(Andy Synn is back with a recommendation from the Indonesian underground today)
It’s perhaps not entirely surprising to note that the majority of bands we write about tend to be located on one of two continents, Europe or North America.
That’s not to say we don’t try our best to cover bands from other locales – though, as of yet, I don’t think we’ve ever written about any bands from Antarctica – but the fact that two of the three core members of the NCS crew are based in the USA, and the other one (me) is based in the UK (which are also the two places we get most of our audience from), means these are the areas which we get the most exposure to.
Of course, the counterpoint to that is we probably should be making more of an effort to cover bands from further afield – and, all credit to him, Islander already does a pretty damn good job with all his various round-ups of new releases from around the globe – which is why today we’re travelling to Indonesia to take in the sights and sounds and savage riffery of Metallic Hardcore crew Sabertooth.
It’s been about 12 years since the band’s debut album, Provement from the Wise Tiger, was released, and while Sabertooth may have gotten a little older, they certainly don’t seem to have mellowed out very much… something which is first made apparent by the weighty stomp ‘n’ chug of 300-sampling opener “The Return of the King”, and then really hammered home by righteously riffy, in-your-face intensity of “Rise Above”.
References to the likes of Earth Crisis, Born From Pain, and Walls of Jericho (especially when the band get a little thrashy) should help you find your way towards enjoying and appreciating muscle-flexing underdog anthems like “United Fist”, “Blinded By Your Own Fire”, and “Unbeaten” – any of which could serve as a perfect pick-me-up for whenever you’re having a bad day and need to find the energy to not let the bastards grind you down – but Blessing Rage isn’t afraid to throw a few sneaky curveballs in amidst all the hefty haymakers.
Whether that’s the swaggering, Crowbar-esque grooves of the title-track, the return to a more beatdown-friendly style during the second half of “Humans Are Cursed”, or the unexpectedly melodic, half-clean/half-harsh sounds of “Stone and Spirit”, Sabertooth make it clear that they’re more than just a one trick pony cat, and prove themselves more than capable of turning their talents to whatever they put their minds to.
Not everything works quite as well as it should, of course – the clean vocals are, let’s just say, probably going to be a little divisive, while the various 300 quotes come across as more than a little dated, and if I’m going to be totally honest the unnecessary instrumental strains of “Dust Will Return to Dust” is an inexplicably anticlimactic choice of closer – but the punches that do land still hit hard, which is why I’m hoping we won’t have to wait quite as long for album number three.