Saint Blasphemer
Simon Templar
(self-released)

A high-end timbre on the vocals (actually all of this album is a rather treble-y production overall), snapping back beat, and droning guitar drive move “Nullify,” the wild, kinetic opener to Saint Blasphemer’s new album, Simon Templar. A heavily “chorused” guitar picking and toms swirl under Thomas Monroe’s scary, on-the-edge-of-exploding vocals on the album’s title track, contrasting with the song’s driving chorus. The staccato “Scarecrow” has the guitar riffs following the vocal lines in the verses and the band (John Castellon playing guitar; Steve Shell on bass; and Steve Ybarra playing drums) wailing on the big choruses here. I especially like how things get kind of sparse, but still stay loud during the instrumental bridge leads of “Scarecrow.” “A Perfect Rose” features very sneaky clicking bass playing from Shell, again some low tom work from Ybarra and although we roll predictably into a heavy chorus break again (my main negative criticism would be that the band employs this plucky-verses-into-bombastic-chorus formula a bit too often), I think I like this one the best. The “woo’s” in the chorus even make it singable, dare I say. “Breaking Just to Bend” is straight-ahead rockin’ fun. Californian alternative metal group Saint Blasphemer rocks hard on this new album of theirs. Simon Templar is of a specific type, but if you like things hard and heavy, you’ll dig this.