Review Summary: This is a hardcore album. It sounds like a hardcore album.
Pretty much all garden variety hardcore acts can be summed up in a simple sentence: it’s good, but you’ve heard it before. No matter what the band does or how they precisely sound, their output can be traced back very easily to another act that has already done what they currently do, and their result was much more memorable. If you want to achieve any sort of success in a world that has seen and heard quite a lot, it’s no longer enough to copy-paste genre titans; you’ve got to spice things up a bit or your audience falls asleep. It’s impossible to count the sheer number of newly-founded groups in recent times that think slapping together some fast riffs and angry lyrics will do the job, blatantly throwing up metaphorical middle fingers to the idea of change or progression. When it comes down to it, North American hardcore collective Bloodclot seem to fall into this ever-growing camp of ‘genericore’ bands with their debut LP
Up In Arms: a bundle of quick guitars and aggression… and I suppose that’s it.
The fact is, more needs to be implemented into this strand of straightforward hardcore music nowadays to make the releases coming out of it more impressive.
Up In Arms explodes with the outwardly powerful title track, but after years and years of musical innovation, it’s about as authoritative as a chihuahua. This issue is further compounded by the fact that nearly every single track on the album begins exactly the same, progresses exactly the same, and overall sounds exactly the same: a mean guitar riff comes barging in, all big and badass, and continues for the rest of the song, essentially. The same chords just keep going and going underneath the typical hardcore shouts. Lose attention while listening to Up In Arms and you may forget that “Soldiers of the New Babylon” is not actually “Kali,” despite both sounding so damn similar. They are also not “Kill the Beast,” because thankfully the singer tells you repeatedly to kill the beast, so there’s a semblance of difference.
One hates to be this negative, but the formulaic presentation of this release is so obvious that it makes it hard to not address. A handful of songs fall under or just above the two-minute mark, passing through your ears like a light, forgettable breeze. Their thrash-metal-tinged aspects are not interesting but rather tired and unengaging, especially after those aspects are repeatedly bashed into your skull during the album’s runtime. What continues to frustrate the listener is the fact that Bloodclot actually have the capacity to alter their course and give the audience a product that deviates from the norm, if only slightly. Part of this is honestly credit to the vocalist, whose harsh highs and lows certainly carry a lot of strength regardless of my complaints. On a few tracks, namely “Siva / Rudra,” he brings forth backing clean vocals that carry on a sort of creepy vibe that fits the more melodic style of the song. This kind of experimentation is sadly brief and collapses into the album’s tired formula promptly afterwards.
All I really felt during the brief duration of
Up In Arms (which is an advantage; it doesn’t overstay it’s very-strained welcome) was just, “So what?” Whenever a song entered and speedily departed, there was little I could offer except a shrug. The generally commanding leads came across as bland; the drums are relegated to some furious pounding akin to a child stomping around the grocery store; and the vocals, though above average, are unable to hold up the weakened tunes. Sure, someone that’s looking for a release plain and heavy will be right at home. But it’s no longer close to being remarkable. In the end, I’ve heard it all before, and I’ve heard it done better.
