Album of the Week #12.

As Blood Runs Black- Allegiance.

Although I really didn’t want to, I had to move on from Heart In Hand and check something else out for this week. I settled on As Blood Runs Black for some intensity. This band is fast, with chugging rigs, low buzzing bass and pounding drums. The instrumental intro is just a series of intense furious riffs- letting you know exactly what you’re in store for. The guitars are loud and varied. I buzz off the opening riff on track ‘Hester Prynne’, its proper low-down and dirty. The vocals are less of the forefront in the mix than the guitars which I quite like for a change.

I love the melodic instrumental track ‘Pouring Rain’ which has some beautiful guitar on it. I buzz off intense metal albums which take a melodic break. I think it truly shows the skills of the band and that they’ve actually developed and planned an album rather than just throwing together some intensity for 45mins. I think this album has a black metal influenced vibe with the vocals and some of the high pitched guitar riffs. I wish I knew some more technical terms so I could describe guitars as anything other than riffs and chugging! The drums are relentless as to be expected with metal now a days but this band execute the drums musically rather than just noisily.

The band have a more recent release from 2011 called ‘Instinct’ after taking a four year break from this, their debut. From what I can gather online they’ve had trouble with members coming and going hence the prolonged silence between recordings but hopefully they’re back on track to bring the fury. I’ll have to check out their latest release and see what it’s all about.

Overall, I’d deffo recommend you check this album out if you want your brain rattled. This is for sure one for TBDM fans to check out.