BLINDEAD 23, Featuring Former Members Of BEHEMOTH And KATATONIA, Releases 'You Are The Universe' Music Video

Following the release of BLINDEAD 23's lauded debut album "Deuterium" last month via Peaceville, the band is back with a new video for standout single "You Are The Universe". BLINDEAD 23, formerly known as BLINDEAD, is the new Polish avant-metal juggernaut led by ex-BEHEMOTH guitarist Mateusz "Havoc...

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Blindead 23 – Deuterium Review By Dear Hollow

Blindead’s third album Affliction XXIX II MXMVI is one of the most underrated classics of the 2010s. The Polish band’s sound was bigger than its fanbase, tragically, but that didn’t stop them from releasing an ambitious concept album whose stars aligned in both sound and lyrical themes. Rooted in the enigmatic and mammoth style of post-metal, the grey world it painted with broad sludge brushstrokes portrayed the experiences and perceptions of a child with ASD: “The shape of a city stood in the grayness, like a charcoal drawing sketched across the waste” (“Dark and Gray”). Alongside titles like Amia Venera Landscape’s The Long Procession and Dirge’s Elysian Magnetic Fields, Blindead was included on a long list of post-metal deep cuts that lay below the decade’s surface.

In spite of the laziest band name, Blindead 23 is the reincarnation of the act, this time armed with a star-studded lineup. The core of long-time guitarist Mateusz Śmierzchalski (aka Havoc, former Behemoth guitarist from 2000-03) and vocalist Patryk Zwoliński, Blindead 23 is rounded out by drummer Pawel “Pavulon” Jaroszewicz (known for his time in Vltimas, Vader, and Decapitated) and guitarist Roger Öjersson (known for his time in Katatonia). After the relative fizzle of Blindead’s final post-metal/alt rock albums Absence and Ascension, and the outta left field punk swansong Niewiosna, Blindead 23 returns to its roots with a tried-and-true blend of post-metal hugeness and hardcore intensity, sounding right at home with the likes of Rosetta, Neurosis, and Mouth of the Architect. First LP Deuterium is a love song to post-metal, a welcome return that won’t turn too many heads – but it’s the riffiest and the dirgiest post-metal that is both overlong and extremely promising.

Blessedly, the Blindead 23’s riffs are truly a force of nature, amplified by Öjersson’s soulful trademark melodies. The opening “Immersion” suite offers you a front-and-center attack that showcases the intensity and range – chuggy riffs and ominous melodies collide in formidable intensity. The more intense portions take on a nearly mechanical, death metal-bordering heaviness thanks to choppy staccato chugs and cold atmospheric tricks (“Immersion II,” title track), while solos and cleans inject the necessary humanity to keep them from wallowing in industrial aloofness (“Immersion I” and “II,” “Wither,” title track). Other tracks happen upon a more hardcore-inspired approach, chaotic movements, and shifty rhythms recalling the likes of Black Sheep Wall and Knut (“Worst Laid Plans”), Jaroszewicz’s drums laying a foundation of shifting sands.

The fifty-four-minute runtime is both a blessing and a curse for Blindead 23: while it allows them the breath to explore all their facets, it drags on the slower moments to a snail’s crawl. While the more hypnotic and dirgelike pieces can be bolstered by an eerie atmosphere (“Immersion II”), they have the potential to drag on for way too long and rob the band of the intensity they have effectively established (“Wither”), and even good tracks can feel a few minutes too long (“Worst Laid Plans”). While range is the name of the game, a few tricks feel too out-of-left-field, such as the bluesy and twangy plucking or jazzy melodies (“Toward the Dark”) or a surprising optimism that clashes with the overall darkness of the debut (“You Are the Universe”). However, this is not Blindead – it’s Blindead 23 – and it’s better that a band explore all avenues instead of just playing it safe.

Deuterium is the sound of a band hungry for the return, but not to the way things were. Already, a revolving door of contributors make Deuterium a distinct sound compared to 2024 debut EP Vanishing, and it shows in a solid output that sounds like the veterans they are. While the inconsistency is jarring and the sprawl leads to the excessive runtime, individual star power with an immensity greater than the sum of its parts graces the Polish juggernaut in an exploration of all avenues. An embarrassment of riches awaits them. Deuterium may not be their magnum opus, but it’s the prelude for Blindead 23.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Peaceville Records
Website: facebook.com/blindead23
Releases Worldwide: April 22nd, 2026

#2026 #30 #AmiaVeneraLandscape #Apr26 #Behemoth #BlackSheepWall #Blindead #Blindead23 #DeathMetal #Decapitated #Deuterium #Dirge #Hardcore #Katatonia #Knut #MouthOfTheArchitect #Neurosis #PeacevilleRecords #PolishMetal #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #Rosetta #SludgeMetal #Vader #Vltimas

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Blindead 23 (Ex-Behemoth, Katatonia) Drop “So, It Feels Like Misunderstanding When” Live Video
With a lineup this stacked, of course it sounds good. The post Blindead 23 (Ex-Behemoth, Katatonia) Drop “So, It Feels Like Misunderstanding When&#

https://www.metalsucks.net/2024/03/11/blindead-23-ex-behemoth-katatonia-drop-so-it-feels-like-misunderstanding-when-live-video/

#Blindead #exBehemoth #Katatonia #livevideo #metal #rock #music #performances #misunderstanding #connection #fans #emotions #powerful

Blindead 23 (Ex-Behemoth, Katatonia) Drop "So, It Feels Like Misunderstanding When" Live Video

With a lineup this stacked, of course it sounds good.

