.::BLINDRACE::.

Hailing from Ontario, Canada this distortion fueled four piece have the honesty to admit they are inspired by such luminaries as Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, whilst adding a Latin style to the acoustic guitar of some of their gentler tracks. The first track of the CD, “Seeing Red”, with its flowing wall of distortion interweaving with megaphone twisted vocals harked back to the heyday of the 90’s, with the shouted barking of Tommy Geraldes lending a modern slant to the delivery, a style guaranteed to attract the new Kerrang audience, whilst offering enough nostalgia to keep old grungers happy.

This fusion of the new and old blasted through track after track, with the band managing to sound like a classic reissue, whilst adding their own energetic brand to the mix. When track 4, “Wait”, fired from my speakers, I felt myself reaching for a lighter, inspired by an acoustic anthem that could have held its own against such classics as “Would?” from Alice in Chains Unplugged.

I’ll be honest, this album took a long time for me to play from start to finish as so often I was reminded of classics from my youth I kept pausing it to dig amongst dust laden boxes to blow off ancient grunge releases. I even feel guilty for calling albums no more then a decade and a half old ancient. In the ever changing face of modern rock, when tracks no more the a couple of years old are revered as “old skool”, Blind Race blast out sustain driven and acoustically inspired slabs of no nonsense rock, heavily influenced by 90’s masters but embued with a new energy that make them deserving of a massive following if they manage to produce the same lighters in the air energy live. If they manage to recreate their sound live, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Spenny Bullen