Typically, there’s two sides of the spectrum when it comes to music and the finished product. Both of these sides have a purpose in presenting a sound to listeners that a musician wants to convey, but they’re done in different ways. On one hand, musicians opt for a very polished sound that lets instrumentals and vocals pop with a level of crispness and clarity that goes above and beyond a live setting. This approach is enhanced through extra production work at various levels of the process to give it that style – which is referred to as the studio sound by many. On the other hand, others opt for a more raw and unfiltered approach that gives off a different vibe – one that makes listeners feel as if they’re in the same room and gives people a truer taste of how a musician would sound live. This is the side UK melodic hardcore outfit Blood Youth has opted for throughout their releases thus far and it is only expanded upon further with their debut album Beyond Repair as they’ve taken everything from their previous releases and turned the dial up to 10.
[tw-toggle title=”About Blood Youth”]
Genre: Post Hardcore | Melodic Hardcore
Label: Rude Records
Release: April 7, 2017
Connect: Facebook | Twitter
Purchase: iTunes | Google Play
[/tw-toggle]
The most apt way we could think of to describe Beyond Repair succinctly is that there’s beauty to the chaos. This makes more sense for long-time fans of the band and those who have listened to the already released tracks, but it becomes very evident upon hitting play and a first listen that there’s a beautiful, yet chaotic balance that Blood Youth have managed to craft and maintain. To expand on what we mean, it’s important to understand that even as their sound is slightly steeped in the melodic hardcore genre, there are no real slow, melodic moments to be found as the album flows from track to track, each one continuously packing a punch. It’s rare for any album, let alone a debut one to have such an all over the place feeling, but at the same time maintain a strong foundation and flow. Then again, this was only the natural evolution for the Blood Youth as their previous releases followed a similar manner; this is just purely taken up a notch, showing what the band is capable of with a fully, fleshed out approach compared to the smaller snippets that EPs offer.
Blood Youth – Reason To Stay (Official Music Video)
Official music video for ‘Reason To Stay’ by Blood Youth off their album, ‘Beyond Repair’. Grab ‘Beyond Repair’: http://smarturl.it/BeyondRepairPhysical or http://smarturl.it/BeyondRepairDigital ► Follow Blood Youth on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/BloodYouthSpotify Lyrics: Calling all cars do you know what we’ve found?
Even with such a high-octane, raw and unfiltered approach, it’s important to note that Blood Youth has many sides to them as where there is chaos, there is also peace. These guys have an uncanny ability to make their music seamlessly transition back and forth from hardcore moshing to melodious singing with very brief periods of calming instrumentals sprinkled in. The aforementioned style and approach is what makes Beyond Repair truly special as tracks like “What I’m Running From” and “Parasite” take listeners on a fast-paced journey full of furious riffs, melodic hooks and frantic drumming and then they literally switch it up on the fly during a song like shown in “Reason to Stay”. Whether it’s the emotional riffs, catchy hooks or crushing breakdowns, these are the moments that perfectly encapsulate who Blood Youth is and what they have to offer – and there’s no doubt that this is only the beginning of what’s to come.
As noted, Beyond Repair truly feels like the perfect example of a band evolving while sticking to their sound. This is helped by the desire to maintain a true to reality sound with the production which gives listeners a much more realistic idea of what Blood Youth sounds like live. From the massive sing-a-long choruses, the memorable and hard hitting instrumentation to the high octane, energetic approach that is guaranteed to have mosh pits aplenty no matter the venue, this is an album that contains the best stylings from both the post hardcore and melodic hardcore genres. Beyond Repair is an album that captivates from start to finish as they forego the standout song approach in favor of reeling listeners in with each track and never letting go. The result of this is that Blood Youth have shown their feet pressed firmly on the throttle and show no signs of letting off anytime soon.
