Critic's Choice
Recommended
Indian, Bloodiest, Anatomy of Habit
When: Sat., April 9, 10 p.m.
Price: $8
Not to disparage the efforts of the good people at Relapse's design department, but if they were really serious about capturing the feel of Descent, the new debut album by local septet BLOODIEST, they would've packaged each copy in a jagged monolith of black marble as tall as a three-flat. That approach would at least adequately reflect Descent's immense mass and raw, cruel beauty. Working out of Steve Albini's Electrical Audio, producer Sanford Parker didn't do much more than capture the band as they sound in their killer live shows—and that's all he really needed to do. When you've got three guitars, gothic piano, and the unhinged vocalizations of man-about-metal-town Bruce Lamont, do you even need overdubs? Descent rumbles with the heavy energy of metal, but there's something almost classically elegant about the way the songs carry themselves, even as they edge toward pure noise. —Miles Raymer
