Album Review: Bloodletter - Leave the Light Behind
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
I enjoy reading the PR packs that are usually attached to new releases, as I find myself scratching and shaking my head at times, and this one is no different. It opens with “Chicago thrashers Bloodletter have shredded stages across the USA for over twelve years” and as it’s been over two years ago since I reviewed their last album for The Razors Edge, I’m still waiting to see them live, much to my annoyance.
Thrash metal is my favourite genre. The music I spent my teenage years exploring, devouring and digesting as much as I possibly could. As I’ve grown older, not necessarily wiser, I’ve explored many other styles, but I always come back home to the aggressive fast paced sounds that I adore. And what Bloodletter do right from the opening notes of “A World Unmade” is take you back to that simpler time of chaotic mosh pits and heavy riffs.
It’s a blistering start, with vocalist/guitarist Pete Carparelli explaining that they “wanted to take melodic riffing” and “brute force” and “really blend the two”. And I can confirm that they have achieved this as it continues with “On Blackened Wings” one which the headbangers out there will love. There’s plenty of double bass action from drummer Zach Sutton to keep purists happy and the rhythm section is as tight as a tight thing, all whirling around the lead guitar.
They’ve delved into a darker atmosphere on their fourth album “Leave the Light Behind”, and songs “Eternal Winter” and “Terminal” shows splashes of melody alongside “more grandiose and dramatic arrangements”. It makes for an interesting set of compositions, and they don’t tend to labour around on each song. They are direct and straight to the point, and when you can hear the bass from Tanner Hudson, it really snaps and adds much to the overall sound.
With Pat Armamentos sharing guitar duties with Carparelli, they are a potent double act, and the solos flow effortlessly. However, what further impresses me, is that they sound original. The excellent “Unearthing Darkness” is followed by the more sinister “Hunting Horror” and their dynamism continues. You find yourself becoming immersed in their world of “supernatural threats, cosmic beats and the spectres of depression and mental illness”.
They are letting their music talk for itself, and the melodic battering of your soul, takes a further pounding on “The Black Death”, which has more of an old school feel to it, which this old git really appreciates. It’s rips along, and will become a fan favourite, despite the whiplash it might cause after headbanging along to it. “Call of the Depp One” sounds slower in comparison, more cultured, adding a different feel to the album, but the solo is another impressive one.
Penultimate track “The Burial” has that more brutal feel coming through, like they’ve thought, we need to add more intensity and pace to the music. It’s like you are receiving a pounding from an indefatigable fighter, and then they briefly relent, with the sober opening of “Night Terrors”. However, the beating continues soon enough, but you can’t be anything but impressed with the ten songs that will hopefully see them break out of America and into the hearts of metal fans across the globe.
