Searing I hails from Sweden, and recently made a deal with the Greek Black Lotus Records label. After four demos, the band signed a 3-disc contract with this label, and ‘Bloodshred’ is their first. The band has had various bandmembers but currently consists of Marcus Olofsson (guitars), Mattias Hansson (bass), Andreas Engman (drums), Andreas Oman (vocals) and Anders Björk (guitars).

Usually I can appreciate anything related to death or thrashmetal. And if that type of music comes from a Scandinavian country it will pretty much make me a bonafide happy chap…but somehow ‘Bloodshred’ is the exception that justifies the rule. The record sounds monotone and lacks most forms of dynamics in certain departments. The riffs themselves are good (The Haunted fans pay attention), sometimes even great. Tracks like "I Wont Forgive", "Life Surreal", "True Identity" and "Downfall" are pretty much quality thrashmetal songs. They have some punishing and more melodic, catchy riffs, and a recognisable structure throughout the whole song.

My biggest point of annoyance is the lack of diversity regarding the vocals; 95% of them are the same thing throughout the whole disc. Almost a sort of hardcore-style singing all the way through, in the same key. Being a drummer myself I was also disappointed in Mr. Engman. Repetitive fills (trading two’s gets old quick..), some 'sloppy' sounding doublebass work and the actual drumsound is pretty muddy. I do have to say that he sounds 'natural' instead of most of the current age of "Pro-Tooled Superdrummers" who can’t play for shit live. But there is a lot more room for diversity in this department.

Thats basically all I want to say about Searing I. ‘Bloodshred’ would have impressed me more if it was a 5-track EP or something: some songs are really good stuff but the rest just doesn’t reach the quality of those tunes. I will probably check the guys out if they are around because I can allways appreciate some live thrash, but for the rest: Only for the "fans".