This disc has been out of stock at C-Blast for ages, but we've finally got this back in stock...

Minnesota's Battlefields contribute another entry to the swelling ranks of the post-Neurosis throng with this 4-song, 30+ minute debut, but they suceed in putting their own thumbprint on the sound with a potent mixture of extended instrumental gloom and weighty, feral metalcore that the band have cloaked in themes and imagery related to their interest in ancient civilisations, occultic Archeology, and "hidden histories". 'Tides Upon The Crescent City' opens with a panorama of chiming delayed guitars, shuffling, almost jazzy percussion, and looped feedback, evocative stuff that conveys the apocalyptic biblical sunset of the album artwork (which is pretty striking, I gotta say). Right off the bat I'm digging the way these guys have incorporated samplers into their setup, adding tastefully applied textures to their atmospheric post-rock buildup, and makes me think of a tenser Red Sparowes. At least it did up until the 5 minute mark, when the band suddenly erupts into a volley of majestic deathcore, layering torn shrieks and gutteral death bellows over martial snare and crushing riffage. 'Intimations Of Antiquity' and 'A Lifeless Polar Desert' equally serve up an endtime cocktail of richly textured ambient rock passages colliding with intense, angular metalcore ...a combination that puts them somewhere between Red Sparowes, the more recent Neurosis albums, and the dissonant ferocity of older Converge attacks. Sounds like a strange mixture on paper, but I'm really into the way these guys have pulled it off. The last track 'The Blood And Time At The End Of The World' is the albums doomiest number, arising with a killer Sabbathian godzilla riff that evolves into a churning dirgecore mantra laced with amazing tripped out cosmic guitar melodies. If Battlefields can continue to strike this balance between the stratospheric rock passages and their dramatic, crushing metalcore assaults, I think they'll have really nailed something. It's a strong debut that fans of arty contempo metalcore will find pretty compelling.