New Music Review - Blind Image

Another new band from India, this one goes under the moniker of Blind Image.

http://www.blindimage.net/


The subject of my review comes from their album "More Than Human", which is up on their Myspace player at the moment. The Website is also slick looking!

India continues to surprise me with its share of intelligent metal bands. Blind Image are no exception, drawing influences from thrash, prog and metalcore, with a fair blend of melodic elements, clean vocals and heavy, brutal riffs accompanied by screaming.

Musically, the band sound very clean and tight on record, not struggling with any of the complex elements which they place throughout their songs. There's plenty of clever time signatures, atonal and melodic contrast as well as the standard heavy metal fare of well executed riffs; its enough to stand out amongst a plethora of standard-sounding bands which populate the Myspace airways these days, but at the same time its not exactly revolutionary. That said, innovation in Metal usually comes from somewhere you don't expect, and you never know where bands are going to go: Pantera started out as glam rock, and Meshuggah's first album sounded a lot like a more intelligent Metallica tribute.

The one area where I felt a lacking in Blind Image's music was the vocals; both clean and screaming left something to be desired for me, which almost drew away from how talented and tight the rest of the instrumentalists are. The vocals are by no means awful though, I just think that with a lot of dedicated hard work and practise, they could really shine and make this band a true force to be reckoned with.

I've said before that small niggles like these are common amongst fledgling bands, so I have no doubt that Blind Image have the potential to work past these and mature into a more powerful band - the potential is definitely there, so it remains to be seen where the band goes from here.

I can imagine that these guys put on a great live show, and Its a shame I can't go to India and check out the live show for myself! If you're over in India then definitely have a look at these guys live, the music makes for an intense night and I'm sure they have the stage presence to match.

Theres plenty in here for metal lovers, as well as a few pleasant surprises which draw from smooth jazz - "Bombs in the Cake Mob Anthem" and "Axioms of Synergy" in particular.


Have a look if you want some cool new metal from India ;)


Vinnie