Album Review: Ballsdeep - Temperance
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
Sometimes you must go deep; Ballsdeep. Formed in 2010, the Stoke on Trent progressive groove merchants have been plying their aggressive form of metal for the best part of a decade and with a revised line-up are ready to deliver the first part in a trilogy of albums that should light up the sky, such is the level of intensity generated.
If you’ve travelled around the country to one of the many festivals in recent years, you’ll likely have seen the band. More importantly is that you’ve heard them because whilst they’ve been nicknamed ‘the bastard sons of Pantera’, due to their massive swathes of groove-sodden riffage, there is much more to them. Ballsdeep provide you with a heady mixture of Snot, KSE, American Head Charge and a soupcon of Slipknot. It’s a recipe that slams you around the back of the head and then punches you directly in the nose when you look at who had the audacity to give you that initial slap.
‘Temperance’ is undoubtedly Ballsdeep’s most impressive release so far. It’s a savage, angry and ferocious album that explodes like an incendiary device with ‘Lay the Lines’. The intensity of vocalist Rich ‘Bez’ Beresford is astonishing, the power and energy he channels into his screaming roars as he wrestles with the sheer enormity of the sound that his bandmates have somehow summoned. It’s a massive statement of intent and bodes well for the rest of the record and the releases to come. Ah yes, because ‘Temperance’ is merely the first of three linked albums that will form ‘Temperance, Death and the High Priestess’. Drawing inspiration from tarot cards and their meanings. ‘Temperance’ takes influence from the reversed meaning of the tarot card bearing the same name which speaks of imbalance, excess, self-healing and realignment.
The pace rarely slows, with the groove of ‘Claret’ pounding like a jackhammer, whilst ‘Supercharger’ changes the tempo slightly, a more staccato feel at times but when the foot hits the accelerator the band edge to supersonic speed, hitting a crossover element that demands you punch the air and race around the room.
There’s a freestyle anarchic style about Ballsdeep that is refreshing and dynamic. There will be the inevitable comparisons with the likes of Lamb of God, especially on ‘X’, which leans heavily on the Richmond outfit’s approach, but ‘Temperance’ simply smashes on every level. The riffs are thicker than a bariatric patient’s waistband, with a visceral quality. The album closer, ‘King of the Heathens’, is another absolute rager which demonstrates that although the band have moved forward massively in their song writing, there remains a grit in their psyche which is so essential to their music. This is bloody massive and you should really grab a listen when it drops on 25th June.
Check out our interview with Bez and Hinge below!
