Battlefields

After the release of their 2009 full-length, "Thresholds Of Imbalance", Battlefields lost founding guitarist Andrew Wallin, and went on a brief hiatus from playing shows. "Agassiz" is the band's return to the trenches with two new members and a more sonically assaulting blackened blend of metal and hardcore. Agassiz blasts through six songs in under a half-hour, presenting a concept EP of the glacial lake Agassiz, whose dried up geographic location is where the band's base of operations lies. Fans of the band's previous work my be taken aback by the sheer force of this new material, with pummeling blast beats, but there is still the familiar sound throughout the EP that Battlefields has perfected since it's conception in 2006. "Agassiz" lyrical content deals with when Lake Agassiz's ice dams broke and rose sea levels, destroying the old world, and setting up the new world for corrupt religious control. Featuring artwork and layout by Seldon Hunt. "Agassiz" is different from the older Battlefields releases, the songs are much shorter (no more sonic landscapes for you) and they have fall into the Black Metal trend and have put some pinches of it in some of the songs like "Entangled Mess" and "An Entire Epoch", but in general all the songs still have that emotional character that Battlefields are used to bring. I don't know... as a huge Battlefields fan i'm still digesting this album. Maybe listening to it while looking to some iceberg pics will help to get in the mood. Buy it here.

myspace | walking on thin ice

Battlefields

Ever since the release of "Stained With the Blood of an Empire" back in 2007, i was hooked on this band, Battlefields. Their music is just awesome... heavy sludge and doom with great post rock atmospheres, and the constant duel of voices, just made my jaw drop to the floor. Today i bring you their 2009 album "Thresholds Of Imbalance", while the new "Agassiz" EP is still in the oven. This album was a bit controversial, some fans loved it (me included) others didn't. Maybe they got bored with the which exaggeratedly long interludes. But that's why this band makes a difference. This is the essence of Battlefields.

The first song "Disacknowledge" is a perfect example of the dynamics the band introduces, starting at first extremely quietly, and building to a point of sludge like distortion. It then shifts between heavy and light for almost twelve minutes. Oh yes, the songs are long and slow at points, which makes this album a difficult listen, but the question in a genre such as this isn't necessarily how well the band does the build up, but how well they take over with the climax and bring the song to a new level, how they change these sounds into music and not simply filler. Image a bright sunny day and then suddenly dark clouds appear out of nowhere, thunders and lightnings rages upon us, the Earth is swallowed by a colossal flood, and then, as fast as it came, the storm is gone and the Sun shines again.. that's what Battlefields sound like. 

myspace | quake and flood