Bloodlined Calligraphy – Ypsilanti

Holy shit, they’ve got a female vocalist. If you haven’t heard Bloodlined Calligraphy that statement should probably shock you as much as it shocked me, they’re so heavy. I remember the first time I heard this cd(I had never heard of the band before) I thought to myself,”Wow, this guys got a pretty terrifying voice.” But it’s a fucking female vocalist! I found that they’re reminiscent of Martyr AD, except with less chugy breakdowns, but with all the same wild drumming and crazy guitar parts(there’s a good chance that this comparison is completely inaccurate, but that’s how I felt). It’s hard to describe the pace this cd sets, I need to see this band play to really appreciate it I think. For instance, in the song Ashes To Ashes, there’s a pretty slow breakdown, then all of a sudden the guitar takes off and the drummer breaks into these double kick rhythms that are quite astonishing. I think this is another release that’s going to make picking my favorite cd of the year that much tougher, because it’s easily top five. It’s a very good balance of harsh vocals to blend with fast and metallic instrument part, music to get a crowd moving, and heavy breakdowns. Although the breakdowns do tend to get slow at times, I usually can’t stand it, but with this band, it seems to be just fine. This is most likely because the speed I know that will come afterwards is going to make up for it. The lyrics didn’t exactly mean much to me, I’m not really sure what they’re supposed to mean, I’m sure someone else will probably be able to get more meaning out of them. I’m not much of an abstract thinker when it comes to reading, I most often get the most blatant meaning out of words and never really catch onto underlying themes unless they’re otherwise stated. This usually leaves me feeling that the lyrics were fairly generic, which is how I felt while reading these.

Facedown must be having a great year, they’ve released two other phenomenal albums by two different bands(Alove For Enemies-Resistance, War of Ages-Pride of the Wicked) and now this. I suggest that anyone with an interest in this modern hardcore/metal thing check this band out, as well as anyone with an interest in Facedown bands. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, that label has never let me down, especially with bands like No Innocent Victim and xLooking Forwardx. I really hope that this band hits Edmonton for a show one of these days, and I strongly recommend looking into this band. I’m sure they’re on myspace or something like that, it seems that every band is on myspace, and even if the band isn’t, a tribute page has been made dedicated to them with a few good tracks. I think I’m going to go scrub my hands now, I feel dirty for saying something positive about myspace.