#balttw

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods [The Hardest Thing about Being God is That No One Believes Me]. 2025. Bandcamp, Spotify, Facebook, Amazon, Youtube. Twitter(metalone). ----- Blindfolded and Led to the Woods [Rejecting Obliteration] 2023

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods [Rejecting Obliteration]. 2023. Bandcamp, Spotify, Facebook, Amazon, Youtube. Twitter(metalone). Artwork : Eliran Kantor.

We had a brief chat with Nick Smith, Bassist of NZ Tech Death Band “Blindfolded and Led to the Woods”. Here’s the interview. 

Which musicians influence you the most? -Les Claypool, Mike Patton and Ben Weinman What gear do you play? -Warwick Basses, Genz Benz Amplification What band other than BALTTW would you like to play in? -The Dillinger Escape Plan, iwrestledabearonce, Dream tour lineup? (Including international bands) -Same as above! Or maybe The Black Dahlia Murder as well Favourite Show to date? -Bastardfest 2011 was one of my favourites in Auckland If you could only play one BALTTW song for the rest of your life what would it be? - My Vaseline Diaries (the song… it will be released eventually) Diesels or Double Brown? -Tough call, Double Brown was the drink of my university days, but Diesel is just a nectar of the gods. 26846 for life.

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Album Review: Blindfolded and Led to the Woods - My Vaseline Diaries Stream it here: http://balttw.bandcamp.com/

My Vaseline Diaries is the debut full length from theChristchurch metallers. From start to finish, the album sets about giving listeners a plethora of tracks to bash their heads along to; delivering an offensive blitz of super chunky, guitar driven tracks in what comes across as a one hour thrash session.

The album opener, ‘Fuck You Look Awesome’, sets a high tone for the record with great use of heavy bass riffs, a bombardment of rad guitar licks, a good combination of screams and growls, and a massive showing from behind the kit. This pattern continues throughout the album, however the base format does not variate a whole lot, which leaves the album feeling a somewhat repetitive if you listen to it from start to finish.

That being said, a breath of fresh air can be found in the penultimate track, ‘26846’, which brings the pace down in the same style that bands like Slipknot use to perfection. This track does not lose any of the already established brutality, but the ominous tonal opening gives you a chance to catch you breath before one last ambush from the albums final track, ‘You’re Just Like Captain Planet But With Less Friends’.

I would have liked ‘26846’ or something similar to be slotted somewhere in the middle of the album. The opening alone would be enough to break up the first 8 tracks so that it didn’t feel like one lengthy tune instead of 8 separate ones.

My Vaseline Diaries is a fairly solid debut, but the seeming need to stick to a formula leaves room for the band to experiment with their sound a little more.