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Trigger the Bloodshed > Purgation > Reviews
Trigger the Bloodshed - Purgation

Is "whirlwind metal" a genre now? - 76%

GuardAwakening, June 6th, 2013

Trigger the Bloodshed seem to have had their craziest and heaviest days back in their early years. The intensity and sheer craziness they had back during these times almost doesn't resemble their current sound and the differed lineup they had back then is most likely the leading cause of this. While Purgation is at the peak of an above-decent technical death metal album, it holds other purposes that bring the record's sound so different from your typical band within the genre. Drummer Max Blunos was 16 at the time of this release and he's probably at the height of this album's aggression. His blasts are faster than lightening and dynamics are through the roof for his age while vocalist Charlie Holmes - who was a decade older than Blunos - holds a mediocre death growl, but an occasional ear-shattering screech that compliments the insanity of the music. Dealing with lyrical themes of relationships, drug abuse, revenge and a handful of cocky topics, it almost makes it a tad awkward for Holmes to be touching subjects for this given the age he was. Maybe he was just someone that didn't grow up very fast. After this album, Holmes went on to front the British melodic hardcore band known as Heart in Hand.

Purgation in general is a difficult album to consume for those who are into your typical tempo of death metal ranging from moderate such as Cannibal Corpse or Immolation to slow such as Torture Killer or Six Feet Under. The speed of the music on this album is basically Nile on crack. They play faster than even Fleshgod Apocalypse. It's like over-caffeinated kids were given instruments and then told to go play death metal and this was the result. Lead guitarist Rob Purnell and rhythm guitarist Martyn Evans promote the extreme whirlwind of sound that this album holds in its dire element. Almost giving the album cover, which depicts an oncoming hurricane, probably one of the most accurate metal album cover's I've seen as of recent to describe the music on a release. Occasional solos by Purnell are usually played by the backing element of Evans providing the basic riffs of the previous structure behind him while maintaining their general extremely speedy sound. A couple breakdowns on this album also exist, but definitely not something enough to the point where I'd call this record deathcore, which it definitely is not.

Now what bothers me the most about Purgation, however, is its lack of variation. Yes the music on here is somewhat original, but it gets to the point of monotony as tracks eventually tend to blend in with one another. Adventustic attributes lack in its never-ending need for repetition from song to song. It's basically to pummel the listener with blast beats backed by gloomy rhythm sections while constantly playing tremolo riffs when not going up and down the fretboard in circular-effect to create a whirlwind-esque dynamic. The band play at such a fast rate for so long and in such long intervals, it's to the point where if you're listening to this album from its beginning to its very end, you'll notice that when the band finally slow down for a part in the song "Impregnable Miscreation", they're playing at normal tempo, but it doesn't even feel like it. It feels like they're playing slow as all heck in comparison to everything that you just heard. It's pretty wild to experience when it happens. As for bass, forget about it. Jamie O'Rourke's four string work is completely drowned out on this release while the chaotic instruments all around him take up all the space for the sound. Which is pretty disappointing considering the music played on this record is almost exactly the same what Brain Drill are known for and even then, their bassist was audible during most to some moments available to where he could be heard.

Purgation gifts its listener with a barrage of 18 tracks, 2 of which are music-less interludes giving mood to the music, and one being a 17 second intro at the beginning of the record. The songs lengths themselves are also pretty inconstant bearing from a minute-long mark to a usual 3 minutes (or however second long to add to that) mark. This album is a crazy 30-minute long onslaught of some brutal straightforward technical death metal. It has a good deal of flaws, but it's enjoyable music for the death metal fan looking for a noisy bit of his musical side nonetheless.

Best tracks: "Merciless Ignorance", "Violent Elucidation", "Lovers" and "Mortuary Walls".

Trigger the Bloodshed - Purgation - 75%

ThrashManiacAYD, October 21st, 2009

Trigger the Bloodshed's debut album "Purgation" doesn't so much as emerge from the speakers as explode in a ball of blasting fury, enough to catch anyone by surprise, especially those not acquainted with Death Metal who might actually suffer a heart-attack at what's going on here. To some Trigger the Bloodshed may fit under the Deathcore bracket but "Purgation" proves they are far from being as dull, monotone and brainless, as well as being as devoid of the pathetic kiddie fringes, as their main UK rivals Bring Me The Horizon.

