For anyone who was able to attend the recent UK tour by Manchester Death Metal legends Ingested, you will likely have been impressed by the main support on the run, the Floridian bruisers Bodysnatcher, whose intense set ran the headliners close.
Bodysnatcher – Bleed Abide (MNRK Heavy)
Release Date: 22 April 2022
Words: Paul Hutchings
With three previous releases under their belt, the quartet from Melbourne now bring their new bludgeoning release Bleed Abide to shatter what’s left of your hearing.
Best played loud, this is one intensive workout. To be fair, it’s sick in the terminology that the youngsters use these days to mean rather good. The lyrics are deep, full of emotion and personal issues that have happened to the band since the release of the last album, This Heavy Void, in 2020.
The band are firing on all cylinders, their cohesion evident in career-best work. If you want slams, blistering breakdowns and raging choruses, then this is your go-to album.
Intro Bleed leads sweetly into Abide, a massive bass-heavy track that confirms Bodysnatcher are out for blood. Kyle Medina’s gruff roars dominate without overpowering, the visceral snarls raging alongside the thunderous drumming of Chris Whited, and the dual onslaught of bassist Kyle Shope and the third Kyle, guitarist Kyle Carter, who between them serve up an avalanche of relentless and deadly riffs.
Bodysnatcher’s machine-gun delivery is unstoppable, and when they slow things down, as they do on the crushing single Absolved Of The Strings And Stone, it’s with suffocating intensity that ensures heaviness remains turned up to 11. The rabbit punch to the kidneys comes in early, on the short combined aural blast of Smashed Perception and the gruesome Flatline.
It’s not an album that will persuade those whose tastes don’t stretch to the extreme. Instrumental passages are ferociously aggressive, the breakdowns angular, awkward yet somehow fitting neatly. The eruptive blasts of Glass Prison, with its huge stomping riff and the emotional connection on E.D.A, a feral track that rampages with huge and savage power, sees Carter dealing with the feelings and confusion from the death of his mother. It may be machine-like in its execution, but the depth of sentiment that surges through this release is incredible.
Bleed Divide is fast, furious, and at times impenetrable. Yet scratch the surface, and there is much to absorb and consume. It’s a release of such massive power that you should be able to light whole cities from one play. Simply monstrous.
