You don’t hear about many metal bands from
Lebanon, but Blood Ink
may be one that you should pay attention to. Originally started as a school
idea in 2002 the band finally set out to write their own version of heavy
music after the final roster was set it late 2003. There are a few ways
you can interpret their sound, but it is a variation of metalcore. Parts
remind me of bands from anywhere between, Shadows Fall, Korn, Deftones,
Nirvana and Soilwork. For example the music is balanced between straightforward
riffs and nice melodies. Swedish death / hardcore riffs were what I enjoyed
the most on “Bleed The Ink.” There were also other things that
reminded me of the Korn demo, the Nirvana grunge sound, and the more technical
riffs used by bands like Shadows Fall and Soilwork. They even use acoustic
guitar. So I would say their music is a variation of metalcore, thrash and
nü metal. But it’s definitely more metalcore than anything. There
are vocal variations too, including drone-singing goth-like vocals, passion
filled vocals with a grimace, screaming hardcore vocals, and even a few
death growls. Just about all the tracks are at least decent, my favorites
include “Bring Me Down,” “Living Sin,” “Drayke,”
and “Behind The Mask.” The last song, track 9, is basically
an acoustic outro that changes to a metallic instrumental, a nice way to
end the disc. Production is ok, not great but not bad either...the album
was self-produced by the band in its own home studio because there are no
studios in Lebanon that work with rock/metal music. Basically the only thing
that I can think of that detracted from their music was a few songs that
had abrupt endings. Everything else is pretty much what you would expect
from a band’s first disc. “Bleed The Ink” shows a promising
future for Blood Ink.
Rating: 74
Reviewed By: Jeffrey D. Adkins |
