Australian band Blindsight have crafted a diverse metalcore sound that fuses heavy breakdowns, punchy riffs, synth delights and delicious melodies, and they describe as “chaotic, energetic and emotional.”
The Wollongong quintet of Aaron Lozenkovski (vocals), Ben Arnold and Chris Shaw (guitars), Corey Sherry (bass and vocals) and Jacob Jausovec (drums) – plus a 2015 MacBook Pro (synths and bass drops) – is formed of a bunch of five mates who were interconnected through childhood friendships and previous bands. Things didn’t work out in a previous project involving a few of the band, so they split off to work on something new, which became Blindsight.
And Aaron tells us: “We managed to solidify our roster around the time that COVID lockdowns began so we had a massive period of remote writing. That really gave us the time to plan out how we were going to approach our initial release and thankfully (once the lockdowns settled) we were able to all meet up and kick things off.
“The Blindsight sound is still evolving as we find our pocket in the scene, but our recent writing falls into a mix of melodic hardcore and progressive metal. We love to incorporate jagged, djenty riffs into melodic choruses and drop-tuned breakdowns.”
Our first taste of this is their recent single Sever, which was released in April and the band expertly summarise as “unstable.” It opens up with ominous synth sounds and whispery vocals before exploding into chunky guitar chords and heavy vocals “No mercy, No soul, Set me alight to destroy this chemical.” The heavy vocals continue then everything drops out, blasting back into huge chugging guitars and vicious screamed vocals then a driving riff picks up the pace again.
It then drops into a delicious breakdown before the pace slows down, and feeds into a chorus of melodic vocals and a flowing guitar riff. Another huge breakdown of crushing guitars flows into big djenty guitars and guttural vocals to bring the track to an end.
On the track, Aaron told us: “The reception for Sever was fantastic. Coming off the back of our debut EP, we expected Sever to really showcase what sound we settled into and show people we are serious about pushing ourselves further. What we weren’t expecting was just how quickly word could spread as we’re still discovering videos, reviews and reactions to our content from people on the other side of the world. It’s very quickly surpassed our #1 track from our debut EP, which has been out for well over a year now.
“If you haven’t listened to it yet, we can only really sum up Sever as being an incredibly unpredictable rhapsody. It’s heavy, it’s groovy, and we set out to create something that is unstable both thematically and structurally. We think it’s best to head into it unprepared and enjoy each piece as it comes.” Check it out here:
Sever follows on from Blindsight’s debut seven-track EP Black Box, which was one year ago tomorrow. Expect much more of the same, with powerful riffs and beautifully crafted fusions of full-on metalcore with electronic elements. We particularly like the sound of second track Impostor, which opens up with a stabbing synth sound then chugging guitars flow into a mellow opening verse. It gradually picks up pace with the help of a flattering distant synth sound, then a little guitar lick leads into a big atmospheric section combining heavy vocals, cool stabbing guitars and high-pitched synths. The pace drops, then a delicious low-tuned riff takes over alongside vicious guttural vocals. Check it out in the guitar playthrough video here:
There’s also brutal tracks like Mirage, which features a particularly punishing riff; Smoke, which concludes with a savage section of low-tuned guitars and vocals flowing into a deliciously melodic outro. And the EP concludes in style with the band’s excellent debut single Discontent, which includes an exceptionally groovy bouncy riff and a gorgeously engaging chorus.
The Blindsight sound has been shaped by a range of influences across the heavy music scene, with the main bands including the likes of Northlane, Wage War, Currents and Allt (a relatively new Swedish progressive metalcore band).
And on what inspires them to write music, Aaron explains: “Black Box was a collection of songs that were very close to home and focused on being an outlet for our own experiences and hardships. Since then, our focus has been on writing stories and digging deeper into things we often think about but don’t externalise.
“Both emotionally and spiritually, we’re all very curious and often find that philosophy is a fantastic point to write from. It opens the way to bring topics to light that don’t get talked about every day, or it possibly helps people who listen to our music connect and know that we’re out there questioning everything around us as well.”
Shockingly, it’s nearly two years since we interviewed an Australian band so, having put that right in style, we asked Blindsight for their thoughts on their local scene. Aaron told us: “It’s been fantastic watching the Aussie music scene evolve over the last year. It seems like there’s been a fairly large paradigm shift and we’re seeing the local scenes across Australia become a lot more active. There’s huge support across the country for smaller shows and we feel like all bands, no matter how large, are starting to come together to foster the local music scene once again.
“Of course, there are still large bands making the rounds with huge shows from time to time, but with the economy in its current state, it’s becoming high-risk and difficult to pull off. This hasn’t come without its difficulties. If you’re in the rock/metal scene for the money you’re definitely in the wrong place, but with growing support for new bands and an active local scene we’re seeing a lot of new faces and a rise in the spirit that a lot of us experienced in our high school years.
“The Australian scene is always busy. It’s full of newer young bands, as well as huge heavy hitters. The challenge in Australia for smaller bands is that the bigger cities are so far apart and there aren’t that many of them so travelling can be difficult. In saying that, so far in the areas we have played we have felt well-supported and we always end a show with great companionship between us and the band we play alongside.”
Blindsight just finished up recording their next release and are now in the process of getting that next record ready to go. You can see the band in action next Friday (18 August) at The Chippo Hotel in Sydney, with more info here, and they tell us to expect more gigs soon.
And Aaron adds: “We really want to say thank you to everyone who’s supported us so far. We’re really excited to show everyone the new material we are working on. If you want to support us then give us a spin on Spotify/whatever streaming platform you’re on and follow us on social media for updates!”
You can follow Blindsight on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to Blindsight on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
GigRadar 