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Black Breath have made quite a name for themselves since the release of their first EP in 2008. They’ve used their Entombed influence to freshen up the HM-2 guitar tone, and have attracted fans from all over the spectrum; there’s something in their music for the death metallers, the punks, the stoner doomers, and beyond. Heavy Breathing was a solid debut, but the only moment that floored me was the intro to “Wewhocannotbenamed”.
The band’s second LP Sentenced to Life features their high-demand hybrid recipe, except with doubled intensity; they’ve gone heavier, louder and crisper. They’ve diversified beats, and show signs of evolving influences. The band and producer likely had a grand vision for the way this was supposed to sound. I imagine everyone sitting in a room, hearing the finished product and smiling at how great it is.
The album surges to life from the first faint sounds of ultra-distortion. Producer Kurt Ballou knows his guitars through and through, as they punch through the mix but remain coated in a layer of filth. The riffs may be straightforward, but they aren’t generic. The pleasant listening challenge is there. “Feast of the Damned” is the beast escaping the confines of the gate, a bold beginning that gets the blood pumping.
For vocalist Neil McAdams, a few more years of experience have translated into confidence in his craft. He’s mastered both the strenuous roar and the short, punctuated strike. The opening “augh!” on “Mother Abyss” lingers like a reluctant greeting. Followed by the frenzied vocal bursts and main bending riff, it shapes this track into a two-and-a-half-minute-long snarl. Then, without changing much at all, McAdams makes the catchy lyric on “Of Flesh” (“You’ll never / get enough…”) sound matter-of-fact. It’s subtle, but this discernible element in vocal personality adds depth.
Black Breath prevent any d-beat repetitiveness by switching over to steady grooves at the right moments. “Endless Corpse” features a cycle between scrappy tremolo leads and trudging doom. The transfer of potential and kinetic energy releases constant barrages of chained-up rage.
The album closes with the most expansive-sounding track, mimicking the format of Heavy Breathing. Each beat is deliberate, the rhythm constrained, and the solo the vibrant focal point. It’s a calming ode to the beast, containing it once again. Obey… until next time.
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HEAR SENTENCED TO LIFE
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Black Breath – “Mother Abyss”
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Black Breath – “Home of the Grave”
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BUY SENTENCED TO LIFE
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Early Album of the Year contender. This has been my workout AND makeout album for weeks. super hooky, super brutal.
\m/
The album cover looks like a cross between Razor and Black Flag.
It reminded me of a hammer-smashing version of Sargeist’s Let the Devil In.
That hammer is straight Kill Em All
I’m getting some Accept too. It’s probably a safe assumption that that arm is attached to somebody wearing a leather plum-smuggler and/or chaps. Awesome.
Exciter’s “Violence & Force” anyone?
Either way, It’s one of the best metal album covers this year. It’s sweet!
I hope the dude using that hammer is wearing assless chaps.
I’ve tried and tried but I just cannot get into this band. They are the weakest, most blatant sub-Entombed jerk-off band I have ever heard. Everything about this record is fuckin’ derivative, like a boring xerox cut-n-paste of Uprising, Wolverine Blues, and Clandestine with nowhere near the energy, chops, or excitement of any of them. Hell, they can’t even muster 1/10th the power and anger of Nails (the only Entombedcore band worth a damn because they bring in a broader outside influence). I understand we all pine for Entombed to be worth a damn again but settling for such cheap and derivative material from bands like this isn’t the answer at all.
Funny, I don’t actually think Black Breath sound like Entombed that much. I just think people hear the HM-2 tone and expect that kind of music, then feel disappointed that it’s not Clandestine or whatever. I hear way more old-school thrash and D-beat here than Sweedish DM.
The funny thing is that Entombed also have large amounts of old-school thrash & d-beat on their records going all the way back to the beginning.
There are large swaths of Sentenced To Life where are I can pick out exact riff & vocal cadences lifted directly from older Entombed songs.
The HM-2 sound is actually the least offensive thing about them.
I kinda agree with Christopher. I WANT to like these guys, apparently they’re perfectly likeable, but they jsut struck me as really ‘blah,’ and derivative of a lot of other styles.
