ALBUM REVIEW: To Dull The Blades of Your Abuse – Leeched

What most bands forget when writing heavy music is that much needed emotional element. Too many bands go just for the jugular, or try their best to dazzle those listening with copious amounts of technique and musical chops. What a lot of this lacks, however, is the human edge. That ability to truly make the listener feel what the band are trying to say, as opposed to just hearing it and acknowledging. LEECHED have been a band that, for the most part, have found real success in writing the most bludgeoning music the UK has seen in a very long time. Their previous debut touched upon the raw emotions of anger and betrayal, but as they continue to prove, there is more to come and more than meets the eye when it comes to the Mancunian trio.

To Dull The Blades of Your Abuse is the follow up to the equally bleakly titled You Took The Sun When You Left, and to say it builds upon what was previously there is a bit of an understatement. From the harrowing opening moments of The Hounds Jaw there is a confidence about this record. LEECHED know precisely their strengths, and they’re playing to them. A mighty groove erupts before the album fully gets underway and proceeds to drag the listener through the mud. This isn’t a pretty album by any stretch of the imagination, and LEECHED are very aware of it.

I, Flatline continues this oppressive trend whilst also simultaneous proving that the trio have progressed even further than before, taking cues from bands like VEIN and streamlining aspects of their sound to a razor-sharp point. Earth & Ash pulverises with a powerful and stunning drum beat and tracks Burn With Me like show that the band haven’t lost any sense of urgency despite the lengthier songs present on this album. It is testament to the bands ability in how they have managed to retain the raw, unfiltered intensity that made their initial EP such a shocking listen whilst managing to write more complex structures and musical journeys.

Extremity is at the heart of everything LEECHED do, and To Dull The Blades of Your Abuse proves that extremity doesn’t just mean fast and brutal. The demented siren in Now It Ends proves that simplicity can still elicit extreme results, as the drones and gravelly vocals pile on top to make one of the most uncomfortable listens on the entire album. The tension is stretched and stretched until the point where it is nearly unbearable, and the sense of panic and entrapment becomes thick. It’s fantastic how affecting LEECHED have become over their incredibly short but busy lifespan.

There are plenty more demented and down right evil sounds found on the rest of the album, with the deranged screeches of Famine At The Gates standing out as some of the more grating, but when they drop to introduce the groove everything hits even harder. LEECHED wield their influences with reckless abandon injecting just as much industrial and electronic misery as they do hardcore, death metal, grindcore, and all the nastier bits of the alternative scene. The band have described themselves as a drain and this metaphor is more apt on this album than ever before. If you can handle the dive into complete nihilism, then this album is perfect for you. There’s a call from the void, and it sounds like LEECHED.

Rating: 9/10

To Dull The Blades Of Your Abuse is set for release on January 31st via Prosthetic Records.

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