CD Review- As Blood Runs Black: Instinct

  I can still remember the time I first heard this band.  I was hanging out with a couple of my friends in my buddy's dorm room and I got a phone call from a friend at home.  He told me I needed to check out this band on myspace and they were killer.  It was late 2005 and it was the end of a night that included drinking some deer's blood and a concoction I learned about from a friend of mine called Skippy's (trust me if you knew what was in it you wouldn't drink it).  I crawled up to my room and dialed up Myspace.  What I heard was brutal as all hell.  The breakdowns made me yell out "DIESEL" and the fact that they were able to quote Wu Tang and actually not make it sound horrible was awesome.   The overall production of the record was even amazing.  The record had so much low end on it that it rocked my crappy computer speakers.  Thats when I got introduced to As Blood Runs Black.

  Six years and twelve band members later (including five vocalist changes) comes their sophomore record "Instinct".  I don't even think All Out War or Poison The Well had more lineup changes then them.  Maybe that can contribute to the fact that this record is just another prime example of a genre of music that has become extremely stale.

  The songwriting is practically the same on every song (especially the first half of the record): Fast paced tempo, then same part played but a little slower and more double bass, blast beat, breakdown, repeat, add 3 more breakdowns and make sure each one is slower then the next to end the song.

  There were a couple of highlights on the record that showed promise including: "King of Thrones", "Echos of an Era", and the self titled "Instinct".  The guitars in these songs show that they are improving on their sound.  I'd like to see them go more in that direction.  Oddly enough "Instinct" is the last song on the record and their best.  It doesn't really consist of any breakdowns and is written very well.

  All in all, As Blood Runs Black's new record did not deliver and fell very short.  The first half of the record is like listening to their first record "Allegiance".  The second half does have some promise which is why I'm not giving this record 3/10.

  This band was such a promising band.  Maybe it was all the lineup changes, maybe it was they only had one record in them but this record didn't really do it for me.  "Instinct" does give me a sliver of hope for the future so I will probably check out their next record.  However, their sophomore release just didn't hit me like their debut did.  They definitly didn't "Bring Da Ruckus" on this record.

6.5/10