The Blamed
Give Us Barabbas
Tooth & Nail
Ahhh! Another CD without artwork! What a pain in the buttocks! Anyway, The Blamed are a Christian art rock band, taking many a cue from Fugazi, Shotmaker, Unwound, and Ink & Dagger, and Tar. This is rockin’ stuff, with grainy, ringy bass, chaotic guitars, shouted vocals, mathematical drums, and an overall dark and brooding feel.
Give Us Barabbas is the best release I’ve heard from Tooth & Nail in a long time; this album sounds like it should have come out somewhere between ‘95 – ‘98; there aren’t a whole lot of bands doing this kind of chaotic art/math rock anymore. That’s too bad, really, mainly because I’ve always enjoyed this type of stuff.
The crappy thing here is that I can’t tell what the lyrics are saying because the CD came to me without artwork, but whatever they’re saying, they’re saying with authority. I think of the aforementioned bands, The Blamed currently sound most like a Repetition-era Unwound; at no point on the disc does the chaos let up, and I appreciate that.
This record, for all of its spastic guitars, wonderfully screamed vocals, ugly sounding guitars, and overall murderous mood, is one of my favorite records of 2002. This one has been stuck in my CD player since I got it; it reminds me of my younger days as a hardcore Unwound fan. A+ on this one, people.
Tooth & Nail Records: http://www.toothandnail.com
