Blindside
Genre: Alternative/Metal/Hard Rock
Official Web Site
Blindside Bibliography: (click on each album cover to view tracks and Blindside lyrics)
Blindside Biography Slackjawing in its range, The Great Depression, the Swedish band's fifth album, was produced by Lasse "Lars" Marten. It proudly displays its musical diversity on part Rage Against the Machine, part Franz Ferdinand opener "This Is A Heart Attack," before diving into melodic crunchers, classic, punk-propelled hardcore and Thom Yorke-ian, almost goth-y confessionals, a la the first single, "Fell In Love With The Game."
Written starting in late fall 2004 and recorded between March and June 2005, The Great Depression is Blindside's most lyrically revealing and introspective album since 2000's A Thought Crushed My Mind. "I've always been into that really personal way of writing," singer Christian Lindskog says. "When there's lyrics that hit me in the heart, that's when I get interested. I'm not so interested in being cool or whatever. When it's bleeding, that's when I'm interested."
"Please choose life with its sweet and sour," Lindskog sings on "We're All Going to Die," which draws parallels between his experience in South Africa and the depression filling America's suburbs and high schools: "When I went to South Africa, I met all these young people who were dying way too early. But up here, in the Western society, a lot of people are dying way too young but for different reasons: There's a lot of suicide and the suicide rate is going up. I found that interesting-on two continents people are dying young."
"Some people might think this is a depressing title for a record," Lindskog continues. "But this record is not simply about depression. We all walk through difficult times in our lives. We have learnt that there is reward in the journey. To be lost and then found brings the greatest joy."
Simon
Simon is the guitarist to this band. Simon was influenced by very familiar bands like Metallica, Pantera, Nirvana, and more of that era. He is an extremly nice dude in interviews and on TV appearences (IMX). On stage he's a totally different person. He livens up the whole stage with his technical guitar tricks, kicks, and cartwheels. Simon has such a great personality and a great passion for music it's very inspiring. He's an enormous factor to this band. In each of the music videos he amazes me in one way or another. In "King of the Closet" he used all of his energy and rocks out with more energy then you would expect from a guitarist. The song "King of the Closet" has a lyric, "I'm a vampire, I'm a vampire I'm afraid the light will set me on fire," and Simon proved in that video that he was a vampire. In the "Pitiful" video he was also very enerjetic, to the point of hitting his head while he was performing. "Sleepwalking" was a video with a bunch of concert clips and Simon's cartwheels, crowd surfs, and kicks showed off his great performing skills once again. The "All of Us" video Simon went all out. He was all over the place pounding his guitar and adding energy to the video.
Tomas
Tomas is the awesome bassist for blindside. He and Simon make an awesome team. They both do stage moves together like cartwheels and kicks. Tomas has a lot of musical talent and is obviously a true rocker with the dreadlocks, fros, spikey hair, and what someone from the official blindside forum called it, a "mohawk mullet." He was awesome in every album. I especially loved the bass in the song "December in Sweden" It was the greatest bass line I've ever heard in any song. Tomas is also a funny guy. On the "blindside blog" he took funny pictures and showed his personality through it. Without Tomas Blindside wouldn't be the same. Tomas' bass lines bring ever song together, he is the structure to all of Blindside's song.
Marcus
Marcus is the drummer of Blindside. This is the man who played a big part in making songs like "King of the Closet," and "Yamekla" such a success. Marcus can easily adjust the tempo to a song. Whether it's fast and heavy like "We are to Follow" or mellow and slow like, "Roads." Marcus is consistanly improving his skills with each album. He has been recogniozed by many people on the album "About A Burning Fire" and also Chrisitan mentioned his efforts on an interview on MTV.com. Marcus plays with such intesity that at concerts and music videos that he oftenly ends up destroying some part of his drums. Marcus has advanced musical skills and is a cool guy. He has a great sense of humor. Now for a random fact about Marcus... Marcus has a crazy dog named "Gysmo".
Christian
Christian is the lead singer of Blindside. Christian has the whole package. He writes incredibly and seems to mature more and more after every album. Lyrics like "I was never meant for reality, I'm a reality TV clone," in the song Yamkela, absorb you into his perception. When Christian writes lyrics he draws the listener in and makes them feel whatever emotion he expresses in the song. It's rare to find a lyricist who will reveal so much about themselves and make their songs so personal, still find a way to let listener to relate.
Christian never seises to reach new heights with his vocal range. In Blindside's newest album, "The Great Depression," his vocals bring a real sense of sadness in songs like "This Time." Not only are his vocals incredible but he has had many different styles such as screaming, singing, and even rapping.
Christian's stage performance is unbelievable, he never runs out of energy. The passion that he brings to songs are truely inspiring, especially in songs like "About a Burning Fire," and "Put Back The Stars." If you have ever been to a Blindside concert you know that when you see Christian up there poaring his heart out, that this isn't just any band. They are true to their music and every other aspect of their careers.
It's evident that Christian is one of the most talented artists in the business. Christian is also very kind. Recently at his concerts he has been helping to promote "World Vision," a non-profit organization that helps kids in South Africa with AIDS.
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