ALBUM REVIEW: Starve – Blood Youth
Bands that make waves with their first record often come across the so called difficult second album. BLOOD YOUTH with no such issues with their latest release, Starve. Building on their ferocious sound, it looks like one of the metal scenes brightest young bands is set to burn the world.
{51/50} begins in a truly terrifying, horror intro. The ambient mix of static, bird song, a barely audible demonic stereo voice pulls itself straight out of the P.T demo, while a chill swing of the drum mulls over the humming bass. An interesting mood setter, before things heat up in title track, Starve. High octane droning rises over the call of the guitar, you’re instantly in a state of unrest. There’s solid groove aplenty here, as the disjointed harmonies bow over dense melodies. Vocally, it’s a strong range of throaty shouts and clean singing, complimenting the music timelessly.
Cut Me Open brings home the blast beats, as things gear up to the more extreme side of BLOOD YOUTH’s sound. The brooding menace is excellently captured here, with a variety of tones used to ramp up the rabid energy, and to pull things right back before unleashing ever more chaotic movements.
With its hugely catchy riff, Spineless is the natural demonstration of just what BLOOD YOUTH can bring to the table. There’s the ferocity of early SLIPKNOT in their sentiment, but the full throttle momentum is completely their own. This is a track you can throw down to and will bring a confidence to your mood you didn’t expect.
If you think things were at their heaviest before, Nerve will have you crawling under its weight. The symbols spatter, the vocals distort and the methodical shifts between the verse and chorus are superb. The chorus itself isn’t their strongest effort, but everything surrounding it is top quality you’ll barely notice.
BLOOD YOUTH have coined a sound that will please a generation of metal listeners who gear towards the likes of KORN and SLIPKNOT but bring so much more of the modern scene in the vein of BEARTOOTH to the raw groove and sound that came back in the nineties. The Answer for sure harks back to a more emotionally driven sound as well as lyrical, with a blistering body and a softer outro.
Waste Away has something of a heavy INCUBUS edge to it, with much more focus on clean vocals and the drive coming from a steady, hollow beat and a rise and fall of chunky chord movements. It’s a hell of a good ride, and adds a little change of pace from the full-on onslaught of the rest of the album.
{stone.tape.theory] is another chilling interlude, a tapping beat signalling the eerie atmosphere. A nice little drum and bass injection, a short and unnerving pause before the brewing of yet more ferocity in Visitant. Double bass driving a resonating snare, as the tone of the strings shifts from menacing to thick and dirty.
Keep You Alive is the jewel in the crown of this album, no doubt. A high drone of harmonising guitars suddenly has your hairs on end as the rhythm section lays down the ground work for a low and disturbing vocal melody. The way this track has been structured, with such care to make sure nothing brims over too much, that the anger stays just below the skin, in sunken eyes and broken souls. BLOOD YOUTH are great at taking your ears and ripping them apart, but to be able to add something more by giving less, is a great signal they’re not just a one trick pony.
Nothing Left drips little notes of dissonance over an otherwise deep and growling track. There’s still melody aplenty here, and pulls from more of an EVERY TIME I DIE influence. Turning things around again, Hate really pulls the final interlude into a full on chugging fest, with ripping vocals. It has to be said, as the guitars thunder and dance between the heavy and the hard, the rhythm section of this record has really pulled the most diverse sounds out of the drums, taking advantage of every beat to create a different experience, all while the bass
Exhale is the grand finale fans of BLOOD YOUTH will relish. Running just over eleven minutes, its slow beginnings are a sweet tune that devolves into a thrashing monster of bellowing, crushing riffs and ever churning drums like a great tempest. As Tarsus shrieks, bearing his soul on this record for all to hear, it’s hard not to think that the lyrics mirror the actual might of the track itself; Exhale is like a bottled hurricane, it’s rising tone synonymous with something greater on the horizon. It harks back to its sweet opening as the vocals fade back into a distorted wail, eventually enveloped in some demonic static, the true sense of dread that began this journey on {51/50} returns and reveals itself as a true monster that emerges in your mind, and will no doubt stay there ever after.
Sharp as a razor, Starve is an incredibly brutal album that grows as BLOOD YOUTH themselves grow. Unafraid to experiment and mix dynamics, this album is the culmination of massive sounds and overpowering, raw performances. Truly, the intention and care to demonstrate the push and pull of aggression and emotion is superb here. Evidently, Starve exemplifies how howling passion guided by focused minds can create something monumental.
Rating: 9/10
Starve is out now via Rude Records.
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