bLiss

bLiss, with the intentional capitalisation, are an alternative rock band from Indore. That is a town in MP. Their Facebook page says they're White Metal, and while I outrightly reject the claim of being metal, I do admit that there may be some influences of the white in their music. 



bLiss is a four member project consisting of:

Ankit Deo - Drums

Vishal Mitra - Bass

Ankit Prasad -Vocals and Rhythm Guitar

Rakshit Wesley - Lead Guitar

And this is what they look like. Or at least what they looked like at SF'10. As always the list is in left-to-right order.

They have this strange habit of referring to Strawberry Fields as just Strawberry. That's it, just Strawberry. Not SF or anything. Never figured out what that was about.

Also, the production on the music, is not very good. They could do with some much better production actually. Particularly the sound on distorted guitar, doesn't sound good at all. However, the music's really good.

So, they've uploaded four songs on Reverbnation. And, we move on:

1.) Carry Me Home

First one's my favourite.  This was definitely one of the best songs played at Strawberry Fields 2010. It starts with an awesome guitar riff. In fact, sounds more like a solo, really. The first verse vocals are a bit muffled on purpose, and become clear when the catchy sing-along chorus kicks in. It's a brilliant effect really. Sounds very very good. And about the chorus being sing-along, even I was singing along to it when I heard it live. Lyrically the song's like a cry for help in a post-apocalyptic world, where nothing is left. very well constructed verses, with a memorable chorus. 2:30 is when the guitar solo begins, and goes on for half a minute. And it's an absolute face-melter. It's actually great to see guitarists of this quality coming out of small towns like Indore. If I ever make a compilation of my favourite songs from this blog, I would definitely include this song.

 

2.) Butcher & Surgeon

Starts with very melodic singing. And eventually picks up when the refrain comes along. Song's faster than Carry Me Home, more energy, a lot more of it actually. You're worried that the song might be done with everything it has to offer by the third minute or so. Except it doesn't, 2:30 there's a breakdown. Very metallish. Then something super cool happens at 2:52. There's a fucking bass solo! Holy shit! And not even like a small non-noticeable one. Like fifteen second long. It's awesome. Then 3:26 there's a very jazzy drum solo, which is much-improvised and significantly longer in their live show. In fact, if they ever decide to re-record the song, they should really incorporate the live improvisation of the drum solo here, make it longer.

3.) No One To Trust

Begins with a general riff, and some great drumming, even some effects going on in the back. The verse has a great bassline going on. Great energy. The chorus is very catchy too "This is all I want/ It's is all I need/ It's all I care/ It's all I say" Lyrically not poetic, but very sing-alongable. That's not too bad. The riffing especially in the background for the chorus sound like they could be done for a metal song. Another face-melting solo from 2:57. This one's a total beauty. Also has Ankit screaming vocals while the solo is going on. And it keeps going until the end of the song. About 50 second long solo.

4.) Mystery

Starts slow. Moves on to a nice riff. The vocals again are fantastic, but that's true of every bLiss song. This song also features double bass drumming. Another feature I did not expect. The solo is this song is brilliant too. Starting all relaxed and shit at 1:55, but picking up the pace steadily and going really crazy at 2:11 onwards, before finally settling back down from 2:23 on. Very well done. Song's also a great way to wrap up the four song collection on Reverbnation.

They also have in their arsenal a bunch of more songs called Darkness, Prayer and Coming Back, and they also regularly cover Never Say Goodbye by Guardians. The three originals can be found in just about listenable (not particularly great though) quality at YouTube, Thanks to technology, you can just click on the name of the song, to be transported to the corresponding YouTube video. Whee!!

5.) Darkness

Starts with a double bass drum pattern. Very metal actually. Riffing is great. There's even a scream introducing the song. When the verse and all does start, it sounds very much like a thrash metal song. This sounds almost nothing like the bLiss I've become used to. There's some harshness in the vocals, proper screaming. Drums are a lot more metal. There's a proper metal breakdown. Solo starts in 3:20 around. Doesnn't sound so great due to extremely poor sound quality, but I can tell it would've been good.

6.) Prayer

Ok, only the vocals and the drums can be distinguished because of horrible sound quality, but believe me, live videos are generally worse. Try looking at the other video of this song, the one in Gwalior, that's just illegible. But of course, as always the vocals are powerful and compelling. The signature bLiss sound is used here. So it's not very different from the other songs, except that the chorus is a collection of words, and not a sentence, that doesn't mean it don't make sense. Ok, I don't know how to explain, so just here it is, read it for yourself "My Life My World My Land My Nation My Cry My Tribe My Prayer". That's the chorus. And that's how it's different from the rest. Unfortunately, due to the poor song quality, I can't tell if there's a solo or not. 

7.) Coming Back

This has great drum rolls in the beginning of the song, but the sound is again fucked up. Mostly because these camera recorders always fuck up the bass sound. I have reason to believe that this is one of their earlier songs. Judging by the lyrics, this may be interpreted as the answer to the chorus in Carry Me Home which goes "Who would carry me home" The dystopian world described in both songs, pretty similar. Guitar solo from 3:57. Another extremely good guitar solo. The end is very much like many classic rock songs with the vocalist repeatedly screaming some line, in this case "Take me with you"

Who Will Like Them? Fans of good singing, fans of great guitar solos.

Who Will Not Like Them? Metal fans, but even they'd accept the solo-ing. People who're ticked off with bad production. 

Where To Find Them? First four songs on Reverbnation. Subsequent three as live videos on YouTube.

Free Download? No, not really.

Lyrics? Lyrics to Coming Back, Carry Me Home and Prayer available as notes on the band's Facebook page.

I realise, they have so much bloody material that they can cut an album. I think they should in fact, and I hope they do. Right then, I'm a little exhausted and I have nothing else to say. Time for some general links, and eventual winding up of an extremely long but rewarding review post number ten?

General Links:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/bLiss/243713052040

Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/blissindia

Ankit's YouTube Channel (Not sure which Ankit though): http://www.youtube.com/user/ankitkid