The heavy pounding madness penetrates through the very core of the album in this fantastic track entitled ‘This means War’ not far behind is an amazing melody that adds a certain depth and with a strenuous vocal making for a magnetic sound. ‘Pyro’ is a venomous, ferocious track containing harsh and clean vocal edginess and is compelling.
‘100-Proof’ embeds itself in the psyche and leaves no stone unturned. Its vehement composition seethes under its own weight with growling metallic twists. ‘Dear Brethren’ takes a slight deviation although not far and be it only briefly but houses some sharp rhythm at the beginning of the track until it falls with a bang back into its comfort zone, with some great harmonies in tow.
‘Bloodlines’ the title track is a harsh unyielding piece of music with a seething vocal damming that bruises with paralysing fear! Virulently infectious and addictive the outpourings are blood curdling and the rhythms skittish and deranged to say the least! ‘Karma’ doesn’t waste any time furthering the assault on the ears and thunders into its own, with deep gnarly rhythms that stand strong under the weight of the track. The clean vocals gather momentum guided by a chant that sounds demonic although the band incorporate a splendid melody that attaches itself to the track adding a seductive flair to the proceedings. ‘Relics’ possesses a bouncing rhythm that begins almost immediately and takes you on a bumpy ride through stirring emotions that turn malignant at the drop of a hat!
Mixing prog and metal core actually works, for here you have music with meaning. The softer tones be them short blend superbly well with a harsh unyielding sound that does everything in its power to devour while the soft tones give out a respite from the madness so you can focus on the underlying textures being exuded through each and every track.
The dominant force though from Samsara has to be the metal core as it invades the tracks and forces its rancour on the senses! One would be tone deaf not to hear it, however the brief soft spells add warmth to the tracks so they don’t come across as too similar allowing a certain unusual direction to be followed.
Mixing genres can only be a good thing although a headache sometimes for a reviewer but always good to hear something different even if it is only slight.
