Blind Race

”A victory rock show,” that's how Blind Race will celebrate, if they're crowned best metal act at the 2010 Toronto Independent Music Awards (TIMAs), tonight at the Phoenix Concert Theater.

The band's guitarist, Costas Kentros, elaborates, ”on July 30th we're going to do a show for our friends and devoted fans. If we win the TIMAs, we're going to make it a party for everyone. Moreover, we will be showcasing some of our new material.”

Read: TIMA announce nominees for best Ontario metal act

Blind Race is Tommy on vocals, Natalie on Bass, Costas on guitar and his younger brother, Stelios on drums. The two brothers have a Greek background and both have spend years of their childhood in Athens. This is definitely reflected in the bands music.

However, Blind Race are fund of experimenting and bring together different styles of music that never have been mixed before, including various ethnic genres and metal. Another of the band's great influences is Elvis 'The King' Presley. Blind Race vocalist, Tommy, started his music career as an Elvis impersonator and have brought some of the Elvis flair into Blind Race's music. Check out the band's ”Hound Dog” cover on Myspace.com.

Blind Race will win because...

Last year Blind Race was nominated in the best live act category. So, there's is no doubt that this band is a well-respected independent Ontario act.

In an interview with Costas Kentros, this metal music examiner asked: why should Blind Race reel in the title as best metal music act at the TIMAs? ”Chemistry! There's great chemistry among the band members; this is reflected in our music and on the stage,” Costas explains, ”and, in addition, we see no-one experimenting with such a variety of styles as we do. In that sense we're different from the other bands.”

”Finally, we have a great work ethic and this music is what our lives are about. We are simply following our dreams,” Mr. Kentros concludes.

Blind Race and the future

Blind Race are planning to release their second album, titled ”You”, around November 2010. ”Right now, we have so much material that we don't know what to put on the CD. So, we're currently trying to narrow it down. There's much variety in our songs and not all songs are fit to be on the same album,” says Costas.

After the release of ”You,” Blind Race are hoping to hit a few cities in Canada, such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and ideally also swing by the U.S. to do a couple of shows.



Continue reading on Examiner.com Interview: Blind Race - best Ontario metal act nominee - Toronto Metal Music | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/metal-music-in-toronto/interview-blind-race-best-ontario-metal-act-nominee#ixzz1rNBtHCmF - Examiner

Taking influences from the likes of Stone Sour, System of a Down and Mudvayne — as well as more veteran bands like Alice in Chains, Godsmack and Ozzy Osbourne — Canada's Blind Race apparently is trying to fill a perceived musical gap in the post-grunge universe. The quartet's musical vision includes raw-and-raging rockers, deep-throated acoustic ballads and practically everything in between, and it all can be heard in the 11 songs on Blind Race's first CD, Seeing Red (a second disc, tentatively titled Straight Jacket is already being prepped for fall of 2008). Vocalist Tommy Geraldes often sounds like he comes from the Scott Stapp/Scott Weiland schools of singing, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. His brooding delivery and jaw-dropping range lends color and shadows to these dark songs. But Blind Race's most valuable player has to be guitarist Costas Kentros (who founded the band with his drummer brother Stelios in late 2005). His wicked solos on songs like the raw "Retaliate" and "Cryptic Confession" and the ballad "Wait" rise way above the fray. - Sea of Tranquility

Normally when I go to review a new CD I read the bios first. On this occasion, work and deadlines meant I listened the albums a good 3 or 4 times before I even bothered to unpack the blurb.The fact I listened from start to finish so often was a good sign from the first to the last chord, I was transported to the early 90’s heyday of the Seattle grunge sound, the depressive dirges of Nirvana excluded, transporting me back to mushroom inspired chill outs of old. The best of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were reborn in the intense riffs and vocals of Blind Race, tempered by the gentler acoustic Mediterranean riffs that have made Ill Nino and Breed 77 such massive live draws.
Hailing from Ontario, Canada this distortion fueled four piece have the honesty to admit they are inspired by such luminaries as Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, whilst adding a Latin style to the acoustic guitar of some of their gentler tracks. The first track of the CD, “Seeing Red”, with its flowing wall of distortion interweaving with megaphone twisted vocals harked back to the heyday of the 90’s, with the shouted barking of Tommy Geraldes lending a modern slant to the delivery, a style guaranteed to attract the new Kerrang audience, whilst offering enough nostalgia to keep old grungers happy.

This fusion of the new and old blasted through track after track, with the band managing to sound like a classic reissue, whilst adding their own energetic brand to the mix. When track 4, “Wait”, fired from my speakers, I felt myself reaching for a lighter, inspired by an acoustic anthem that could have held its own against such classics as “Would?” from Alice in Chains Unplugged.

I’ll be honest, this album took a long time for me to play from start to finish as so often I was reminded of classics from my youth I kept pausing it to dig amongst dust laden boxes to blow off ancient grunge releases. I even feel guilty for calling albums no more then a decade and a half old ancient. In the ever changing face of modern rock, when tracks no more the a couple of years old are revered as “old skool”, Blind Race blast out sustain driven and acoustically inspired slabs of no nonsense rock, heavily influenced by 90’s masters but embued with a new energy that make them deserving of a massive following if they manage to produce the same lighters in the air energy live. If they manage to recreate their sound live, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

Spenny Bullen - Mtuk Metal Zine