Blessings - Blodsträngen - review
Blessings - Blodsträngen - review
Tracklist
01. Raised On Graves02. Strings Of Red
03. Clean
04. No Good Things
05. Allt Vi Kan Ge Är Upp
06. Copper + Dirt
07. Through Veils
A review by
musclassia August 12, 2025
Influences on that debut release unsurprisingly included names such as Black Flag, Unsane and Breach. By the time of Biskopskniven, elements of that sound remained intact, most notably a continuing debt to noise rock, but the direct aggression was dialled down in favour of a sound that incorporated aspects of sludge, post-metal and post-punk. With mixing/mastering by Cult Of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg and a release via Pelagic Records, Blessings had found themselves a more unique and intriguing style to explore, and continue to explore it they have on this latest release.
The genre here is hard to pin down; there’s some fierce sludgy riffs, particularly on the likes of “Clean” and the fast flurry that is “Copper + Dirt”, but much like on fellow Swedes Kazea’s debut album earlier this year, too much of the instrumental tonality is light, textured and subtle to afford the album a label firmer than ‘sludge-lite’. There are post-rock/metal dynamics, but not as much as might be expected, with less in the way of prolonged escalating builds. The noise rock influences also remain, particularly in the semi-shouted/sung vocals that appear frequently, but said elements emerge in a more nuanced manner than on Bittervatten. This is an album with shades of grey, with quiet bleakness and restrained heaviness.
It's a fascinating concoction, and one that introduces itself in understated fashion. There’s dark textures during “Raised On Graves”, but its use of distortion and aggression is fairly limited, with it instead capturing ominous vibes through the guitar notes and tone in spite of their cleanliness and accompanying krautrock/post-punk up-tempo grooves. Later on, “No Good Things” also finds itself seeking a balance between punky beats, post-punk vocals, and clean/distorted instrumental contrasts.
When I look for the most impressive songs or moments across Blodsträngen, I am naturally drawn to “Strings Of Red”. A song with this title has appeared on every record thus far, but while it was cacophonic and raging on Bittervatten, and empty and noisy on Biskopskniven, this time around it is a wide-ranging and full-bodied effort. Opening with driving distortion and pounding drumming, the opening minutes straddle the boundaries of sludge and stoner metal courtesy of southern rock leads, howling barked vocals and thick fuzzy riffs, but the song ascends to another level when said riff transforms into a transfixing climax of intertwining guitar and synth melodies and textures that climb, soar, and then gradually dissipate.
The contributions of synth player and percussionist Erik Skytt to the success of this passage are significant, and he also plays a key role in the similarly spellbinding escalating second half of “Allt Vi Kan Ge Är Upp”, which follows up one of the few fully clean-sung sections of the album during its chorus with delicious organ/guitar interplay that subtly and not-so-subtly progresses and evolves in its multi-minute climactic crescendo. In these sections, Blessings feel in complete mastery of their craft.
The implication of that statement, however, is perhaps that this isn’t always the case, and there are some less perfect features to the album. Coming after the lengthy, understated yet brooding “Clean”, which channels aspects of Cult Of Luna’s “Ghost Trail” before morosely trudging towards its inevitable ending (another of my favourite moments on the record), “No Good Things” does feel like a bit of a misstep as an immediate follow-up, and with its short length it feels slightly throwaway. The same can be said of “Copper + Dirt”, which has some great moments (particularly the heavier sludge parts), but is through and done with them a bit too quickly. Probably the part of the album that suffers the most, however, is 10-minute closer “Through Veils”, which captures a grandiose, portentous feel in its steady post-metal first half, but it ultimately ends up being a bit of a collage of several questionably related segments that work well in isolation, but together lack sufficient fluidity to give the album a truly satisfying conclusion.
That said, Blodsträngen is an album that brings several ideas together in a manner that feels very fresh, and often executes things in a manner that really wins me over. Its imperfections are evident, and its true highlights perhaps insufficiently prevalent to fully compensate, but there’s more than enough about the release to make listening to it a rewarding experience.
Written on 12.08.2025 by
Written on 12.08.2025 by
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