Noisem (USA) - Blossoming Decay (2015)

 

Late Bloomers

    Okay, so I don't want to spend too much time on this release since the hype around this album was already pretty high and at this point [2015] I could cover my eyes and hit a review of this album with a rock. (Of course the metaphor here being that the Internet is a field or some wooded area and that the metal sites and their reviews are tangible things laying around that I could chuck a rock at. Good? Moving on.)

    Noisem made a big splash with the release of their 2013 debut album Agony Defined on A839 Records. A lot of fanfare was made about the old school thrash/death metal sound dished out by these New England teenagers with their exceptional riffs. Due to the slight blend of thrash-metal, grindcore and hardcore that thing was in every distro and on every blog. Despite how overly crust-punk the LP cover looked, I still never quite got into that album. The twin guitar solos and thrashy-Slayer-style-semi-clean vocal yells were lost on me. Metal has never been and continues to not be of interest to me. I'm sure if I was more into metal and not such a grind snob I would've liked Agony Defined a bit more. I mean it was a decent album. I might also have been imagining it, but Agony Defined gave me an Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses vibe. But what do I know? I'm comparing apples to oranges of two bands that I don't listen to.

    Now, Noisem returns with their highly anticipated Blossoming Decay; fulfilling several of the many favorable clichéd attributes a band's sophomore album could ask for. Too many to list here and have already been written about too many times else where. Let's just say it's exceedingly better. The boys seem to have really matured since their debut.

    These recent developments rest in part on the shoulders of vocalist, Tyler Carnes. Carnes spearheads a much darker and heavier sound this time around. His vocals are harsher and carry a renewed intensity that I thought he was missing in a much more passive performance on Agony Defined. 

In the guitar department we find a new bass player, Billy Carnes, brother of vocalist Tyler Carnes joining the group. This now allowing ex-bassist, Yago Ventura, to move from bass to guitar along side of Sebastian Phillips. Together the two wheel and deal palm mutes, solos and the speed riffing that is at the heart of the band. 

    Harley Phillips, you guessed it, brother of guitarist Sebastian Phillips, is also responsible for major changes in the band's sound. The addition of more blasts beats brings the grindcore element to the forefront of the thrash/punk/grind and is the standard A839 Record's hardcore sound. The blast beats might be the sole reason behind why I enjoy this album as much as I do.

    The band also experiments with some ambient noise intros and interludes. On the LP each side starts with melodic guitar and cello passages. On the CD the tracks play more as a beginning, middle and end. This new choice in experimental instrumentals again showcases the band's growing sophistication as well as helps underline the darkness of Blossoming Decay.

    This is not an up and up grind album, but touches base on some of the old school death-grind sounds of bands like Repulsion and Cretin. I'm also slightly reminded of Agoraphobic Nosebleed's last album Agorapocalypse, which had a huge thrash influence and similar vocals.

Blossoming Decay is another step forward in the growing music trend of blurring the lines of the extreme genres. Like I said previously, I'm not too experienced in metal, but I'm going to go ahead and pigeonhole Noisem as a thrash-metal band with at least one release that I'd say is decent. The guys finally have an album that I think matches the intensity of their live performances and their accolades.

FFO: Repulsion, Cretin, Toxic Holocaust, Brutal Truth

Listen and/or buy: https://noisem.bandcamp.com

[Originally posted in June on June 17 2015, House of Grindcore]

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