Originally written by Jon Eardley
It’s no secret that as a part of our never ending mission to steer you toward music worth your time and hard-earned dollar, we here at Metal Review have to sift through and review quite a bit of crap-laced, scum layered drivel. I suppose at the end of the day we have no choice but to suck it up and swallow our own excruciatingly sour tasting medicine, considering we so kindly offer the opportunity for any and all metal related bands to submit their material at will, sometimes littering the trenches of our queue with tasteless garbage. But albums like Bloodworth, the first full-length and second release overall from New York’s currently unsigned Cold War Survivor, make the sometimes painful process worthwhile, simply because this four-piece of seasoned, well-schooled musicians clearly has what it takes to make a name for themselves in today’s underground scene, and they’ve recorded an album that undoubtedly crushes said ‘crap-laced, scum layered drivel’ to bits.
Not even attempting to fool you into believing they’re offering anything new in terms of originality, you’ll hear a band that has siphoned a healthy dose of fuel from each of their individual influences, including thrash, death and a touch of ‘core, and tossed these ingredients into a melting pot, brewing up an honest sounding record full of ear severing cuts booming with skull cracking aggression. “American Elegy” (one of four songs off the album over at their MySpace) is a song that blasts out of the womb with abrasive violence leading into a down-tempo verse section that may bring Soilent Green to mind, but it’s toward the song’s end where you’ll here the swampy serpents slither into the CWS sound with a speedy section that gradually slows down to a punishing and heavy riff of girth and chunk. Other songs riff away with speedy explosiveness coupled with sinister sounding twin harmonies courtesy of Ben Long and Ian Weinstein (who also handles the back up death growls). Some songs prosper with hints of Slayer and even some slight Morbid Angel-isms, in particularly the note-y wailing that flourishes during the outro to “Torture Device”, and the opening ‘Lombardo-ish’ drum fill that skinsman Dave Tetreault ignites the energetic “Abduction” with, right down to the modest level of technical presence that seethes through each and every track.
The album’s title-track, “Bloodworth”, is a song that sees a well-placed and superbly executed acoustic section bring forth a breath of fresh air, only to be followed by a high rising missile launching squeal setting off some war-like sound effects that help drive the song into frenzied hostility, while album closer “Lesson in Loss” sees a metal grimace inducing riff at the two and a half mark that makes me wish I’d been forewarned to toss on a neck brace before I dove head first into the track. Dave Pannullo is at the helm of the vocal assault (also handling bass duties), with his low end hardcore-ish roar that soars with brutish and hefty anger. Just listen to the chorus of “Wall of Lies”, his anti-war tirade during the aforementioned title-track, and the abhorrence heard in his delivery during “Lesson in Loss”, and tell me the man isn’t convincing in his message. No, not a style we haven’t heard done a thousand times over, but where Pannullo gets my stamp of approval is the fact that most of what he’s throwing the listener’s way is understandable thanks to his impressive ability to enunciate his words clearly.
While certainly not a perfect album by any means, there’s still very little I can pinpoint on the negative side of the spectrum. The bass sound does come across a bit clicky from time to time, and at moments the guitars seem a tad low in the mix, but all in all the band’s sound is as thick and burly as it gets. In summary, it’s high quality musicianship plus crafty, mature and intelligent songwriting skills topped off by an adequate and truly organic sounding production that equals up to one hell of a punishing, jackhammer to the cranium album of modern death-laced, core flavored thrash metal that, at least in my opinion, has me finding it hard to imagine this talented group won’t see their number of fans increase in the very near future. Again, not anything the majority of us haven’t heard done before, but in this band’s case they hit the style right where it counts while many up and comers trying a similar style simply fail.
