Barishi album review – Blood From The Lion's Mouth

Noisy New Englanders Barishi find new ways to roar with new album, reviewed here

Barishi 'Blood From The Lion's Mouth' album cover

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Blending Baroness’s sludgy, emotive riffs riveting, angular spasms and the transcendental exploration of post-metal and blackgaze, this Vermont band’s second effort covers a range of familiar, fertile ground as well as new territories.

It isn’t until the rays of optimism that permeate the nine-minute The Deep, that the album offers an hospitable point of entry, but propelled by the frenetic freeform drums, Grave Of The Creator and The Great Ennead hurtle by in a blink despite displaying all manner of dynamics and musical niches to explore.

The meandering title track and creepy noodling of Death Moves In Silence nod to the band’s instrumental past, but Sascha Simms’ relentless, harsh vocals add a grander ceremony for when the songs explode into fiery peaks or drag you into suffocating depths. Bonesetter’s angular clout covers a range of aural emotions, resulting in this difficult but dexterous album’s ace in the hole.

Adam Brennan

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.