Black Breath
Heavy Breathing
Southern
Lord 2010
Seattle's
Black Breath have returned after a deadly EP, having refined their
sound a bit on their debut full-length album. Heavy Breathing
takes a more Stockholm-centric approach to the style they had
formulated on their Razor To Obliveon EP. Black Sin(Spit On the
Cross) starts the melee with a punkier take on Wolverine Blues era
Entombed with groove-laden riffing and some decidedly Swedish
downtuning. Escape From Death amps up the Stockholm references
even further as this song with its intensely thick, sludgy riffs and
dark melodies could easily have been ripped from any early Dismember
album. I Am Beyond strips things down a but for some heavy
grooves coupled with a gritty yet crunchy chorus. More Swedish
melodic work can be found in the on the instrumental title-track which
then kicks into some adrenaline-overdosed Motorhead riffing on Children
of the Horn. With all these metal influences being kicked out
there to describe the music it is easy to overlook the undercurrent of
punk/hardcore in each track. That's not the case with Fallen
which boasts a rapid crust-punk assault and gang-vocalled chorus' that
register heavy on the stomping hardcore foundation. Changing
gears again, a bluesy bass-line drags along the lethargic corpse that
is Unholy Virgin. Black Breath hit me hard with their EP and
this new album pulls no punches. However I was captured by all the
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost riffing on the EP which is virtually
nonexistent on Heavy Breathing. With that said however, Black
Breath have injected a heavy dose of straight on Stockholm death for an
overall more intense and driven album.