It took me sometime to get myself familiarized with Blackfinger, which is a psychedelic rock/heavy metal band from Chicago, Illinois. Eric Wagner, known for “Trouble” formed Blackfinger in 2012, alongside The Skull (which focuses primarily on doom metal genre). The band released two studio albums so far and have toured mainly in the United States. Throughout 2012 the band worked on their debut album, and on 29 August 2013 announced that it had signed with The Church Within Records. On 12 April 2014 Blackfinger’s released their debut eponymous album.
The band went dormant for sometime and resurfaced with an entirely new lineup for a second album. The lineup was announced by guitarist Terry Weston (Dream Death, Penance) following which the band performed live in 2016. The band signed up with M-Theory Music in April 2017 and announced their second album “When Colors Fade Away” due to be released on 15 September. A mini-tour was planned around this album but ultimately postponed barring the release show.
The album starts off with, “When Colors Fade Away” which has nothing short of chunky riffs, slowed down tempo on the drums and fuzzy guitars which rings in and sets in the mood for some classic doom styled song, and towards the end we encounter a shift in vocals with the guitar pelting out a hypnotic solo. Mathew Cross pleasantly surprises us with a melodic bass line that starts off “Can I Get a Witness”, the vocal delivery is more narrative during the verses and takes on some punch during a heavy chorus, which brings out two guitars panning out rugged solos.
“All my Sorrow” starts off with a rumbling bass, with Eric delivering some powerful lyrics and sends out a chilling lullaby with, “Hush little babies, don’t you cry. You know your daddy was born to die”. “My old soul”, literally kicks off with thundering start and takes no time to build up a demonic soundscape making it one of the heaviest songs of the album. The vocal delivery doesn’t experiment much and the style is kept narrative which sort off gels well with the overall song delivery.
“Beside Still Water” and “After-now” packs in some catchy riffs in its intro and pulverizes your skull with hard hitting beats and high pitched screams bringing out some melody in the singing, the vocals reminded me somewhat of Chris Cornell. While “Crossing the River Turmoil” punches you in the face with some hard hitting tuned down guitar riffs, a beautiful bassline (worth remembering) and an eclectic guitar solo that just breezes through the song.
“Waiting for the Sun” has emotionally charged lyrics and stunning basslines that keeps the song in its element, the slightly distorted high tonal guitar arpeggios adds some flair to the overall tone of the song. “Till We Meet Again” concludes this amazing album bringing in power packed guitar riffs, a thundering bassline and a catchy chorus a signing off this album in style.
Production – The album felt raw, while the tones were balanced the guitars were loud and drums were crunchy. The bass blew me away with so much melody it intensified the songs. The overall album was on a lower tempo, which is the textbook definition of Doom, yet the album delivered something new to the genre.
Conclusion – Initially the album doesn’t surprise you, all the songs fall short off the 5 minute mark, but after repetitive listening (because I was intrigued), it grows on you and gets you hooked on to their ingenious style which takes a while to understand. While I still would have liked some more experimentation with vocal styles, but hey I still loved what I reviewed. I hope you do too.
Rating: 7.5/10
Written by: Ankit Sood
Track Listing:
1. When Colors Fade Away
2. Can I Get a Witness
3. All My Sorrow
4. My Old Soul
5. After-now
6. Crossing the River Turmoil
7. Beside Still Water
8. Waiting for the Sun
9. Till We Meet Again
Band Members:
Eric Wagner – Vocals
Matthew Tuite – Guitars
Terry Weston – Guitars
Matthew Cross – Bass
Dave Snyder – Drums
Record Label: M-Theory Audio
Release Date: 15 Sept. 2017
Albums:
“Blackfinger” (2013)
“When Colors Fade Away” (2017)
Weblinks: Facebook / Website / BigCartel
Buy the album here:
Holland: First Paradox
Norway: Nordic Mission
Lyric video for ‘When Colors Fade Away’
Video for ‘Afternow’