Bilocate – Sudden Death Syndrome

According to the United States Census Bureau, we currently have 6.94 billion humans living on planet Earth at this very moment. Out of all those people, most of the normal, “I only pay attention to what my country does”, close-minded fucks, will never understand that metal music is global and is provided to more people than anything else music wise. When I started my journey in the metal world, I would of never of thought for a split second that countries like Jordan, Serbia and Estonia would ever give birth to some great projects. As the years went on, I learned very quickly that most of the stuff that’s undiscovered is going to be hidden in dark corners of the most unknown cities in other countries. Bilocate is a band that falls into that category of being hidden and unknown to an extent. As they like to call themselves “dark oriental metal”, I’m simply going to call them a 7-piece progressive death/doom outfit for the sake of others wondering what “dark oriental metal” might be.

“Sudden Death Syndrome” is the sophomore record from this Jordan based outfit, even though this album was released back in 2008, it still holds up three years later to what the progressive death/doom genre is doing these days. Now, as some people love to compare Bilocate to such bands as Opeth, My Dying Bride and Orphaned Land, I simply can’t say that they sound like any of those bands without mentioning how powerful and operatic Bilocate can be on this record. When I say the word operatic, I mean it in the sense of volume, pure lung power and a force that will blow your hair back as if you were standing behind a jet engine, the similar feeling I get when I listen to the early Becoming The Archetype records.  “Sudden Death Syndrome” has this liking to building up massive amounts of structure only to realize that they haven’t built it high enough for the kings and queens to see over the mountain tops. “Blooded Forest”, the second track on this record, does the structure building very well but also fills your lungs with hope and self-empowerment. Hell, “Blooded Forest” is a seventeen minute journey that could also be compared to a catastrophic ride with twists and turns up a volcanic mountain while burning hot ash falls from the sky.

Travelling deeper and deeper into this record, once you hit the third track, “The Dead Sea”, you’ll probably realize that hope has been embraced by the country of Jordan and they can produce some pretty motivating records. If the tremendous gathering of drop heavy riffs, very melodic and beautiful keyboards or the blistering attack on the drum sections don’t wake you from your slumber, maybe the hellish vocals of Ramzi Essayed will. “Sudden Death Syndrome” also makes me think of how far I’ve came and how long the metal scene has traveled within the last ten to fifteen years. This record fills me with an outstanding amount of pleasure that I’ll be hearing some great stuff from Bilocate and other outfits from Jordan in due time.

So, as the energetic door closes at the end of the record with “The Stone of Hate”, I’m pleased to hear the ambient sounds that graced my ears as they did on the intro track. “Sudden Death Syndrome” is an gateway record that will expose people to other bands in the Middle East and hopefully to other bands in different countries. If you can’t stand for that, you might want to rethink what kind of music you’ve been supporting.

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