Review: Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – Rejecting Obliteration

Style: Technical Death Metal, Avant-Garde Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Artificial Brain, Gorguts, Imperial Triumphnat
Review by: Zach
Country: New Zealand
Release date: 19 May, 2023

Over the past few months, I watched The Orville with one of my best friends every Friday night. For those who aren’t aware, The Orville is both a parody and love-letter to Star Trek: TNG written by and starring Seth MacFarlane. Yes, Family Guy Seth McFarlane. Season one is exactly what you’d expect. Frat boy alcoholic men, overly-emotional and whiny women, and cringe inducing, out of pocket jokes about sex at every turn. Every episode made my eyes roll, and frankly, it was exactly the show I expected it to be.

…Until the first episode of the third season had me crying so hard my throat hurt. See, at some point, the show becomes good. Dare I say, better than any Trek series in the past twenty-odd years. Right under your nose, the show starts to evolve as more creative control is given to MacFarlane and his team. The characters become more human, giving it the warmth and personality Trek has lacked for so long. So, what does any of this have to do with Blindfolded and Led to the Woods?

Our star of the show for today, for lack of a better term, was a meme band once upon a time. The instrumentals were bland and the lyrics were about as humorous as a flesh-eating bacteria. But they pulled a whiplash-inducing shift in sound with 2021’s Nightmare Withdrawals. All “-core” sound was abandoned in favor of avant-garde dissonance, while still retaining rhythmic flair. I quite enjoyed the album, and that put them on the map for this release. So, how’d we fare?

Much like Aethereus, a favorite of mine from last year, Rejecting Obliteration sees Blindfolded adding a much more melodic nature to their dissonant sound. All over the album are moments that I’d dare call pretty, as pretty as you can get for a disso-death band at least. Electronic soundscapes start opener ‘Monolith’ off before going straight into dissonant arpeggios, a little foreshadowing of what’s yet to come. In other words, the continued evolution of their sound. What Blindfolded got so right with Nightmare Withdrawals was their songwriting chops were on full display. It never meandered or went into noise for noise’s sake like a lot of disso-death bands tend to do, and made use of its tight runtime.

With a longer runtime, and a bit more ideas to throw around, Rejecting Obliteration can feel a bit like a step down at first. After the initial awe-factor wore off, I had a tang of disappointment in my mouth before writing this review. However, I realized that the first three songs are just the weakest of the album. Like Hath from last year, Blindfolded experimented and took a few missteps to find their footing. If the album were to start on the title track, I could easily see myself giving this a whole point higher in the final score.

From ‘Rejecting Obliteration’ onward, the album becomes a pummeling display of amazing riffs and nightmare inducing soundscapes. The rare electronic breather section comes in occasionally, but they’re used sparingly to great effect. Surprisingly, these sections aren’t the only melodic parts of the album. There are plenty of riffs that aren’t full of minor 7ths, and when these pop up, they’re a fantastic reprieve from the heaviness. SOTY contender ‘Cicada’ is a wonderful example of the quality music these guys are capable of making. Nearly two minutes filled with dizzying guitar-work, crescendoing into a simple, yet bone-crushing riff.. I’m reminded of a clean section on BTBAM’s Parallax II, followed by a riff that sounds like an Obscura riff on crack.

 Blindfolded, like all other dissodeath out there, have created something unique that most will turn their nose at. Like a science fiction sitcom turning into one of the best drama’s I’ve ever seen, they’re still evolving to become the best versions of themselves. The perfect fusion of ugly and beauty grows so close to this band that were once as serious as Seth MacFarlane himself probably is. They just need a bit more time to cook, but they’ve surely got something special on their hands.

Recommended tracks: Rejecting Obliteration, Cicada, The Waves
You may also like: Aethereus, Ulcerate
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives Page

Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods is:
– Nick Smith (bass)
– Stuart Henley-Mitchington (guitars, vocals )
– Stace Fifield (vocals)
– Ben Atkinson (guitars)
– Tim Stewart (drums, percussion)