With the state of the Catholic Church right now (and my own
\nfeelings about it, having been raised Catholic), it might seem in
\nbad taste to review an album named
\nCrucify The Priest<\/i>. But, hey,
\nI<\/i> didn’t name the album; Chicago-based thrashers Bludgeon
\ndid. If I’m going to hell, it’ll be for much different reasons.<\/p>\n
No doubt that the band – vocalist\/guitarist Mark Duca, guitarist
\nCarlos Alvarez, bassist Eric Karol and drummer Matt “Chewey”
\nDezynski – will be sharing a fondue skewer next to me. But their
\ndebut disc is an amazing collection of veteran thrash the way it
\nwas meant to be played. Manowar’s Joey DeMaio might have been a
\nguiding hand for this group as producer, but leave no doubt that
\nthe power and anger you hear is all Bludgeon – and I can’t wait to
\nhear more.<\/p>\n
Three things set Bludgeon apart from so many other groups in
\nthis genre. First and foremost is the solid songwriting that
\nBludgeon demonstrate throughout
\nCrucify The Priest<\/i>. What you hear is not merely a collective
\nof instruments and musicians let loose to plow forth at full speed.
\nNo, some actual thought went into the structuring of the songs and
\nthe lyrics – and for that, Bludgeon is worthy of your attention.
\nJust pay attention to a song like “Zero Tolerance” and experience
\nthis for yourself.<\/p>\n
Second, Duca’s grunted vocals are clearer than so many other
\nthrash bands. Granted, his vocal lines aren’t 100 percent clear,
\nbut more often than not, the listener can tell what Duca is singing
\nabout without having to resort to the lyric sheet. Third, Bludgeon
\nisn’t afraid to do different things musically, such as suddenly
\nstop a song, only to pick it up a half-beat later, as they do on
\n“Smoke Screen”. The effect is a dangerous one for any band to
\nundertake – hell, the first time I heard the song, I thought my CD
\nplayer had screwed up – but when executed well, the power it has is
\nunbelievable. Such is the case with Bludgeon.<\/p>\n
What is even more amazing about
\nCrucify The Priest<\/i> is that it sounds like it was recorded in
\na state-of-the-art studio… when, in reality, it was recorded at
\nthe house that Bludgeon calls its home base in Chicago. I don’t
\nquite know how they got such a rich sound (though I’m sure DeMaio’s
\nproduction work helped a bit), but it makes me hope their second
\neffort is recorded in the exact same way.<\/p>\n
Tracks such as “Inner Hell,” “Tortured Through Lies,”
\n“Abandoned” and “Idle Distinction” will undoubtedly cause fans of
\nthrash to soil themselves with glee, as they discover the next band
\nwho could well be the savior of thrash metal. For Bludgeon’s sake,
\nI hope they achieve this.
\nCrucify The Priest<\/i> might be a first effort, but it proves
\nthat Bludgeon is a band who have done their homework. Here’s hoping
\nthey can live up to the high expectations they’ve just set for
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
2002 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Magic
\nCircle Music \/ Metal Blade Records, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6733],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37371","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bludgeon","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37371"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37371"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}