Double review: Baleful Creed - Baleful Creed + Baleful Creed - Seismic Shifter

Baleful Creed - Baleful Creed

Five years on from its release, I am taking a look back at Baleful Creed’s self-titled debut album to see how it stood the test of time. A four-piece outfit from Belfast, they have been melding hard rock, stoner rock and blues for years, channelling the spirit of a scene that has long fallen from prominence. Utterly alien in a contemporary scene, this is an album for a simpler time, and it is better for it. Unabashedly hyperbolic with mosh heavy riffs, cataclysmic drums and blues-infused solos, Baleful Creed is an album distinctly tied to a tougher breed of rock ’n’ roll, a 70’s breed of axman that smelt of leather, dive bars and had a voice like a revving engine. Exhilarating in its candour, Baleful Creed lacks subtlety and oozes menace.

An action that can only be seen as refreshing but was taken for granted half a decade ago, Baleful Creed has no overarching ‘concept’ or story to tell. Instead, it pursues its goal of bar brawl music with a relentless, head out the window abandon. Filled with balls and boiling blood, the album itself is nothing short of apologetic, layering razor sharp riff on riff, one after another amidst a hurricane of solos and a storm of gruff vocals. A lack of grace is to be expected and goes unmissed, forgot in the rearview mirror as Baleful Creed speed down the motorway, foot unrelentingly on the accelerator.

Speed and exhilaration prevent Creed’s debut from passing into relic state. Against the modern landscape, music such as this has long fallen between the cracks, but as long as groups such as Baleful Creed survive, then it will find a way to survive. Sounding more essential than ever, this album has done more than its part.

Baleful Creed - Seismic Shifter

The latest release from Belfast rock and roll four-piece Baleful Creed (BC) is everything you’ve come to expect of them. Even the name fits with their taste for exaggeration, suggesting a level of sound that reaches epic proportions. Picking up where they left off on their previous album, Seismic shifter packs as much pace as it does fury, with a heavy investment in solos that helps maintain the heavy blues rock status of the group.

What's most admirable about BC is their complete commitment. They inhabit a realm of rock that the world has long since moved on from and yet they don’t seem to care. There's a freedom in the contract they have struck with riffs and licks, a chance to be themselves wholly, which they take advantage of and maximise to the fullest. Discontent with merely sounding heavy, the riffs in Seismic Shifter are prehistoric in scope, laden with danger and utterly ruthless. Lyrics tell debauched tales of booze-soaked strangers and “smoked stained fingers”, all the hallmarks of an interesting night. 

The lyrics themselves are not the most imaginative in the world but they take a seat on the bench anyway as BC double down on their bone shattering breakdowns. Guitar, both bass and lead, take precedence and rule over the album with an iron fist. All songs begin and end with them, while imaginative arrangement keeps things interesting. Full on from the start and without nuance, Seismic Shifter is not an album to listen to, but one to feel in your bones.