MetalSucks

Sun of Nothing – Maze Review

By Dear Hollow

Few albums reveled in existential despair like Sun of Nothing’s The Guilt of Feeling Alive. While punishing in ways that recall Neurosis or Blindead, it settled heavily into tension and despondence beneath the devastation. It always hinted at something without fully grasping it, fluid and powerful heft contrasting with an overwhelming bleakness. Despite its black metal influence, Sun of Nothing did not offer a bleakness like DSBM’s passing glance at a winter landscape, but represented the grey of its troubling cover art: the day-in and day-out of a cold, tired, and worn city, shrouded in smog. For its first album in fourteen years, the Greek quartet has offered something that stands shoulder to shoulder.

Maze is stacked with expectation, and it delivers. Sun of Nothing could have stayed in The Guilt’s lane and played it safe, but they amp up the punishment, hone the dichotomy, and paint a bleaker and more desperate picture than its predecessor could have imagined. Thick sludge riffs are the most noticeable, weighty affairs that recall post-metal’s more vicious moments in Cranial or LLNN, with dissonant leads that don’t necessarily dwell in eeriness and darkness as much as gloom and despondence. Contrasting this droning palette is a black metal-inclined vocal attack whose soul in torment feels like a cry to break through tar-thick monotony. A rusty edge of noisy post-punk graces Maze with a palpable clanking and mammoth repetition that drives the nail deeper, while the songwriting of everything “post-” graces the tired proceedings with a repetitive and nihilistic krautrock approach. Sun of Nothing takes their signature sound deeper with an emphasis on mood and atmosphere. It’s a desperate and hopeless wandering through the human maze, a crooked path we all walk.

The foundation upon which Sun of Nothing builds its songcraft is a simple one, rooted in post-metal. Tension is established with slightly disconcerting minor riffs and a smoky, sludgy distortion, with dissonant plucking and melodic counterbalances. Centerpiece “Ghost Maze” and closer “Buried Endeavors” are great examples of this, Isis-esque rhythms and patient growth balanced by these chords and an uncanny valley approach to melodic transitions. Elsewhere, tracks “Liars in Wait” and “Voidhanger” embrace the vicious side with roiling percussion and blackened tremolo that is funneled through this palette and warped into something disconcerting and gloomy. This is guided by vocalist Ilias Apostolakis’ almost disjointed vocal approach, usually relying on a distant shriek or drawling roar.

The fluid and miasmic movement in the thick string attack of Maze sets the swampy setting, and Sun of Nothing’s variations feel like a soul attempting to break free of this labyrinth. Apostolakis’ vocals take center stage in staggering repetition in “Liars in Wait” and “After the Fall,” his sermonic roars reaching their breaking point in brutality and viciousness across the gloomy and droning guitars, feeling nearly uncomfortable in the nihilistic dichotomy. The chuggy riffs of “Voidhanger” and their nihilistic leads feel like a steel-toed boot kicking open a cheap apartment door, while the closing melodies feel like Sun of Nothing’s only moment of crystalline sadness rather than despondence. “Ghost Maze” offers more blackened influence in rattling blastbeats and simmering tension, as its blackened approach seems to simply add to the gloom rather than attempt to punch through it – a gloom that is capitalized upon in closer “Buried Endeavors” for a sound whose droning is emotional as well as instrumental.

Sun of Nothing’s sound may not be the most unique in its blend of sludgy post-metal, black metal, and noise rock, as acts like Hail Spirit Noir and Praise the Plague bend the definition of “post-black” to include more of the post-metal heft in this way. Maze’s breed of intensity is not always easy to cut through, as every movement points to its emphasis is on despondence and atmosphere, and memorable movements can be often an afterthought; simply put, Maze will not be for everyone. However, the Greek quartet’s ability to warp brutality and meditation to uniquely paint a picture of bleakness stands apart from their counterparts. But for those willing to revel in existential gloom, Sun of Nothing will offer a haze like few others.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Venerate Industries
Websites: sunofnothing.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Sun0fNothing
Releases Worldwide: February 16th, 2024

#2024 #35 #BlackMetal #Blindead #Cranial #Feb24 #GreekMetal #HailSpiritNoir #Industrial #Isis #LLNN #Maze #Neurosis #NoiseRock #PostBlackMetal #PostMetal #postPunk #PraiseThePlague #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #SunOfNothing #VenerateIndustries

Sun of Nothing - Maze Review | Angry Metal Guy

A review of Maze by Sun of Nothing, available February 16th worldwide via Venerate Industries.

Angry Metal Guy