Blindside

    Blindside

    Stockholm, Sweden15 reviews across 5 releases

    alternative metalmetalcorenu metalpost-hardcore
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    Blindside formed in Stockholm in 1994 as Underfree, taking its permanent name in 1996. The Swedish quartet's early music combined punk and grind-influenced hardcore with metal weight, while Christian Lindskog's lyrics treated Christian belief as a source of confrontation and self-examination. The 1997 self-titled debut presented that approach in a compact, abrasive form, but the group did not repeat it. The 1999 A Thought Crushed My Mind pushed toward faster hardcore and harsher screams, using strings and abrupt changes in vocal delivery to interrupt the attack. On Silence, the third album, Lindskog sang more often without abandoning the scream, and the band built songs around melodic choruses and complex rhythmic turns before opening into quieter passages. Their subject matter remained spiritually direct, while the arrangements moved from underground hardcore toward a broader hard-rock sound.

    In 2001, a tour with P.O.D. helped bring Blindside to Elektra, where Silence reached rock radio and sold more than 100,000 copies. The major-label period continued with About a Burning Fire in 2004, whose expanded melodic approach included a Swedish-language female vocal on "Shekina" and Billy Corgan's guest appearance on "Hooray, It's L.A." After Elektra ceased operating, Blindside released The Great Depression through DRT in 2005, adding electronics and more experimental structures. The band issued The Black Rose EP in 2007, then entered a hiatus that lasted until With Shivering Hearts We Wait in 2011. Later activity was intermittent: "Gravedigger" appeared in 2019, "Dead Weight" in 2025, and the quartet returned for festival performances in 2022 and 2024.

    5 releases reviewed