Reviewed by Tony Cummings

IN THE MAINSTREAM

Past releases by Sweden’s Blindside have been known and loved in Britain by only a small band of Christian headbangers but things will change now with this, the first release on P.O.D.’s new label Three Points, puts the avowedly Christian band into the HMVs and Our Prices. From the opening “Caught A Silence” which starts with a gentle, moody picked guitar then detonates into a howling vortex of guitars with Christian Lindskog screaming like a bare-footed man who's just stepped on a mousetrap. In fact the leather lunged vocalist adds a previously unsuspected ability to scream to his vocal repertoire while though there are still echoes of the band’s previous albums (particularly the 2001 Tooth & Nail outing ‘A Thought Crushed My Mind‘) they’ve now added some hooks and harmonies to their sound with “Caught A Glimpse” being every bit as good as the nu metal hits you hear on the radio. Another standout is “Pitiful” with a Metallica-like guitar intro and a bridge where everything cuts away and Christian’s rasping voice is exposed in spine tingling isolation. Throughout the production by Howard Benson is exemplary and the moody acoustic title track closer works brilliantly. A class album from another fine Christian band with the chops to break through to the MTV generation.