The Blamed's latest, Give Us Barabbas, is an exercise in controlled chaos. The general recipe includes darkly obscure, almost free-verse lyrics that Matt Switaj yells over a blend of grinding guitars and reckless drum pounding. There is a method to the Blamed's madness, but it's indistinguishable underneath Switaj's grating vocal attack. He's not singing, not screaming, but barking out rough phrases that may or may not have a purpose.
The best parts of the album come when the band breaks with the pattern. The bridge on "1200 Stares" is notable for being the most chaotic section on an album of chaos. Against a background of wild drumming, a horn blares wildly somewhere and a girl's shrieking dissolves into what sounds like rapidly spoken Japanese. "You Not Me" opens with a hooky, sing-along-y verse before falling back into the rest of the album's pattern. "Positive" turns things down a notch, with superb results.
The lyrics throw another twist into this heavily artistic album. Lines like "discuss a fashion sense / in an eighteenth century type / friend of a friend / make little difference" ("Cyclical") and "yes, I do wish to pervert the standard" ("So Depraved") fly by without registering. "Prayer For the Dead" boasts the lyric "I want to see you drenched in blood," which I expect (hope) is metaphorical.
For most of the album, however, Switaj's yelling and the musical bedlam make each song a faceless entity. From opener "The Lonely Zagreb" to album closer "Best In Show," the songs rarely develop a personality of their own. The Blamed does show some potential in the dark guitar riffs and artistry. I tried to like this album. I really did. But from the first spin to the latest, Give Us Barabbas is simply an uneven post-hardcore effort that rarely reaches the heights it's capable of.
2 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis June 2002Reviewed by Matt ModrichThe Blamed has changed a lot since their early Tooth and Nail releases "21" and "Frail." With Brian Gray as the only original member, The Blamed is now back on Tooth and Nail with their new sound and their new record "Give Us Barabbas." It's hard to describe "Give Us Barabbas" because it combines elements of hardcore, punk and emocore. There are also subtle allusions to Blenderhead's first album…Art for the Ears 2002Reviewed by Marco PovervestWell past Easter The Blamed comes up with Give Us Barabbas. More than a year ago I saw them live and the only impression that I got was that it was a lot of senseless noise with layers of screams. This recording gives me a different idea of the same band and this is also different from what I know from their punk rock days when they were one of the first bands on Tooth & Nail Records. Give Us…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Trilisa M. PerrineGive Us Barabbas, the latest album from The Blamed, takes its title from one of the darkest moments in human history -- the moment when men and women screamed for the release of a condemned murderer over that of Christ. As one might expect, this album is dark, the guitars are screeching, and the vocals are near a scream. At first listen, the sound was intriguing, but after hearing a number of…Similar sounding releases
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