The listener is treated to 17 tracks (if you include the 18 second intro which still finds the time to fit in some blasting) of unrelenting brutality that virtually doesn't cease right up until the end of the album's 36 minutes. The album's main benefactor is that it just about manages to avoid becoming too over-bearing like many of the most downright brutal albums tend to, though anymore and the "OK, I give in, I can't take it anymore!" feeling would've begun to take effect. Apart from the odd sample and the acoustic introduction to album-closer "A Perfect Casket", the speed is unforgiving and can be viewed as both "Purgation's" strength and weakness; their dedication to the cause is admirable but the old chestnut of whether songs are distinguishable from one another must always be considered. To TtB's defence, tracks are just about varied enough, with a mix of vocal styles present, from the patented Deathcore semi-shriek, deep guttural growls and a growl somewhere in between, to an almighty killer leading riff in "Retribution" which alone makes it the album highlight. The style is very much of the new-school of brutality than that of the old masters despite the occasional ancient DM flourish ("Lovers") and is of course likely to appeal to fans of the new-fangled Deathcore style and the likes of Hate Eternal. "Laceration" features a thumping slower riff that Hatebreed would be proud of (if they haven't already used it) but marks are unfortunately lost for the slightly mechanised feel at times, most damning in the drumsound and triggering (no pun intended). Just check out the ending of "The Abortive Becoming" to hear what I mean.

For a debut album however this is very promising, mainly because Trigger the Bloodshed sound far too tight to be a debut-album band. In a UK scene I've always believed that has bereft of even vaguely recognisable acts of extreme brutality like this, Trigger the Bloodshed might have just put their name out there to lead the charge.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

Someone, please tell them to slow down! - 50%

gk, October 5th, 2008

Trigger the Bloodshed is a band from the UK that was formed in 2006 and got round to releasing their debut album earlier this year on Metal Blade. Surprisingly, for a band from the UK, the band sound very North American and seem to have firmly placed themselves in the Cryptopsy school of death metal where aggression and speed is the name of the game.

The album benefits from the fact that the songs are all generally short and to the point. The band is heavily influenced by the likes of Cryptopsy and Suffocation except that the music has not yet reached the heights that those two bands have achieved in their careers. The band also has this inclination to write songs around breakdowns. At times it almost feels like the speed is happening purely because the band can’t wait to get to the next breakdown. In fact it’s not till the 4th song The Defiled that the band finally slows down and allows a vaguely melodic guitar line to break the claustrophobic wall of sound. Still, the pace is almost always ridiculously fast and when the band does finally decide to slow down it’s a case of too little too late.

At the same time, having got my peeves out of the way with regards to this album, there is something about this album that works and even sounds impressive at times. There are people who love this kind of face melting speeded up aggression and Purgation is an album that I’m sure fans of older Cryptopsy will enjoy. At the same time this album should also appeal to the death-core fans of bands like Carnifex.

The one major disappointment for me though is the drum sound on this album that sounds triggered and very fake. The other thing is that thanks to the faceless identical quality of most of the 17 songs on offer here, the album has a tendency to just merge together as one constant barrage of death metal riffs and blast beats. Purgation in fact comes across like one 36 minute death metal behemoth rather than an album made up of 17 individual songs.

At the end of the day, there is something that’s worthwhile about Purgation provided you’re into the brutal death metal thing and the band has definite potential but Purgation is a one trick pony and that trick gets old really fast.

Originally written for http://www:kvltsite.com

Trigger the Bloodshed - Purgation - 86%

Lustmord56, September 23rd, 2008

Review originally published at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Adding to Metal Blade’s fine 2008 death metal releases like Hail of Bullets, Hate Eternal, Brain Drill and The Rotted comes this low key artwork and logo clad, out of nowhere, debut release from the UK’s Trigger the Bloodshed.

While the likes of Mithras, Spearhead, Man Must Die, Detrimentium and Sarpanitum have slowly exhumed the corpse of British death metal, Bristol’s Trigger the Bloodshed have violently extracted the corpse from the ground, kicking and screaming in a ferocious onslaught of top notch brutal, technical death metal that sounds as good as anything the Swedes or Yanks have kicked out of late.

