The Dark Cookie heads into uncharted realms as he gets a listen to the new album by Bloodyard, here’s what he thinks!

Full disclosure time people, I am a tad out of my comfort zone.  I am an old geezer and my tastes in the darker ends of metal are very much rooted in the old school.  Be it NWOBHM and the metallic delights therein, or what we shall call old school Thrash of the likes of ANTHRAX, EXODUS, TESTAMENT, and of course SLAYER. I like modern bands that sound like they fit into this era like EVILE, METHANE and TRAPPED IN PURGATORY, DIVINE CHAOS.  I am not a big user in the realms of Death or Groove Metal, Death Metal, and my knowledge of this end of the metallic toxic waste pool is limited to a few bands such as CANNIBAL CORPSE and ASHEN CROWN, so BLOODYARD had not come across my radar, but I don’t review for the mighty UK THRASHERS to be “safe” or remain inside of the comfort zone, nope bands like BLOODYARD are exactly why I’m here to challenge myself and find new favorites. 

Hailing for Lancashire in the North of England, formed back in 2010, with a couple of Eps and one full length album in their arsenal, and describing themselves as a mix of all the above-mentioned sub-genres, but to these ears, the resultant delicious racket transcends and melds all of that and more into a terrifyingly brutal yet intensely technical slab of sound that is the new one “Distilled Aggression” and a more apt title there isn’t!

From the opening brutalist salvo of “Zoophagous Philosophy” (I am not sure what is philosophical about Cannibalism, I suppose it is a life choice!) and “Thought Criminal” both of which showcase DONNA’s guttural immense snarly voice, and exactly how technically tight the band as a whole is. To these old ears they THRASH! Pure and simple.

“Abracadaver” will snap necks! “Trephination”, is stunning! It will smash holes into you skull. It broods, then it smashes your skull in, and then grooves like a mutha.  This one song converted me there and then! “Surface Lies Silent” is to me, old school Thrash with a modern sheen.

And that is the key to the success of this album, there is not just a wall of incomprehensible noise with some so called vocalist making even more incomprehensible noises than make so much sludge, nope this is musical.  Matty and Dave are symbiotic, whilst Nick barrages us with riff after riff after riff, and Donna delivers the goods vocally, and I’ll freely admit in a style that normally I would not listen to, but heck it all works here!

Trust me when I say the rest of the album is equally as good, but if I went on in the same gushing way about all the rest, you would not have the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.  But I will say closing track “Bloodborne” is as fine a closing track as I’ve heard for some time.  The bassline throughout is worth the listen alone!  It does exactly what a last track should do, leave the listener battered in a bloody heap with their ears ripped off and no doubt added to the bands trophy cabinet.

BLOODYARD you are why I do this!  I really wasn’t expecting to love “Distilled Aggression”, but bugger me I flippin do!  And so should all of you! Just give it a listen, by order of the Dark Cookie.

Released everywhere on the 23rd June and find out everything Bloodyard HERE