THE SYNN REPORT (PART 194): BLACK BREATH

Recommended for fans of: Entombed, Wolfbrigade, Fuming Mouth

One week from today I’ll be back in Seattle attending another sure-to-be-awesome edition of Northwest Terror Fest, where you’ll find me getting a much-needed neck workout courtesy of the likes of Nightmarer, Kylesa, Wayfarer, Oranssi Pazuzu, Barren Path, and Pig Destroyer.

One of the biggest draws for me, however – and, I’d imagine, for a lot of other people too – is the returnm for one night only, of legendary Death/Thrash/Crust Punk crossover crew Black Breath who’ll be performing live for the first time since the untimely death of their bassist Elijah Nelson at the end of 2019.

And so, to celebrate this – as well as to give the festival, which still has a few tickets available here (though that won’t be the case much longer), one last push – I thought I’d use this edition of The Synn Report (which is dedicated to my good friend Joseph, who is not only the biggest Black Breath fan I know but also the guy who introduced me to the band in the first place) to remind us all just how good these guys are.

2010 – HEAVY BREATHING

Immediately putting their best collective foot forward with the hammering intensity and heaving grooves of instant classic Punk-Death anthem “Black Sin (Spit on the Cross)”, Black Breath pull approximately zero punches on their debut album, and those punches are prety much guaranteed to leave at least a few lasting bruises due to the band’s unapologetic love of big, bombastic hooks as well (with the thrashy, punky “Eat the Witch” and the trem-heavy attack of “Escape from Death” being prime examples).

The band continue to flex their increasingly hefty metallic muscles with the chunky fusion of hammering Hardcore and pounding Death Metal of “I Am Beyond” (one for fans of Fuming Mouth and Terminal Nation, make no mistake), while the primal, Punk-Metal strains of “Virus” continue to prove that the group haven’t forgotten where they came from (and aren’t likely to).

The instrumental title-track also showcases the group’s love of bleak melody and brooding Doom (something which, spoiler alert, they’d come back to even more later in their career) and serves as a neat way to break up the album into two acts, with the snappy, snare-driven riff-core of “Children of the Horn” (much love to drummer Jamie Byron for really laying into the kit on this one) and the driving bass-lines and winding leads of “Fallen” helping to get the blood pumping fast and hard again.

Speaking of bass… the low-end throb of “Unholy Virgin” (courtesy of bassist Elijah Nelson, RIP) sets a grimly groovy tone for the track, letting guitarists Zack Muljat and Eric Wallace lay down some meaty, chugging riffs and darkly melodic leads over the top of Nelson and Byron’s rumbling rhythmic pulse, after which the piercing melodies and pummelling, almost Grind-level, Punk-meets-Metal assault of “Wewhocannotbenamed” should leave you breathing heavily and gasping for air… but still hungry for more!

2012 – SENTENCED TO LIFE

Simultaneously heavier and hookier, nastier and catchier, the band’s second album hits the ground running with the ultra-infectious, abrasively anthemic “Feast of the Damned” – just under three minutes of massive riffs, buzzsaw tremolo runs, and howling vocal hooks (courtesy of venom-spitting vocalist Neil McAdams) that immediately sets the tone, and the bar, for the rest of the album – and then doesn’t let up or miss a step all the way through to the final fading notes of crushing, melody-laced closed “Obey”.

In between the band drop banger after banger – from the grimy grooves and gritty gang-shouts of “Sentenced to Life” and the charred, churning Death-Crust dervish that is “Forced Into Possession” to the stripped down Punk Metal savagery of “Doomed” and the killer combo of slow, stomping chuggery and sinister melody that makes up “The Flame” – in a way that should appeal just as much to fans of Grave as it does fans of Goatwhore and Gatecreeper (the latter of whom definitely owe a major debt to their black-lunged brethren).

Fans of the Punk and/or Hardcore side won’t find themselves short-changed either, as the pit-friendly rhythms and gut-rumbling bass-lines of “Home of the Grave” definitely lean a little more towards that side of the band’s sound (with the ridiculously catchy climactic lead guitar refrain being an absolute highlight regardless of genre), while those looking for something a little bit deathlier (and doomier) would do well to skip straight to “Endless Corpse” (not that I think you should really skip any of these tracks) to get their fill of heavy, hanging chords and seething, saw-toothed tremolo (plus a dash of malevolent melody).

And, ultimately, it’s the band’s ability to seamlessly shift gears like this – the frantic, full-force Death-Thrash of “Mother Abyss”, for example, whose raging riffs, rabid vocals, and ripping solo would give The Crown a run for their money, giving way to the d-beat (and blastbeat) driven Bolt Thrower-esque ground ‘n’ pound – that makes Sentenced to Life so easy to pick up but so hard to put down!

2015 – SLAVES BEYOND DEATH

Leaning even harder into Death Metal territory – adding an extra dose of deathly inspiration from the likes of Obituary and early Hypocrisy alongside the ever-present influence of Entombed, Dismember, et al – the band’s third and final album trades some of the band’s earlier Hardcore elements for an even darker approach (with the filthy Floridian vibes of opening Death-Crust crusher “Pleasure, Pain, Disease” quickly introducing the shift in sound) that helps separate it from its predecessor without abandoning everything that made them so good in the first place.

And while the songs overall are a little bit slower, and a little bit longer (especially epic instrumental closer “Chains of the Afterlife”), the extra heaviness and gargantuan sense of groove found on tracks like choppy, down-picked chug-a-thon “Arc of Violence” and the lurching, lumbering “A Place of Insane Cruelty” ensures that the band have lost none of their impact, even if they’ve traded in one kind of intensity for another.

That’s not to say, however, that Slaves Beyond Death solely sticks to one groove-heavy gear… far from it, in fact, as the sudden bursts of blazing, belligerent speed that punctuate the brutish, bone-grinding crawl of the title-track or the way “Burning Hate” transforms into a rampaging rager following its moody, morbid intro, more than adequately demonstrate.

Nor have the band forgotten what really made them great in the first place, namely a knack for cranking out the sort of neck-wrecking, back-breakingly heavy riffs (see the booming, blast ‘n’ burn riff-fest that is “Reaping Flesh”) that would have their seminal Swe-Death predecessors nodding in aproval, along with an ability to elevate their cunningly catchy, bone-sawing brutality (“Seed of Cain” lands somewhere between Morbid Angel, Merauder, and classic Metallica) with some insidiously infectious melody where necessary.

Make no mistake, this is one album that was always going to leaves it mark… even beyond death!