Love them or hate them or haven’t heard of them, Blindside has had one of the most interesting career paths of possibly any Swedish artist in the past twenty years. They made their first real splash in the states with 2000’s punk-hardcore album A Thought Crushed My Mind (released on Solid State), which featured enough guttural screaming to knock the socks off the casual listener. Major labels came calling soon after, and 2002 saw the coming of Silence, which like it or not, had a much more modern-rock flare, while still retaining ATCMM’s intensity.

But still, many old-school fans felt betrayed, as hardcore fanatics often do when their favorite bands decide they like singing a little better than screaming. In 2004 Blindside climbed into the top 40 with their release About a Burning Fire, which continued trading away the band’s old brutality for catchy hooks (with the exception of the barn-burning title track). It looked as if Blindside was one release away from joining frequent tour mates P.O.D. as hard music veterans taking over the mainstream.

Then their label, Elektra (an imprint of Atlantic), collapsed. For a while there was some questions about whether the band would continue. But the longtime bandmates and friends decided to push on. The result was a little album titled The Great Depression, an album that threw away much of the mainstream appeal of former releases in favor of dark themes and an almost anti-catchy approach. While not a return to their hardcore roots, the album cast away their newfound shimmer in favor of dirty, dark songs and crushing breakdown-fests like “Yemkela”.

Which leads us to their newest release, The Black Rose EP. The EP was originally planned as a full album, but their new label, DRT backed out on them, once again leaving the Swedish rockers out in the cold. The songs here are much in the same vein as The Great Depression, without as much lyrical despondency, but with the same raw feel. Which makes me wonder, how many bands grow form obscurity to major popularity then back to their more indie roots again?

The EP features five new tracks, beginning with the near-industrial pound of “The Way You Dance,” and the hundred-miles-a-minute freight-train of a song, “Slow Motion”.    

The verses of “Pretty Nights” feel like a completely new direction for the band, but the chorus features the grandiose feel that made Silence such a great record. “The Color of My Eyes” features one of the most desperate vocal performances of Christian Lindskog’s career, and “The Black Rose” is an acoustic track that will either sound beautifully stripped down or horribly under-produced (or possibly both).

Next is three live tracks from The Great Depression, performed at Hultsfred 2006, of which the emotional “When I Remember” is definitely the highlight as Lindskog screams “Nobody moves me like you! Nobody!”

This chapter in Blindside’s career has definitely been one of the most interesting, as they’ve decided to release the EP entirely exclusively through their website. Whether their next album will be available everywhere or only via the internet is yet to be decided; but the band definitely still proves themselves to be worth the attention that they were getting three years ago.

Check out Blindside on myspace: www.myspace.com/blindside