ALBUM REVIEW: A Blazing Sun, The Fiery Dawn – Slowbleed
The concept of January and prospects of a new year full of potential pain and suffering rains heavy in the air at present. The general mood is one of gloom and slight despondency, fitting for a suitably dismal and gloomy soundtrack. However, if one fancies more of a shot in the arm full of adrenaline raw, unfiltered aggression, listen no further than the debut album from the disgustingly ferocious SLOWBLEED. After crashing onto the scene in 2019 with the four-track EP Never Been Worse, the band finally managed to get in the studio in 2021, and have now delivered 29 minutes of unbridled ferocity that will be sound tracking many a winter gym workout.
It should be mentioned first that SLOWBLEED have two true guitar whizz kids in the group in the form of Logan Givan and John Laux. These two can absolutely shred with the best of them, and their lead work feels totally necessary and completely serves the music. The opening track Aurora is a pure guitar hero style flex, with the lead guitar work laid on thick over the first real song on the record, Ice Cold Odyssey, which features a real rarity in heavy music: the majestic blend of the hardcore beatdown and a face melting lead guitar line that will have the listener spin kicking and playing air guitar simultaneously. Speaking of air guitar, the opening section of Driven By Fire soars with an epic abandon, showing off some serious guitar chops reminiscent of the soulful playing of a guitarist like Michael Amott of ARCH ENEMY.
The two guitarists know when to slip in a musical ornament for maximum effect, a case in point being the pinched harmonics in The Law (Atonement Through Blood) which add in an extra sonic layer that will have you grinning with maniacal satisfaction. If you want riffs, you’ve got them, for A Blazing Sun, The Fiery Dawn is steeped in riffs that will get fists swinging and heads banging, with the band superbly combining thrash metal and hardcore into a blistering mix of brute force and technical precision. When SLOWBLEED decide to bring in the beatdown, there will not be a cell in your body that won’t want to move when this is heard live.
The pace of the record changes in its final quarter, with the final three tracks on the record almost feeling like one cohesive work. The aforementioned Driven By Fire allows SLOWBLEED a chance to show off their skills of creating an atmosphere other than sheer brutality, building one of scale with the melodic vocal interjections and the masterful guitar playing.
The real triumph of the record comes in the form of final two tracks, Diliculum and Graves (Pours of Earth), though. The tracks are played as one, with the former showing off more excellent guitar work, this time played acoustically, which creates a windswept, desert-like soundscape that really does showcase how musical the playing of the two guitarists is. The final track allows the riff machine that is SLOWBLEED to sum up all of their intentions in a four-minute runtime, moving from sludge thick riffs, to a bludgeoning beatdown, to razor sharp shred that any wannabe guitar hero should be hero-worshipping.
A Blazing Sun, The Fiery Dawn has shown us that SLOWBLEED have smashed down the doors between genres and proven that hardcore can be a guitar hero game. In a world sadly bereft of POWER TRIP, it could be said that SLOWBLEED are the natural successors to potentially fill the shoes that that band have left behind. A big task, but a very tangible one.
Rating: 8/10
A Blazing Sun, The Fiery Dawn is out now via Creator-Destructor Records.
Follow SLOWBLEED on Bandcamp.