Blessure Grave – Judged by Twelve Carried by Six

Sound plays a major role for me when it comes to music. More than often it is the way a record or a track sounds that attracts me and not its structure or melody making sound probably the deciding factor. I could easily bear a record with weak song structures or not so elaborate harmonies as long as it sounds great, but when the sound doesn’t appeal to me, chances are, i won’t listen to it that much.
It’s important to emphasize that a good sound doesn’t genuinely mean that it has to be well produced. Quite often this could mean the opposite. The sound has to fit the aesthetic of the tracks. Give me some details buried somewhere in the mix that can i discover myself, give me rawness, dynamics, some imperfection and i’ll be probably happy with it. If this means it has to be recorded on a boom-box in some basement, so be it and I will wholeheartedly embrace it.
Blessure Grave’s “Judged by Twelve Carried by Six” is such a record. It’s the sound that won me over within seconds: Slightly overdriven vocals, with a tad too much reverb, hollow drum sound and thin guitar recordings that resemble the early post-punk sound à la Joy Division, The Cure, Southern Death Cult or Killing Joke. We’ve seen a couple of bands in the last years trying to emulate that style. Whether it is was The Editors, Interpol or The XX – all failed miserably with their watered down version of this formula. Everything was just too perfect, too polished. There were not enough edges to grab the attention deep enough to maintain interest. It’s the imperfection that creates beauty.
And yes – Blessure Graves “Judged by Twelve Carried by Six” has its weak spots – quite a few actually. Their songwriting leaves room to hope for more, their melodies sometimes not really deliver all the impact they could. But those are exactly the reasons, why this records amazes me so much. It’s its imperfection, its shortcomings that make the record so enjoyable. And yet the album has its brilliant moments: Melodies that could haunt you for days, a desolate and cold atmosphere that creeps in slowly. And of course a sound, that simply just fits with its gritty, stiff numbness.This is a great record that has a lot to offer for anybody into early 80s goth rock, post punk and early wave.
The CD also features Blessure Grave’s first 12”, which offers an even more raw approach in sound and song writing.
Blessure Grave
Alien8 Recordings