The Blooming Tremble Review

© Irond

Another little-known melodeath band, this time hailing from Russia, Fiend are about as far as it gets from the red-hot, pummelling pace of Orpheus, my previous review. Their music makes me think of tundra, howling frigid wastelands and similarly bleak things.

They are very different from Orpheus in their arrangement as well as tone.  Where as Bleed the Way continues nonstop from beginning to end, never releasing it's intensity, The Blooming Trembles has it's ups and downs, clean vocals and acoustic sections, such as those displayed in the artfully assembled Forgive Me,  as well as some tearing, hair-raisingly good straight up metal songs such as Fiend.

In many ways, Fiend remind me of an early In Flames, specifically The Jester Race. Now, I know how high praise this is, and I'm not sure if The Blooming Trembles quite reaches that level of brilliance, but the songwriting is very early-melodeath, the vocals in particular highly reminiscent of Anders Friedens' before he started that annoying whiny thing.

People who are fans of The Jester Race on more than a nostalgic level will certainly enjoy The Blooming Tremble.  It has very much the same musical flavour.  There are some differences to point out, however.  Firstly, Fiend make some great use of keyboards in their songs - the intro to the title track is a great example, as is the short outro track The Seconds Behind, but it pervades all the tracks.  Secondly, many of the choruses feature screamed lyrics underlined by a second cleanly sung line.  This helps to lend musical direction to the chorus but maintains the intensity.

One criticism of The Blooming Tremble is that it is SHORT. Even with a bonus track which is a russian version of Forgive Me, it comes to only 36 minutes. To be honest, it has 5 actual tracks on it, which is only slightly more than an EP.  However, the quality of the songs are exceptionally high and each track of the album flows easily and brilliantly into the next - I really don't know where another track could be put if you asked.  Also, although the vocals aren't as in-your-face as they are on The Jester Race, that isn't to say they are any worse - it's a matter of preference.

I personally rate Fiend and Forgive Me as my favourite tracks on the album.  Fiend is a no-holds-barred hammerblow of a song that leaves you gasping for air - I fell in love with it the moment everything cut away to leave only the bass guitar, before returning with a slam.   Forgive Me is almost the opposite, beginning with acoustic guitar and distorted spoken vocals, building up to a great chorus with a sneakily good guitar solo that takes you by surprise, before gradually ramping back down to acoustic guitar again.

I highly rate this one guys. If you can find it, I recommend you pick it up.