Sectarian Bloom

Reviews

Sectarian Bloom Strategies of Tension LP

SECTARIAN BLOOM has a sound that is all their own. If you haven’t yet checked them out, well, here is your chance. Bass-heavy with searing guitar leads, and powerful yet almost spoken vocals are their hallmark. Punk rock’n’roll. Strategies of Tension is eleven songs harvested from their 2020 self-titled release and 2022 New Spring recording. A fresh mastering provides the songs with new energy and packages them all into a single record which makes playing their to-date material a bit easier. In all, this is a great collection of songs created by a band that wishes “a hundred sects bloom.”

Sectarian Bloom New Spring cassette

Second release from the darkwave-meets-post-punk group SECTARIAN BLOOM, out of Oakland, CA. For a trio, they really fill out these songs, creating the ambience of a genre often accompanied by a second guitar and synths. Will’s vocals are clean and stark, like Peter Murphy of BAUHAUS, while Susi (I could only find first names here) sings passionately and hangs onto notes over the glassy guitar riffs. The lyrics are poetry, like some JOY DIVISION coldness found on the opener “Static”: “A new found passion / A new found hate / But now aware of what fate waits / Expired incandescence / Flowing coils losing sheen / Silent detachment waits at every corner / Just static.” Transylvanian claims to have “the darkest waves in the Bay,” and I think that does well to sum up SECTARIAN BLOOM.

Sectarian Bloom Sectarian Bloom cassette

A modern post-punk outfit that draws from well-established influences like BAUHAUS, SISTERS OF MERCY, and JOY DIVISION. Atmospheric guitars that sound like they are echoing through a gothic cathedral, and are accompanied by driving drumbeats and darkly melodic vox. Music for vampires to get down to.