### Blackstorm: Rise rebel seers

#### 22/12/10 || Love Lagerkvist

I have some trouble deciding if UK rockers Blackstorm’s “Rise Rebel Seers” is a demo or a “proper” release. On one testicle, both the band and the label refer to it as a “digital EP”, but on the other ball, we all know that’s more or less a fancy name for a demo. Not that it matters anyway, as the music from quintet really speaks better for itself.

So what does it say? Well, under the delightfully muddy production (that’s a compliment by the way, as it fits the band style like a glove) I can hear something among the lines of:

“Hey Jon. JON! Hand me some more beer and my CD-case. Yeah, you know, the My Little Pony one with all the High On Fire, EyeHateGod and Kylesa albums. We are going to make an EP here.”

Alright, that’s maybe a bit unfair, but you get the general gist. Blackstorm play sludge-y, stoner-y, hardcore-y, doom-y and according to them even drone-y rock ‘n roll in true Georgia fashion.

It’s not the most original music, but these lads know how to kick some serious musical ass. All of the five songs we are given have some kind of “epic” moment, whether it is some kind of vocal orgasm in the end of “Weakened By Divison”. But then, the bad parts come. Or well, bad or bad. It’s more bad in the sense of a bad fuck: It’s still a fuck and just in that it’s worthwhile, but you got that nagging feeling in the back for your head that you’ve been there before (listen to the end of otherwise awesome “Then You’ll Drown” and you’ll see what I’m talking about).

So should you give Blackstorm a spin? Well, if you like this kind of stuff, sure. Or just could just wait until we get a full length, because if these guys can just make something truly unique as well as grow some balls to maybe play some more “extreme” thing now and then, the black in this storm would change from being Soy Sauce octopus cum (and we all know how awesome that is).

Last minute edit:

So it seems that Blackstorm just threw in the towel, which in retrospect is really kind of sad. Consider the unedited last paragraph as some motivation for the band to get back together and release an awesome CD.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: United By Fate Records/Distort digital
- Website: Blackstorm MySpace
- Band
- Karl Middleton: vocals
- Neil Kingsbury: guitars, vocals
- Jon Perry: drums
- Gez Walton: bass, vocals
- Tom Bates: guitar

- Tracklist
- 01. Rise Rebel Seers
- 02. Weakened By Division
- 03. Then You’ll Drown
- 04. Closing In
- 05. Crush Every Mountain