Running the Gauntlet Again and Again

The Blinding Light - The Ascension Attempt

I bagged The Blinding Light's EP a few months back, and I actually feel a little bad about that now. It's one thing to unleash the snark at a substandard release from a bunch of coasting self satisfied millionaires who are capable of far better, and another to do the same to an independent, neophyte band. In the future I intend to apply a more biased double standard.

Even having said that, I did like this album more than the Glass Bullet EP. It's still the same sort of music, similar to Converge but without that band's flair for combining punishing brutality with original songwriting. (Although it must be noted that even though The Blinding Light suffer from the comparison to their forebears they do approach the same level of raw intensity.) On The Ascension Attempt they have more room to try different things, and they have some nice groovy breakdowns and restrained, moody interludes. The heavy stuff is actually pretty catchy and has a lot of grunt too.

However when all is said and done, I'd still much rather listen to Converge.