Listening to the "Blackout" album has sure made me move much slower for a few days. Like any good Doom rock band, BLACKOUT's songs are heavy, slow, and for the average Joe sounds like the noise cut out from an album and not the final product. "Blackout" is the second album from the band of the same name. Their first album, "We Are Here", was self-released on vinyl and digital platforms in 2012. BLACKOUT is a three member's band, something that highly comes out with great emphasis on guitar and bass riffs and heavy drums, but not a lot of lyrics.

The album takes it's time to open up and truly start, even though like any other Doom music it keeps its' heavy and slow tone during all of the songs. The first song, "Lost" has an opening of almost a minute and a half before the music begins. The riffs aren't that complex, and yet they are interesting enough to keep me from fast-forwarding the album (isn't Metal supposed to be fast?). "Blackout" has a bit more of a kick to it, and the riff going through the entire song is not too bad.

My favorite instrument, and the most important in my opinion, is the bass. For that reason, the bass opening of "Nightmare" got me super into that song. The song changes when needed, and even though it slowly lingers, it is defiantly a great song. For the first time in the album, at the song "Tannered", the music comes to life. There are cute riffs and the drums go just a little bit faster, and this is enough. The lyrics in this song sound like a joke to me, but after we agreed the lyrics mean almost nothing to this album, it doesn't really matter.

"Human", the song that closes the album, is a seven minute review on everything we heard through this album- Repeating riffs, lingering drums, and bass lines that keeps it all from falling apart. In the middle of the song, there's a fast part. I didn't understand its' roll, but it was a nice finish to this extremely weird experience. All in all, I can state a lot of things I didn't enjoy in this album, but all those things are valid for me and me alone. I do believe lyrics to be an important part of some music, and the lack of it was sure felt. Another thing I missed was anything besides repeated riffs that will pass the massage the lyrics usually do. All this does not contradict the fact that those guys are pretty talented. The album, no doubt about it, is well produced and well edited. You can hear the hard work they invested in it, and I can only hope this hard work will pay off. If Doom rock is your style, BLACKOUT is surely a band to keep an eye on, sounds like they'll stay here to have fun with their music a while longer.