by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
It took a global pandemic to get Blessed to stop touring. The road heavy experimental quartet may not be playing shows, but they’re still busy sharpening their ever changing craft. Set to release III on February 19th via Flemish Eye (The Besnard Lakes, Mauno, Preoccupations), the band’s latest continues to prove why they are one of Canada’s most exciting bands.
Their third EP (hence the title) follows 2019’s full length debut, Salt, an album that pushed the band further from their post-punk leanings and deep into the experimental unknown. It was an album that often traded accessibility for mechanical menace, electronic and analog fusing together to create something alien, something original. With III, the band are still very much experimenting, but they’re doing so on a slightly less abrasive scale, instead rewarding the patient listener with unpredictable twists and turns, earworm gifts that disappear as quickly as they appeared.
Having shared lead single “Structure,” we get another peak into the album with the second single “Centre” and its Mitch Huttema directed video. If you’re ever seen Blessed live… or if you’ve ever heard their music at all, than you already know that Jake Holmes is an excellent drummer, a fact that is immediately apparent from the intro of “Centre” to the finale, a crashing cavalcade of percussive force. The propulsive energy contorts into something electronic and minimal, a jittering dub like backbone for Drew Riekman’s focused croon. Like any great Blessed song though, the track evolves from section to section, moving from gang-vocal assisted post-hardcore grooves to sputtering and convulsing art rock. The duel guitar attack picking precise moments to scrape and feedback, and everything moves forward into the swarming crescendo (the kind that will have audiences blown away one of these days).
The video is great. I’m entirely sure what is going on, but it seemingly captures the monotony of watching the clock tick the days away. The juxtaposition of the folks in their singular positions vs the group running is wonderful, the stunning visual of those set in their places and those that need to move, need to explore. Maybe I’ve missed the point altogether, but I can’t help but wonder where they are running to as the tension builds.