Blood Revolt - Indoctrine

August 6, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Listening to Blood Revolt’s debut Indoctrine I find it the ultimate irony that I’m currently reading a book about Richard Kuklinski, a.k.a. The Iceman, who was a contract killer for the mob as well as a guy that felt he was above man’s law and killed some two-hundred people over the course of a few decades. It’s almost like the guys in Blood Revolt read the same book and gave such a man an album with which to speak.

Indoctrine is a first-person narrative about a man who finds he is descending into insanity and begins to realize that the accepted ‘system’ has no place for him, thereby forcing him to take matters to a sadistic, inhuman level. The concept album has returned to metal in a frenzied effort that follows no set pattern, demographic or formula. The album is, quite literally, as schizophrenic as the narrator’s mind, which, while still coupled with indelible talent, is easy to follow and not at all overly disorganized. Blood Revolt errs on the side of temerity, showcasing the ugly side of the human condition. It is, in fact, organized chaos from the safety of the musical sidelines.

Primordial vocalist Naihmass Namtheanga offers a disheveled, yet effective performance and is quite believable as a tortured man vying for a release from what vexes him. Vermin and James Read from the black metal trio Axis of Advance fill out this dismal unit by musically disrupting and disorienting the listener’s reality with a series of peaks-and-valleys throughout the piece. This is very ugly music from a very disturbing point of view. Yet when done to the degree of complete adherence to the mindset of the subject it can be all-encompassing and illuminating. For such a peek into a mind like this I say bravo.

Musically the band offers a hybrid of black and speed metal that follows perfect suit with the emotions contained. In “Year Zero” when Namtheanga slows the tempo and speaks about the impending explosion the narrator has set it’s a perfect complement to the controlled rage that can be momentarily subdued for the sake of his ‘mission’. By the album’s end we see the speaker proclaiming himself a god, a giver of death. It’s a logical apex to this truly unbalanced journey.

And it’s too easy to identify with, yet too hard to admit to understanding. Therein lay the beauty.

Indoctrine is a fine musical effort by three guys with very realistic viewpoints that have offered us a bird’s eye view into what ails the broken mind. The band’s MySpace states that this album is extremity for the sake of it, bound with certain confounds and boundaries, and nothing else need be said. There are no flashy solos, no soaring, epic vocals, no introspective passages of silent wonderment; this album is a fast-paced trip into the damaged psyche that not only haunts the average person’s sensibility but initiates added trepidation when flipping off the guy that cuts you off in traffic. Are we all really one moment away from such extreme measures and thoughts?

Blood Revolt says we are and we should listen and be informed.                    

Release Date: July 19, 2010
Label: Profound Lore Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Salvation at the Barrel of a Gun
2.  Dead City Stare
3.  Bite the Hand, Purge the Flesh
4.  God’s Executioner, Praise Be
5.  My Name in Blood Across the Sky
6.  Indoctrine
7.  Year Zero
8.  The Martyrs Brigade

Total playing time:  42:19

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