I dig ‘Spit on the Cross’ and a couple of other tracks off the last one, not necessarily b/c they are good songs, its just that with any album you are bound to run into something you like. But thats about it.
I’ll give this new one a chance. Maybe if someone here can pinpoint exactly what I should be listening for and liking in this band, it will help.
Pleas excuse all misspellings.
Why are you fucks getting all pissy about this record? it fuckin rips…shut the fuck up and just rock the fuck out you pretentious twits
If they only did 4 song ep’s I’d like them more.
Crack – you nailed it.
What you dudes are describing is pretty much how I felt with the first Black Breath record. I like Sentenced to Life much more. I see this stuff as essentially hardcore rather than metal — the starts and stops, the occasional breakdowns, and the overall approach to riffing seems to come from more of a ‘core place, despite the reliance on traditional Swedish guitar tones. This second record has more interesting songwriting than the first, with more melody, more thrash, and more replay value. Whereas Trap Them are starting to feel tired to my ears, I think these guys are still picking up steam.
At what, 30-minutes?!, complaints should be silenced for the amount fucking wickedness they deliver is so little time. Last time I heard Entomed they were writing music to fucking coincide with ballets or some shit. This is the goddamn nearest perfect hybrid of hardcore and metal (thrash, black or death) that I may have yet heard. Entombed tones, hardcore delivery. It’s aggressive and fun as a motherfucker. Unless I just have my timeline wrong, it’s the best aggresive release I’ve heard so far this year. We’ve got a long way to go yet though, so who knows…
maybe i need to like entombed to like these guys, or at least to have a frame of reference. i’ve been aware of entombed since i was a kid (i guess wolverine blues, whenever), but thats IT. never really gave a listen.
and by the time i was interested in giving them a listen, there was just too much baggage going along with it (it seems they have a lot of material, esp since im familiar with none of it, and that they started to suck at one point…i wouldnt know where a good entry point would be).
suffice it so say, i always hear of black breath as being a ‘fun band,’ so i’ll just try to think of them that way. the tremolo picking thing will forever annoy me, but there seems to be a little more variety this time around
Check out their EP “Razor to Oblivion”, if you want to give them another shot. It’s less tremelo picking and more hardcore riffs and d-beat drums. The guitars aren’t quite so sharp and polished.
I don’t think you need to be too intimidated by Entombed’s discography. The first three albums are usually thought of as the essential ones, and while they don’t explicitly start to work rock n’ roll stuff into their music until Wolverine Blues, there are more subdued rock/punk elements in the earlier albums that anticipate it. I’d check out Left Hand Path before I did any more investigation into Black Breath. There isn’t a second of wasted space on that album. It’s fun to listen to but still feels serious, and it’s also pretty representative of what people mean when they talk about Entombed. Easily one of the best metal albums of all time, no baggage necessary.
That said, Razor to Oblivion is the least death metal sounding thing Black Breath has done, and as much as I like them, I kind of wish they had stuck with some of what they were doing there instead of wading into the tarpit of swedish death metal.
I back this: I find that “Razor…” is the one album of theirs I continue to go back to, precisely because it represents the seamless fusion of modern hardcore and Swedish death metal that Trap Them only wishes it could be. Their other stuff is decent, but basically just a slightly punkier Dismember.
check out these three cz/dm acts, refreshing HM-2 sound as well
Escape the Flesh
Brutally Deceased
March of the Hordes
hilarious to compare Black Breath to Nails, and unfavorably at that. The proof is in the performance, and I’ve seen both bands live a few times – Nails are dull and almost laughable live, while Black Breath are one of the best live acts I’ve caught in the past few years. The crowds go nuts for them, and with very good reason. As for the albums, BB can’t capture the same energy that they have on stage when in the studio, but their albums are all high quality with a number of standout tracks, that go beyond simple Sunlight Studios worship.
I’m liking this album and have been playing it a lot in the last few weeks but I don’t think it’s going to have the longevity for me to be listening to it in years to come. As previously mentioned there are parts that are lifted straight from old Entombed songs and while they are certainly different from Entombed, much of it songs very, very alike.