At 17 songs, 36 minutes, the duration and length of the songs and album points to grindcore brevity, as many of the songs range from a minute to three minutes, but in truth, every single one of the short sharp tracks (except for classic interludes “The Defiled”, “Hollow” and “Domicile”) pack enough punch, voracity and prowess to keep you listening for every blast beat and well placed lurch (i.e. “Laceration”, the slightly deathcore -ish “Lovers” and superb “Rebirth”).

The highlight is drummer Max Blunos, who is just monstrous behind the kit, almost reaching Brain Drill/Origin like levels of percussive machine gunnery (i.e. “Merciless Ignorance”, “Impregnable Miscreation”, “Wretched Betrayal”, “Retribution”, “Whited Sepulcher”) without the flashy fills while the rest of the band are workman like in their blasting, ripping delivery. Vocalist Johnny Burgan has a standard, feral growl and scream, nothing spectacular, but serviceable and the guitars of Rob Purnell and Martyn Evans slice and dice with a razor sharp tone that while hardly instantly identifiable as ‘their’ sound, delivers a punchy, clean assault.

In all, Purgation is a very good death metal release, compounded by its British origins that shows even more hope for revitalizing British death metal, and might be the most tight and brutal thing out of the UK since Napalm Death. Or Melanie B’s butthole.

Killer.

Spilling Blood In Tentative Sprays - 62%

Crank_It_Up_To_666, September 5th, 2008

Trigger The Bloodshed’s debut ‘Purgation’ is hardly one possessing much of a stand-alone identity - very little can be found, in the entirety of the album’s admittedly unusual 17-track run, to distinguish it on purely stylistic grounds from the recent crop of underground DM.
From the immaculately crisp, clear and undeniably unremarkable production, through that resisted yet unshakeable temptation to break out the breakdowns and right to the collision of hardcore yelps and deathly grunts, ‘Purgation’ follows a formula that’s been sampled so often the test tube is coming dangerously close to drying up.

And yet, with all those above considerations, ‘Purgation’ really should not be anywhere near as engaging or as entertaining as it is.
TTB’s debut is an extraordinarily intense one for a band of such young standing, owing a fair debt to the likes of Vader in its punishing drive and modern Behemoth in its occasionally more high-minded ideas and more epic inclinations. Despite the records' high-speed barrage, grind fans should look elsewhere; a few tracks here clock in under the minute and even under the thirty second marks, but TTB’s approach is far too entrenched in death metal’s brutalitarian side to appeal to lovers of the gritty racket known and loved as grind.

What is enjoyable about ‘Purgation’ is this thwarting of the initial impressions one has from its uber-modern mix, lyrical conceits and general presentation. With all these ingredients having a listener believe that an undercooked, bare-bones release awaits their taste buds, discovering that a flaming hot, spicy and meat-packed thrashing death metal record is what they have is more than a pleasant surprise.
The crunching riffs, pounding drums and blood-hungry vocals are punishingly heavy and satisfyingly brutal on all counts, and while the bass is subsumed in the chaos as is to be expected on the average modern extreme record, the prominence bestowed upon the duelling percussion and six-stringers is not wasted on their bulldozing

TTB favour a certain degree of high-speed tenacity throughout, and while their ferocity is unquestionable, they will easily wear on those out for a little more than a rabid blast-a-thon. Certainly, tempos, moods and paces vary nicely – the breakdowns never become tiresome nor sound like unnessecary inclusions, but in TTB’s case slowing down and allowing the listener to breath would be quite the blessing.
Undoubtedly it would distinquish the songs to a greater degree – with few songs beyond the epic ‘Merciless Ignorance’, ‘Mortuary Walls’ and the exceptional ‘The Abortive Becoming’ standing out individually, ‘Purgation’ is a 37-minute long hellblast and very little else.

Ultimately, Trigger The Bloodshed have here crafted an exceptionally brutal and maniacally paced record that, amongst a certain crowd of so-called death metal bands, stands on it’s own two feet with a certain vicious attitude and confidence. While their sound is still clearly in the gestation process, the British youngbloods’ committment to the metal cause is not one to be called into question, and once they begin expanding on their notions of death metal brutality somewhat, they may well be a force to contend with.