Stabbed - Long Way Down

Perhaps one of the things that I enjoy the most about constantly hearing new music from all over is once again coming across bands that I’ve heard before and then completely forgot about, and then that band puts out a new record that somehow crosses my path. Life seems to be very strange in that regard, but I’m not complaining! That goes double with the Hungarian group of Stabbed whose debut record last year I heard, thought it was okay if memory serves well, and then I promptly stored them away in the back of me brain. Forgotten, sadly, as I don’t like doing that, but thankfully we’ve once again crossed paths with the band’s brand new album of “Long Way Down” and it is definitely a step up from what I heard but a year ago!

Stabbed last time took the route of post-alternative metal to create a unique sound, but in my eyes fell a little short. This time around Stabbed seems to have focused on the alternative part more, but also thought to incorporate some new elements. The result seems to make the music sound a bit more . . . commercialized. “Long Way Down” still has got a vicious bite to it that really likes to strike constantly, a crunch that is all but everlasting, and there are the two sets of vocals (one clean, one growls or whatever) that we see popping up seemingly everywhere now. Don’t get me wrong, Stabbed made it work with “Long Way Down” and they made the overall experience much more memorable than their debut, and that’s an improvement if nothing else. Hopefully, Stabbed is simply playing the music they wanna play and not purposefully trying to commercialize their music as that’s an instant disappointment in my book.

All of that being said, I still enjoyed “Long Way Down” in several ways simply because Stabbed went nowhere but up in just about every single way on their sophomore effort. Is it a little disappointing to me that they seem to inch closer to a cookie-cutter band? It is, but I’ve confidence that’s not the path these Hungarians are going down. If you want a crunch that’s catchy and forward thinking as well as a brand of metal that’s “friendlier” to the ears, then Stabbed has created the album that is just for you. Given time, I’ve hope this band can surpass this album in ways we’ve never seen coming.

You can stream “Long Way Down” in full on Bandcamp here.