Idiot Stare is yet another of the great bands I found on compilations, in this case the massive and incredible There Is No Time from Ras DVA, which weighed in at 4 Cd's. There was a ton of great music on there, including Idiot Stare's "oranges". I remember really liking that song, but the funny thing is, once I got the album, it turned out to be one of my least favorite on the record. It's not at all a bad song, it's just that this album has several tracks on it that I like even more.
Idiot Stare is a band with a rich history, which has somewhat recently been touched by tragedy with the death of their lead vocalist, Blayne, from cancer (note: Blinded was recorded before Blayne joined). The band includes former members of both STG and Insight 23, bands which are also worth checking out. Despite several great releases, however, Idiot Stare never seems to have reached the level of notoriety of some of their contemporaries like 16volt. That is not to say that they don't have a decent following among rivetheads, but I feel like they deserved more. Later albums were a little less dark & heavy than this one, and although I think that contributes to my love for it, the later albums are by no means bad, and I would say their production improved after this one. Not that Blinded sounds terrible, but I think it does lack a little bit in that department.
You can get a downloadable version of Blinded from the band's website: http://www.idiotstare.com/products-page/
This album grabs you by the throat right from the start, with one of my favorite tracks on the album, "To The Head". It opens with a gritty, slidey synth line, joined soon by a sort of hip-hoppish drum beat, which then flows nicely into this awesome noisy, grindy synth(?) bit that I really love. Then the guitars kick in, blended perfectly with the grindy synth-thing for one of my favorite sounds of all time, and the drums get a bit harder too. The vocals are similarly heavy and fantastic. Just an all-around excellent track. Skipping one, we come to "Cash Out", another favorite, musically and lyrically. There's some pretty cool synth work in this one, plus more great, crunchy guitars. Skipping another one and moving on to track 5, "Black Heart" opens with some cool synth strings, leading into a wonderfully-heavy piece of industrial metal. After that comes "Now Hear This", which opens with some really cool electronics, followed by more great heavy stuff. The title track is a short-ish bit of pretty cool noise, followed by "Everything", which may not be as heavy as some tracks on this album, but is still a favorite, in part for the chorus of "Sometimes I think that everything is stupid". Yep, me too. The rest of the album is also really great, though another stand-out track for me is "The Power", which again includes some really cool synth work and guitars, and also has some of the coolest vocal effects.
I definitely recommend checking out their other releases too, as there's some really good stuff on all of them. However, I gotta say that Blinded takes the cake in my book, perhaps on the strength of "To The Head" and "The Power" alone. I'm sure the "first love" thing is probably coming into play as well. Hope you enjoy it too.