Miami trio Bleeth has been around for at least a decade, yet I had somehow never heard 'em until investigating their Bandcamp after seeing a promising mention on Instagram over the weekend. The high-quality visual aesthetic of their releases was already giving me that "this is gonna be good" feeling, and sure enough my ears were greeted by an eerily melodic form of dark sludge metal meets noise rock, with a dual-vocal approach that matches the contrasts in their music perfectly—though interestingly, each vocalist tends to lead any particular composition rather than "sharing" via in-song tradeoffs.
I might concede to the fact that there are some "post-"ish characteristics here and there, but I'd hesitate to refer to Bleeth as "post-metal"—in part because I've grown to dislike that genre, but also due to this material having an abrasive and more warped/experimental take on those types of textures, so... in addition to being better, it's also different. And don't let words like "abrasive" mislead you: expect totally killer production that's warm, hard-hitting, and clear. Skimming through the group's past efforts, it seems that this is their best yet. Awesome.
Marionette is out now on silver or splatter vinyl through Seeing Red Records. I'm only seeing physical copies through Bandcamp or the band's website. Streaming is the worst, but if you must, Spotify and Apple Music do unfortunately exist...
