Following the release of their fourth album, Rejecting Obliteration, released via Prosthetic Records in 2023, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS intervening years has seen the Christchurch, New Zealand band bear fruit from toil and labor.
2024 sees BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS with added impetus and razor sharp focus, thanks in part to the inclusion of Dan Hayston (guitar) and Anthony “Coota” Asimakopoulos (drums) to their line-up. In the immediate aftermath of Rejecting Obliteration’s acclaim from outlets including Decibel Magazine, Metal Injection, Metal Hammer, Distorted Sound and more, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS has since embarked on extensive touring in both their home country and Australia.

Navigating cycles of abuse and trauma, whilst actively reaching for resolution through resilience, the aptly titled Rejecting Obliteration is a testament to and declaration of endurance through hardships and loss. Lyrically conceived by Stace Fifield (vocals) and Stuart Henley-Minchington (guitars and vocals), Rejecting Obliteration’s ten tracks share a common narrative thread of finding identity and light outside of personal hurt and psychological harm.

BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS penchant for converging avant-garde progressive metal with caustic technicality and grinding intensity remains intact on tracks such as Hallucinative Terror and The Waves, thanks in large part to Nick Smith (bass), Henley- Minchington and Ben Atkinson (guitar)’s intuitive playing styles that come from well over a decade of friendship and life together in the band. Elsewhere, album closer Caustic Burns seethes with dissonant chords and a commandeering performance from Fifield on vocals – whose presence looms large over Rejecting Obliteration’s more harrowing cuts, whilst conveying a rare vulnerability for technical death metal on the album’s more diaphanous passages.

Upon completing production of Rejecting Obliteration, BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS sought the mixing expertise of Samuel K Sproull in Melbourne, Australia before handing mastering duties to Grammy Award winner Alan Douches at West West Side Music, resulting in a production sound that retains the more barbarous aspects of the band’s sound and breathes life into the group’s ever growing progressive inclinations. The album art neatly ties together the core theme of cyclical trauma thanks to a commissioned piece from Elrian Kantor (Thy Art is Murder, Psycroptic, Archspire and more), designed to create an endless loop when applied to a printed surface.

Whilst despairing in it’s subject matter Rejecting Obliteration refuses to concede to a predestination of further anguish, opting instead to shun all notions of defeat, which in and of itself is vital to BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS’ long fought for and claimed identity.
Current BLINDFOLDED AND LED TO THE WOODS line up:

Stace Fifield – Vocals

Stuart Henley-Minchington – Guitars, Vocals

Dan Hayston – Guitars

Nick Smith – Bass

Anthony “Coota” Asimakopoulos – Drums, Percussion