“Death woman, death mother, death maiden.”
Imagine a city that stays below freezing for three months of the year that only just got passenger rail. There wouldn’t be much to do except make appropriately remote and frigid music. In the “heavy music” sphere, it’s already been put on the map by classic folk metal act Vintersorg. Sweden’s Skellefteå now bears Blodet, a more difficult to define project that crafts slow burn songs that blur the lines between post rock, metal, and alternative rock. There’s also a hint of post punk which you’ll mostly hear in the drumwork, as tom rhythms start sparse grooves, dogmatic in their consistency. Their live outings have mostly been in Sweden, but they most notably appeared at ArcTanGent in 2022, and support for This Will Destroy You and The Ocean later this year as they tour Sweden. This is their new record Death Mother, their longest and most significant release to date, a document that finally captures their defining style.
This record will hold a special place in the band’s hearts as their first release without their guitarist Rickie Paleski-Östlund, who passed in 2022. The record certainly dwells on death, particularly on title track and opener “Death Mother”. Opening with a bang, two guitars offer convincing melodies that become a chorus riff. The heaviness is palpable, yet the writing and production wisely stays away from a typical “metal” sound. It’s more like vocal oriented post rock (Swans) or spacious doom (Chelsea Wolfe), a less trodden avenue that makes Blodet a much more interesting band. Initially the marvellous vocals stick to the quiet verses, sharpening the intensity for a proper chorus and a tense bridge at the 4 minute mark. The bridge personifies death as a patient, feminine figure (“Death woman, death mother, death maiden / Call our for her, your future lover”). The subsequent chorus reprise is ultra-satisfying as the band brings the remainder of their power. Track two “The Hour” is similarly memorable, starting softer but getting just as heavy, indulging in slow verses that shift like leaden mist. Both tracks make for a strong argument for Blodet’s songwriting chops, feeling natural as they progress through their seven minute runtimes.
Death Mother captures a band with six performers. For such a large number, the result is restrained. The guitarists probably have to fight for pedalboard space on smaller stages, but they work in unison to make engrossing and very tangible soundscapes. They say “not playing” is an instrument too, and this record is a good demonstration. The slow, open rhythms create a lot of room that is not always filled, so you really hear the silence of the time and space. A great example is “Lead Me Home“, a groove driven soft track that declines each opportunity it has to explode, ducking gracefully into its choruses. The track’s outro is a gradual, determined swell.
“Lead Me Home” actually leads us to the record’s fifteen minute epic “Without Within”, the band’s new opus. The first three minutes are tense and threatening, with different musicians’ melodies sending mixed emotional signals. Just as the intent seems to be brighter, an echoing vocal break (“and I see what I see”) collapses the mood toward darkness, and the full band joins to craft a lengthy instrumental passage. Just because it’s an epic doesn’t mean it can’t be catchy as vocals providing a memorable, wordless hook. It’s all underpinned by the same riff, but by seven minutes in the three guitarists have worked together to twist the track’s trajectory, and the subsequent reprise of the voice melody is extremely gratifying. This is only half way in: the band packs in another fade to quiet, solo vocal passage, and musical explosion in the second half.
The record ends with a relatively short and intense instrumental (“93 – 22”), somewhat an encore after the titanic epic that came before it. Less essential than the other tracks, there’s still a lot to like with the punchy bass, and that same approach to gradual riff development that Blodet have now cracked. The slow simplicity of each song means you’ll get to know them quickly, so expect to make a quick emotional connection with Death Mother. Some small production decisions don’t align with my tastes (two tracks use fade outs rather than more creative endings, and the vocals would have stood better without such heavy reverb in the solo moments), but don’t let that take the wind from Blodet’s sails here, this is a very strong album.
8.5/10
Blodet’s new album Death Mother releases through Church Road Records on the 29th September. You can pre-order the album here.