BLYND Vengeance: Band Returns to Reclaim Death Metal Crown
Photo: Antonia Maria
After nine long years, BLYND rises from the grave with Unbeliever (released on June 7). The best Cypritian band I’ve heard, BLYND has been strong on the metal scene since 2003.
Unbeliever stays true to their roots with its dark atmosphere and groove-heavy tracklist. It delivers loads of aggression and everything you want in your sonic assault. With Primordial Hunter, it's clear that BLYND hasn't softened during their hiatus. The song's crunchy, down-tuned riffs harken back to the raw, unpolished brutality of early nineties titans.
Fire in the sky is a gritty, sonic time capsule that reminds us why we fell in love with death metal in the first place: for the sheer, unapologetic aggression and its primal catharsis. Uncrowned had me remembering how to throw my neck out of joint just before the last track, Ground Zero slowly wound me back down with its ghostly wails in the background of a shadowy mind vault.
As a long time metal fan, I absolutely love this album. After watching a ton of BLYND’s live performances on YouTube and getting filled up on that old feeling, I’m excited to get to talk with them about their newest gem.
A lot of death metal is very chaotic and have very raw production which doesn't really make it “a pleasure” in large doses... but Unbeliever is fantastic and is overall pretty great production. Who’s responsible for that?
First of all, thank you both for the interview, but also for your kind words! The production was a band effort. For our previous 2 albums we had worked with a producer, but this time around we wanted to go for something that would have been our own 100%. So, we produced it ourselves. As for the mixing, it was actually done by our guitarist Andreas Hadjipantelis at his studio Kition Audio. Lots of those props for the production are for his good mix!
1984 is a great track.. you struck a nice balance between progressive rhythms and thrashy groove. Do you have a personal favorite off the new album?
Thank you again, but that’s the thing with us; we don’t have personal favorites. There are certainly tracks that are really special to us, like “1984”; but also “Infernal”, “One Last Dance”, “Primordial Hunter” and “Ground Zero”. However, we also love the rest of the album. To the point where we can’t, or at least couldn’t, say for sure that this will be a video clip, these songs we are going to do live, etc. So, we organized a listening party and asked our fans directly. They voted “Infernal” as top. Then it was “1984” and “One Last Dance”, and the rest were pretty close. Glad you liked the balance—that we were hoping to get right and we appreciate the comment. We like to always keep it interesting by playing around with the dynamics of what we do.
Fans usually have their favorites to hear live. Are there any particular tracks your fans tend to ask for the most at a show?
We listen to our fans, and if there is a song that we haven’t been playing much that they would want to hear, we always adjust our setlist accordingly. So, our setlist as it is currently constructed, is pretty much aligned with what our fans would prefer. So, tracks like “Arrival of the Gods”, “Liber Sum” and “Al Kimiya” can’t be missing. But, new album now, so, the setlist is about to change.
You’ve been on a sabbatical for a long time—I’m excited you guys got back into the studio. What got you recording again?
Yes, we had been away for some time, but we never stopped. It is just the circumstances were such that this one took a lot of time. Amidst line-up changes, some minor setbacks in the production process and the pandemic, our time-line just kept getting pushed further forward. But we were there. Most, if not all, of the album had been ready (pre-production wise) may be as early as 2020. So, it wasn’t a matter of us deciding to get back into it. We were already into it but both internal and external circumstances caused some delays. However, we are not far at all from starting the process all over again. It will certainly not be another 9 years until the next one. Not even close...Again, thank you so much for this opportunity! Keep it metal \m/
BLYND is Andreas Paraschos: Vocals/Bass, George Masouras and Andreas Hadjipandelis on guitars, and Alex Iacovou on drums. With nine tracks of pure savagery released through Pitch Black Records, you can find Unbeliever here:
Don’t miss out on staying up to date with these guys on social media. If you love the darkest, deepest metal, they’re worth it.
