light Behind.
My first thought is that they sound like the perfect mix of Havok and Warbringer. All the thrash a man could want and then a pumped fist load more. An audible harmonic tsunami of hard as fuck metal.
Upon my first listen of Bloodletter I could tell instantly that I was going to like this album. Sinister in tone, relentless raucous riffs, all atop the slaughtering speed of the drumming from the very beginning of Leave the Light Behind that sucked me in like a black hole and spat me out the other side with an overwhelming feeling of dread having crossed the Event Horizon. Ominous in its overall sentiment, Bloodletter have worked hard to get their sound just the way they want it over the years, and I’ll be damned if they haven’t knocked the nail squarely on the head on this very album.
The combination of speed metal, thrash and modern tech death metal mixed with lyrics that speak of the supernatural, cosmic beasts as well as depression and mental illness is what metal is all about. Bringing stories to life through savage music and solid lyrics.
Their sound is some of the best metal I’ve heard in a dog’s age. Pete Carparelli, Tanner Hudson, Pat Armamentos and Zach Sutton have really put together an album that hits so hard you get all bloodied up and bruised just listening to it!
Opening with A World Unmade was a masterstroke on how to start an album. It’s a foretold warning of what is to come, and, in some cases, what is already happening in a world, that, in the end is certain to fall, it’s all just a question of when. “We were warned, but never listened” rings in my ears, as does, “This is the ruin of mankind”. Statements of truth were never screamed so loud. Heed the warning or face the ruin.
On Blackened Wings draws a picture of death rising from Hell and swallowing us all like a hungry fat guy at an all you can eat buffet. I love the opening scream in this song. It’s a precursor for what is to come, wrath wrapped in fear, enveloped by death. Scary shit!
Eternal Winter, fast guitars, pounding blast beats, what’s not to like? The Ice King rises from the permafrost to envelope all of mankind in, as the name of the song suggests, an Eternal Winter. Another story of death lurking in our doorway. Dare we turn the knob to see what looms outside our door?
Terminal is a song that most of us can relate to. Being trapped within our own mind, dealing with the terror of anxiety, never able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just permanently stuck in the darkness of our own heads and wrestling with the fight to keep on living a normal day to day life. Mental health is a constant battle and one which you must win, because if you don’t…
Unearthing Darkness is a vampire laden, monster metal nightmare. Lurking in the shadows is the undead ready to either take your life or enslave you forever. A blood drenched ditty “born from darkness”. Instrumentally flawless. Furious, fast and frenetically fantastic. Beware the dark, you never know what is lurking in the shadows.
Hunting Horror starts with a layered guitar intro which just gets the blood pumping and the head banging. Another story of death ridden nights, being hunted by those from beyond our realm. There is no escape, just the will to live to fight another day. Fight or flight. A haunting classic, embodied by the music that tears like sharp teeth devouring our juicy flesh. We are no longer at the top of the food chain it seems.
The Black Death is a lesson in speed metal. Fast guitars and pulverising drums produce a feverous frenzy reminiscent of what The Black Death must have been like to live through. Ravaging human life leaving dead bodies on the streets inviting more death to their doorstep. A savage time in human history mere centuries ago. There was no cure, no escape. Just death. The Black Death.
Call of the Deep One, cool fucking song! I won’t be going fishing on a boat while listening to this song, but it is one bitchin’ tune. It reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean when all of the dead lost to the sea suddenly rise up as one. The siren’s song mesmerising sailors into what would soon be their inevitable death adding to the army of souls owned by the Gods of the deep.
The Burial is a truly fucking horrid tale of being buried alive and the panic that sets in when trying to find/dig your way out. Prematurely placed in the ground to rest in peace only to wake and find you’re already buried. A total mindfuck right there! Once again, instrumentally insatiable and scary as a mother fucker. From now on at a funeral I’m going to make sure the person is dead. Don’t ask me how, but rest assured, I will.
The final song on the album is Night Terrors. Starting and ending with a melancholy haunting piano before breaking into ripping guitar and solid drumbeat, this song is Nightmare on Elm Street on steroids with instruments. The exhaustion of not wanting to fall asleep, terrified by night terrors that await the inevitable closure of your eyes, ready to feed on your anxiety. It’s Dokken’s “Dream Warriors” but better. The thought of your own body feeding on itself when you fall asleep is truly vomit inducing. I don’t personally drink coffee, but if this shit happened to me, I’d certainly take it up. The song is finished off with a guitar solo to die for and ends as fast as it began only slowing for the same piano that started the song. Brilliant!
What a great fucking album. It’s got everything a metal head needs and more. Since 2012, Bloodletter has been one of the hardest working bands in metal producing 2 demos, 4 EP’s, a plethora of singles as well as a split album and 4 full length albums. When you work this hard as a band, you’re bound to come up with something that is everlasting. Leave the Light Behind is exactly that. Everlasting and eternal, a perpetual reminder that metal will continue to live on through bands like Bloodletter. Fantastic work guys.
If I had to pick a favourite, I’d say A World Unmade but goddamn it this whole album is worthy of the same accolade. A solid 9.5/10 for the boys from Chicago legends, Bloodletter.
Bloodletter – Facebook
Bloodletter – Instagram