From Canada comes Blinded By Faith, whose latest album Weapons of Mass Distraction is a very strong mix of black, death, and thrash metal, supported by plenty of catchy melodies, symphonic keyboards, manic drum blasts, and raging guitar work. Influences range from Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom, Soilwork, and Dark Tranquility, but the band throws enough of their own spin on things to make this a very enjoyable slab of extreme metal. Lead singer Tommy Demers falls somewhere between Shagrath and Dani Filth when he's doing his scorching & evil vocals, and on the clean passages he has a sort of Speed (Soilwork) feel to his delivery. His maniacal spewing on "Global Denial" is just marvelous, as he goes to many extremes while Daniel Gingras & Pascal Cote lay down massive amounts of crunch and nimble guitar solos. Keyboard player Danny Emond is the glue that holds everything together, adding just the right amount of progressive & classical embellishments to each and every track with his array of synths and keyboards. Check out his symphonic melodies on the otherwise brutal "Consortium Y2K", or his atmospheric & creepy overtones on the epic black metal feast "Elite Insight". Kudos also need to go out to the excellent rhythm team of bassist Vincent Roy and drummer Julien Marcotte, who keep a frenetic pace throughout this CD and really add in some intricate and powerful grooves. Listen to "Finger on the Trigger" and "An Ordinary Day", where the two are working overtime, especially Marcotte, whose blast beats are frighteningly fast & brutal.
Weapons of Mass Distraction is not going to reinvent the melodic black metal wheel, but this is damn good stuff nontheless. These guys don't need the corpse paint, spikes, and chains, but do what they do well with lots of talent and good songwriting. Future stars? I think this CD makes a good case to back up that assumption. Check it out.
Track Listing
1. IMPACT PROLOGUE
2. WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION
3. GLOBAL DENIAL
4. CONSORTIUM Y2K
5. BARCODE BLINDFOLD
6. ELITE INSIGHT
7. FINGER ON THE TRIGGER
8. AN ORDINARY DAY
9. THE DEAD DON'T TALK
10. ...GAME OVER///
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
