{"id":18420,"date":"2014-04-28T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=18420"},"modified":"2014-06-10T20:26:50","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T20:26:50","slug":"album-review-loudblast-burial-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-loudblast-burial-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"LOUDBLAST – Burial Ground (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOUDBLAST
Burial Ground<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nListenable (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Now here\u2019s a band who wouldn\u2019t mind me calling them veterans of the metal scene. Having first formed back in 1985, Loudblast were arguably the first real death metal band to emerge from France, and have been responsible for some decent if not mind-blowing albums over the years, the last being 2011\u2019s Frozen Moments Between Life And Death<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There have been various changes in personnel over the decades with only vocalist \/ guitarist St\u00e9phane Buriez remaining from the original line-up. On Burial Ground<\/em>, the band\u2019s seventh studio album, Buriez is accompanied by guitarist Drakhian, bassist Alex Lenormand and drummer Herv\u00e9 Coquerel. <\/p>\n

Like a lot of stuff which emerged in the 80s, Loudblast\u2019s 1989 debut Sensorial Treatment<\/em> did have a touch of Slayer<\/a> about it, but over time and through varying trends and natural progression, they have transformed into a weighty and at times melodic death metal act. It\u2019s not a bad thing when a band can effortlessly evolve throughout their career. After all, we don\u2019t want a new album to sound like something that was released 20 or so years previous \u2013 just as long as they don\u2019t deviate in extreme fashion from their original sound to become unrecognisable.<\/p>\n

Loudblast, however, have always managed to stay heavy and as soon as opener \u2018A Bloody Oath\u2019 kicks in we know we\u2019re in for a ride to the dark side. Crushing percussion and an ominous guitar sound is what it\u2019s always been about, coupled with those sneering, despicable grunts, growls and rasps. \u2018A Bloody Oath\u2019 is deep and furious, altering its tempo throughout from doom-laden aggression lead by an ominous bass to those fierce and fiery steps up in pace.<\/p>\n

Although very much modern in their sound Loudblast still conjure up atmosphere of dread. \u201cTurning your world upside down\u201d<\/em>, Buriez growls, and then makes way for a series of cavernous solos which harkens back to the early days. And all the while that drum and bass is clanking along with such conviction, we know we are okay with whatever sound Loudblast choose to inflict upon us. I don\u2019t think anyone expected the traditional groove that leads us into the silence, though.<\/p>\n

There is much diversity within the Loudblast framework, and the fearsome energy is no doubt created by way of Buriez enlisting Alex Lenormand and Drakhian who add an extra layer of hostility to proceedings. Their presence lifts a track like \u2018Darkness Will Abide\u2019 from being a mediocre extreme metal track into something domineering and refreshing. The same could also be said for my favourite brace of tracks; the blackened belch of \u2018From Dried Bones\u2019, with its aching, grim sprawl, and the crushing bombardment of \u2018Abstract God\u2019 which has spurts of gnarly pace.<\/p>\n

Burial Ground<\/em> is a quality all-rounder when it comes to piecing together shards of aggression and lashings of melody, and with the frightful cut \u2018The Path\u2019 we can only heed the warnings to \u201cBeware the demons you conjured in darkness\u201d<\/em>, the sort of lyric we come to expect from this bunch of seasoned lords of extremity.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOUDBLASTBurial Ground Listenable (2014)Rating: 7.5\/10 Now here\u2019s a band who wouldn\u2019t mind me calling them veterans of the metal scene. Having first formed back in 1985, Loudblast were arguably the first real death metal band to emerge from France, and have been responsible for some decent if not mind-blowing albums over the years, the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-loudblast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18420"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18960,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18420\/revisions\/18960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}