2024-04-12 16:57:25
With the EP With Thorns of Glass and Petals of Grief have Balmora Almost out of nowhere, it lit a fire under the nostalgic melodeath/metalcore fans – and gave 2013 a highlight of the year. Six Pacts Etched in Bloodthe subsequent joint split with Since My Belovedleaves a more ambivalent impression.
On the one hand, this is because the Texas quartet that contributed the second part of the partnership (and, according to statements made at the most recent shows, has apparently already disbanded?). Since My Beloved after the two EPs The Sickness Called Despair… and One Day Away The standard of the split is reduced a little bit by being stylistically relatively congruent but somewhat more redundant than the eclectics, which are of course also by no means original Balmora acts: Geifern’s vocals are interchangeable and underline a relative modular form in the range of action.
Nevertheless, the consistent compositions, laid out straight and quickly with enough space to breathe, make you want to take a breath, show potential, the guitars in particular are ripping, motivated and hungrily ambitious, acting like in Along a Treelined Path also heroic. Only the absolutely cheesy and random clean vocal part Falls Narrow Corridor is almost ruinous.
You can also treat yourself to one that appears just as randomly and disappears without consequence Balmora – in which more hardcore breakdowns are weaving, epically sizzling and coiffed with a choral superstructure Unlike the Times Before, where the general vocal versatility of the band around the two-minute mark, thanks to the briefly sung emo part in contrast to the immediate death growls, almost seems like a clusterfuck caricature as a generic pastiche. I have no idea what drove the band to come up with this crazy idea.
In general, and that is the second serious reason why Six Pacts Etched in Blood not the euphoria of With Thorns of Glass and Petals of Grief ignited, the songwriting of Balmora This time comparatively like a rapid sequence of individual scenes – of course still made so strong that fans of early ones Darkest Hour bis Poison the Well and The Black Dahlia Murder or even Job for a Cowboy (primarily in the stoically tapping, grunting concrete waltz Your Unyielding Light, who leans back over a melodic part along wistful post-hatchings to the double solo) could get a slight glint in their eyes.
In any case, raw and aggressive throws immediately Only the Rain Will Remember I Was There Coming out of the rain, he tacks his blackened riffs into the room, growls, whines and hisses, grooving to his evil 90s style, while almost grinding passages keep rioting in the unadorned DIY sound. Where the mini-hype surrounding the band comes from becomes abundantly clear.
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