Blood Lemon's 2021 debut, the self-titled "Blood Lemon", garnered many plaudits on its release so its a little surprising that the buzz around the trio, Lisa Simpson (guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar, synth, piano); Melanie Radford (bass, vocals, upright bass, synth, piano) and Lindsey Lloyd (drums, percussion, vocals), has frankly not been deafening. Some might suggest that the bands music being tagged with the far too easy Indie/Riot Grrrl label (in some quarters) has hindered them somewhat and has seen comparisons being made with the likes of Sleater-Kinney, L7 and Hole while in truth their music has a more shoegaze(ish) alt.metal vibe albeit one coated in Warpaint meets Grandma's Ashes-like lilting vocal melodies. 2025 sees Blood Lemon kicking off the new year with with a new release, "Petite Deaths", a five song opus that will hopefully see the bands profile soar to the heights it deserves to reach.
"Petite Death" begins its tenure with "High Tide" the songs chugging/stuttering guitar refrain supported by solid tight punchy drumming and low and deliciously bouncy bass. All good so far but the clincher comes when the vocals kick in, warm smooth and tender lead and lilting backing harmonies spiralling and circling around each other to bring a feeling of otherworldliness and fragility to the proceedings. With all their talk of "a love of heavy riffs" Blood Lemon are actually not that particularly heavy yes they can groove around a crunching down tuned riff with the best of them but their heaviness comes more from the atmospherics and moods they create with their music rather than the dankness of their riffs as is exemplified on next track "Her Shadow", a song that shimmers rather than shakes and sees fractured chord voicings, backed by liquid bass and tribalistic flavoured drumming, supporting a smooth heartfelt yet powerful vocal before morphing into a swirling acid/heavy psych workout in its final quarter. Next up is "Mountain'r Lower" here we do find Blood Lemon getting their sludge/stoner groove on but only briefly, the songs fuzzed out guitar refrains routinely making way for a more mellow and languid musical attack enhanced once again by those wonderfully smooth lead vocals and swooning backing harmonies. A deliciously deep bass line introduces "Perfect Too" accompanied by a guitar refrain that could be considered Sabbath-esque if it were not for its sedate and laid back nature, the vocals and harmonies here are sublime and especially effective when that riff falls away and we are left with just a lone voice and that deliciously seductive bass motif, however this is a song made up of two parts with that second part suggesting that this trio may well have been taking a deep listen to another songs second half, that other second half being Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain". Things finally come to a close with "Mudlark" a rueful, emotive and frankly quite beautiful lament/ballad bolstered by unbusy but effective rhythms and featuring a vocal in possession of a soulful breathiness.
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