ALBUM REVIEW: Rejecting Obliteration – Blindfolded And Led To The Woods

Despite its remoteness and a population of just over five million, New Zealand has a certain pedigree when it comes to producing top tier metal. From ALIEN WEAPONRY to ULCERATE, the jewel of the Pacific has a fantastic track record. Now, looking to join their countrymen comes BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS. Having made more ripples in metal’s underground with 2021’s Nightmare Withdrawals, now, album number four Rejecting Obliteration arrives and sets a strong precedent as one of the year’s finest technical death metal offerings.

Akin to their brethren in ULCERATE, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS explore the avant-garde and peculiar dissonance across Rejecting Obliteration and the result is a record that is as engulfing as it is jaw-dropping. Monolith opens the album and does exactly what it says on the tin as the band dispatch a flurry of bending riffs and technically savvy soloing from guitarists Stuart Henley-Minchington and Ben Atkinson with aplomb whilst vocalist Stace Fifield impresses with pained growls and gutturals that really has a profound impact on the senses. It’s a mightily impressive album opener and one that gets Rejecting Obliteration off to the best possible start.

From there, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS go for the jugular and the resulting experience is as emphatic as it is suffocating. Methlehem is a manically depraved sonic assault where the twisting scales, frenetic riffs, and rapid-fire drumming evokes feelings of impending horror, Hallucinative Terror lures you into a false sense of security with an exquisite melodic opening passage before diving into an abyss of complex shred whilst enabling their more avant-garde components to come to the forefront and the lead guitar work shown here is easily up there as one of the album’s highlights. And then there is the likes of Cicada, where the band fully immerse you in their depraved world as the riffs hit ever so sinisterly and Fifield‘s snarls raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

However, what is most impressive about Rejecting Obliteration is the band’s ability to keep things fresh throughout the album’s runtime. A one-trick pony this band is not, here, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS keep you guessing at every turn with the ten tracks on offer all presenting unique nuances and clear differentiators to keep you hooked and immersed in their soundscape. From the short and snappy Funeral Smiles where the band run at 100mph in a blistering display of aural mayhem, to the chug-tastic Hands Of Contrition or the absolutely epic album closer Caustic Burns, in which the band’s progressive elements really shine through over its seven minute runtime, this is an album that delivers in spades.

With Rejecting Obliteration, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS have not only surpassed their 2021 predecessor, but have put forward one of the most intriguing, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable technical death metal albums of the year. Rarely a dull moment and full of standout moments, this is a record that any extreme metal aficionado will instantly connect with. Strap yourselves in, it’s quite the ride.

Rating: 9/10

Rejecting Obliteration is set for release on May 19th via Prosthetic Records. 

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