Artist: First Blood
Label: Trustkill Records
Release: 2006
First Blood? The Rambo movie, right? Hell yes, and then some. A new metalcore band from San Francisco, risen from the ruins of Terror, Embrace, Alcatraz (don’t mix that name up with G. Bonnet’s band Alcatrazz) and Sworn Vengeance! The promising Sworn Vengeance are no more, but their spirit lives on in First Blood, which is unmistakable in the sound of “Killafornia”. Of course, a pinch of Terror lives on in there too, and the stylistic comparisons to fellow countrymen Hatebreed are fair game as well.
Carl Schwartz, a former Sworn Vengeance member, made sure First Blood re-recorded a few Sworn Vengeance tracks (Suffocate, Victim, Tides and Unbroken), and the band’s debut also packs a heap of brand-new bangers. First Blood “lovingly” announce their arrival in the kingdom of metalcore with an opening triple-whammy of Next Time I See You, You’re Dead, First Blood and Conspiracy. Just how mentally unhinged First Blood are becomes clear the second the album opens with Next Time I See You, You’re Dead, which flattens the listener’s reality like a giant mushroom cloud of devastating radioactive plutonium fusion. Sick beyond all limits. “Next time I see you, you’re dead” – an utterly, endearingly cuddly overture, slapped together out of tons of roaring steel, with the explosiveness upgraded in standard fashion by Carl Schwartz’s venomous, rabid barking, which barely noticeably spills this “opening grind” over into the title track. Here the guys wittily carry all that built-up fury into the next song (First Blood), where the rage keeps mounting and they stomp even harder on the gas, especially through the ultra-wound-up thunder of the double bass drum pedals, which drives most of the essence of First Blood. This track is one of the album’s peaks. The classic down-tuned riff in it is pure joy, rolling along on the wrecking power of the double bass pedals, and over it we get to enjoy a showcase of unbearable pain, madness and genuine nervous breakdowns, as delivered by Schwartz’s roar, bolted straight onto the riff. The sonic terror of the instruments, combined with Carl Schwartz’s ominous vocals, a mid-to-low growl, can add up to a lethal blow for the ears of tender souls raised on Justin Timberlake, and let’s not rule out the unfortunate possibility that those very same people, upon such close encounters with First Blood, fill their pants with bodily secretions and excretions that have no business being there by any sane standard.
These guys make no secret of growing up on the legendary sounds of Pantera. “Killafornia” unmistakably proves that First Blood are yet another outstandingly good crafter of top-shelf metalcore, superbly tight with one another, which they show through the band’s locked-in heartbeat tempo, shining in masterfully played transitions built on chopped-off pauses (a thrash specialty) that seamlessly melt the mood into the next rhythm/riff extravaganza, through which First Blood keep galloping on with undiminished, incinerating, wrecking intensity. In the red-hot production, the guitars carry a lower-tuned, thicker smear of groove (achieved by downtuning the guitars). Schwartz’s growl is paired with gang shouts, which is another old thrash metal trick, but the guys only use it to level up their menacingly aggressive face. First Blood are a new metalcore band loaded with a charm all their own, a synonym for quality in every respect, meeting the highest standards of the genre. Just as our beloved little puffed-up Rambo was a heavyweight who always walked out of the wrestling ring undefeated, so does First Blood’s vengeful music work. And “Killafornia” is only their beginning, one that unstoppably cracks even the hardest skull!
Lineup
Carl Schwartz – vocals
Kyle Dixon – guitar
Manuel Peralez – bass
Brandon Thomas – drums
Production
Carl Schwartz & First Blood
Tracklist
01. Next Time I See You, You’re Dead
02. First Blood
03. Conspiracy
04. Suffocate
05. Execution
06. Victim
07. Conflict
08. Tides
09. Regimen
10. Unbroken
11. Armageddon
12. No Cure*
*…bonus track
Album length: 37.07
