Band/Artist: Blindside
With their latest album, “About a Burning Fire”, Blindside has firmly established themselves in the hard music scene. While it is not quite as aggressive and edgy as “Silence”, it still has the intensity and energy that you would expect from them.
Blindside formed in 1994 in Sweden. The guys have been friends since childhood. Blindside is Christian on vocals, Simon on guitar, the other Simon on bass and Marcus on drums. They have 2 indie albums, their debut American release “Silence” and now “About a Burning Fire”, released under the Elektra label. The members are serious about their faith and have always had a desire to sing about living a life for Jesus.
I first came across Blindside in the late 1990’s when I got my hands on their second indie CD, “A Thought Crushed My Mind”. I was an immediate fan. Their first mainstream album, “Silence” simply blew me away. I couldn’t get enough of them. The energy and intensity that blasts out of the first three albums is simply relentless.
Some of the edginess has been traded in for a more polished, melodic sound. But Simon’s trademark sonic guitar work still leads the way alongside Christian’s aggressive vocals. In a departure from their earlier styles, the track “Shekina” has a European feel to it with the addition of some haunting female vocals in the background. The song is a soft-rock melody and it’s one of my favorites on the album.
But my favorite song would have to be “Follow you down”. It’s has some of the more aggressive music on the CD, almost a rage to it at times. There are several ways to interpret the song. It could be taken as a stand against the lies and deception of Satan. It could be about someone that is lying against him. But I think I’ll go with the first knowing the band’s background.
Keep in mind that Blindside’s lyrics are fairly poetic, never coming right out and explicitly talking about their faith and beliefs. You do have to dig for the meaning in their songs. Most are fairly obvious, others less so. This doesn’t bother me. It causes me to dig into my own beliefs more, coming to a meaning that works for me. This may not work for everyone.
It should also be noted that the word “d*mned” is used once towards the end of the song, “Hooray, It’s L.A.”. The song features Billy Corgin of Smashing Pumpkins on guitar, who helped produce the album as well. It’s used in the context of referring to a cold night. I’m not sure of its intended use, hard to say really. But one should make note of it if it would bother you.
But I’ll have to say that I would recommend this album for hard music fans. These guys are awesome and we’ll likely hear much from them in the future.
