DOWNBLEED, ASERAPHYMN

Website: www.iresonspub.com

Another night at of metal at Ireson’s Pub (Bristol, TN). This is the second show review from Ireson’s and (as always) this venue delivered another awesome metal show with Kingsport’s hardcore behemoths “Downbleed.”

Hardcore, power trio. Two phrases that one could use in summation of these three veteran musicians from Kingsport, TN but that is where generalizations end. With a drummer covering lead vocals and a female bassist their sound, show and overall attitude transcend genre limitations. They opened the show with a new song “Circle of Life” which showcases the Dimebag Darrell/Slash influences of guitarist Kris “Dawg” Williams while also interjecting his retro charged approach to the strings. His leviathan, low-end guitar tone is the mortar of this trio’s wall of sound.. Previous years spent as a bassist apparently honed his ability to capture the lower frequencies of tone missing from so many thin-sounding guitarist, resulting in a more polyphonic, bigger feel to the band overall.

Admittedly, the first thing I noticed is female Bassist, Leona Drake but before you start entertaining stereotypes of songbird vocals and hairspray rounding off the raw edges of another otherwise aggressive band..you might want to check out the live show. If anything she ADDS to the overall aggression factor of the live performance and appears more than worth her salt as a bassist. She thrashed through songs from their “Bleed for Me” CD with banshee precision, and a ‘bitch is back’ attitude that proves metal is no longer a man’s world! Add the fact that she is an accomplished pianist and vocalist to the package and you’ve got one helluva solid bassist regardless of gender.
Front man Doug Fletcher covers both drum and lead vocals duties with apparent ease.. It goes without saying that a drummer who vocals at all is pretty rare but Doug’s vocal tone is heavy and diverse enough to make many hardcore bands want to pull him from behind his kit. I think there must be a third arm involved there somewhere? The few times I have witnessed drummers attempting to cover vocal duties too often both roles are sorely minimized or lose the performance flare due to the obvious struggle involved. Not the case here. He is as strong a drummer as he is a vocalist and manages to work the crowd well while he is at it.

It was my first time seeing these guys and I was unsure what to expect given the diversity of the members. “Downbleed” pounded-out a set of solid, heavy-groove, metal-core ending (after two encores) with “Breakdown” from their “Bleed for Me” CD to a house that became increasingly packed.

This trio creates a dynamically heavy, wall of sound seemingly impossible for a 3- piece band and still manage to put on an energetic live show. Anyone into hardcore would definitely not be disappointed.

Downbleed website:
www.downbleed.com
Releases: “Bleed for Me” CD – 2004