Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Bleeding Fist
Release: 2007
Who said the eighties are over? The coastal chaos thrash crew Bleeding Fist definitely didn’t get the memo. Their brand-new demo Funeral… plants us right in the front seat of the DeLorean from Spielberg’s cult film Back to the Future and takes us back to the early eighties, when the metal world started boiling over with the energy of a new genre… thrash metal, of course. Funeral… drops us straight into one of those garages where a new generation of kids dared to play faster and more brutally than any heavy metal band before them. Kids who built their sound on the big names of the NWOBHM movement, Motörhead, Venom, soon Slayer and others.
Bleeding Fist fit right in among them, and with Funeral… they present themselves as a trio. We haven’t heard a garage sound like this since the first recordings of the mighty Sodom (Uncle Tom would surely be proud), and Bleeding Fist don’t care much about production. It’s an almost primitive, garage production that doesn’t resort to heavy polishing, but ultimately that’s part of Bleeding Fist’s charm. Still, I’d have liked to hear Etienne Chelleri’s vocals pushed a bit further up in the mix. He also handles the chainsaw duties with a B.C. Rich guitar. The simple riffs are punchy and direct, and the solos bring Kerry King to mind. Ettiene fills the space with his guitar successfully enough, but a second guitar would fit in nicely, holding down the rhythm and leaving room for another thrashy, venomous riff or two. The rhythm section, let’s be honest, is nothing special, but Alex Destradi’s punchy drum rhythms are right where they should be, and Simon Dermota’s bass is mostly inaudible, as is thrash tradition. The garage production definitely has its charm, but I can’t shake the thought that better-produced drums and a guitar and vocals pushed to the front would add even more to the punch, energy and raw charm of Bleeding Fist.
The twenty-minute stroll through the graveyard is kicked off by the hard-hitting opener Conquering Apocalypse, in which Etienne plays some excellent thrash riffs that I wished I could hear more of. The apocalypse opens with an interesting, chaotic mix of different tempos and rhythms, and you couldn’t pin a better label on it than “chaos thrash”. My favorite is definitely From Where (Past is Immortal), which with its more melodic structure and faster thrash tempo is the most accessible “straight-in-your-face” thrasher for the ears. The rhythm section pushes its way to the front too, and it’s lovely to hear the bass in the background alongside the dynamic drumming. The up-tempo Funeral Smell continues in a similar vein, with a roaring Etienne turning it into a bomb just before it goes off. The demo closes with the fast Death War Carnage (Preview) and Mark of the Beast, a track that’s clearly becoming the band’s anthem. Rightly so, since the faster, harder-hitting section and the slower one with demonic rhythms create a great atmosphere.
Bleeding Fist is yet another promising Slovenian metal act, the kind we already know the broader undemanding public and uninterested labels won’t even sniff at. But you know what? Metal doesn’t even need them! Bleeding Fist have huge potential, which they could tap into fully with better production, one more guitarist and somewhat better structured and more varied songs. But the guys are hard workers, the chaos has been sown, and I’m waiting with open arms for the follow-up!
Lineup
Etienne Chelleri – guitar, vocals
Simon Dermota – bass guitar
Alex Destradi – drums
Production
Bleeding Fist
Track List
1. Conquering Apocalypse
2. From Where (Past is Immortal)
3. Funeral Smell
4. Death War Carnage (Preview)
5. Mark of the Beast
