The Blamed

Item: Isolated Incident
Author: Josh Spencer

Isolated Incident

(2001)

Reviewed by Josh Spencer

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Label Grrr RecordsHM Magazine #89May 2001

hardcore post-hardcore punk

I haven't met many fans of The Blamed. I don't know why. Is it because they change their sound a little every album? Or is it their tenacious loyalty to an old school hardcore gruffness in a slick new school world? I suspect mostly it's because over the years The Blamed have developed two things foreign to most hardcore punk bands: 1) musical ability and 2) the courage to take chances. They've done old school punk, thrash, hardcore, metal, post-hardcore, and a fusion of all the above. Now they're improving on the prog postcore of last year's Germany EP, adding what could be called rock n' roll (baby). Tight and angular one sec, loose and melodic the next. Moody Radiohead/U2-ish bass lines undergird the music in surprisingly groovy ways. One song ends with tribal drumming and tambourines; another features a keyboard and soft singing. The album is layered with different tempos, time changes, and tones; each listen unveils new delights. They don't put their drummer on the front of the stage during live shows for nothing (though the echoing garage production keeps his kit sounding like a trash can on a few songs). Ideas flow freely from their sweaty pores, but they seem to get bored quickly with each one no matter how powerful. Creativity is their strength but also their weakness; they don't stick with any sonic texture or riff long enough for you to really sink your teeth in. The last three tracks almost overcome that unnerving tendency, by taking time to just pound you. The low end in track 11 digs a dirty trench that keeps the band to a single line of satisfying crashcore, as a spoken voice asks "do you need more light to shine on you?/do you need more exposure?/if the whole world could see your pain/would it open the door to healing?" Track 12 is a sprawling, bleeding number, almost like a psychedelic hardcore drone. The final track is a solid head-nodder of a riff with dissonant noise breaks and Bryan Gray's rough barks in the background. With their exploratory leanings and mad skills, The Blamed are posed for greatness. They just need to quit overloading each song with cleverness, and stretch out the coolest parts instead. Nothing a good producer can't fix. Isolated Incident is perhaps too adventuresome for hardcore kids, and too undecided in its song writing for genre-free music fans. But hey, isn't the point of hardcore (and rock itself) to shake, shatter, and topple our complacency? To keep us on our toes lest we fall prey to the forces in society and ourselves that would medicate and enslave us? Maybe The Blamed's frustrating hit-and-run style does exactly what it should.