Review Summary: An ode to all that is m/
Very few -core albums manage to do/be/achieve quite as much as 2015’s
Bleeder, all the while retaining such a seamless and disarming air of listenability. My money’s on front(mad)man Stephen Brodsky as the key to it all: jack of all trades and, somehow, master of just about all of them too. He croons and yelps, shreds and chuggas, simultaneously and relentlessly, across each and every joyous, jagged, genre-bending barnburner here - showcasing a composure and charisma as lead singer-guitarist rarely seen in this post-legends era. His results may vary, but include the NWOBHM-ish romp of “Bridgeburner”, bluesy stone(d) monster within “Dead Dreams” and the twin proverbial noodle-city and riff-mountain occupied by “Soft Spot…” and “Surveillance”. I could go on - given each terrific track here deserves a similarly reductive word-salad summation and then some - but there’s just
so much of what makes heavy music
heavy music packed within these lean 29-minutes of metalcore buffoonery to justify your full perusal (such that you can fill in the blanks for yourself). Certainly, Brodsky can’t take all the credit - Ben Koller is, after all, Ben
fucking Koller, and in top rhythmic form throughout
Bleeder (I’m also told a bassist was involved) - yet when his (Brodsky’s) light shines quite so awfully bright, it can sometimes be hard to see the bigger picture.
… which is this: Mutoid Man’s meticulous debut rocks socks like a house on fire, ablaze at the end of all things, stalling out the apocalypse only by the sheer epicness with which it riffs. The jams here are, simply (recklessly) put,
timeless, epitomizing and/or enshrining all that big-loud-fast-noise-
grr music can and should be. Case in point: if you, my like-minded meat-head, are left anything less than awestruck by the old-school solo-ing and sludge-stuffed kabooming that concludes the closer then you are dead inside and should seek immediate medical treatment. Lashed together with suitably goofy comic book thematics and sporting some of the best damn album pacing in a solid minute:
Bleeder remains (in this less-than-humble music ‘critic’’s opinion) the most fun you can have with half an hour of vaguely metallic music,
period (sorry ETID). Please listen to it now and you are more than welcome.
