Detonation

Christian, or white, metal is a fairly vague label since it doesn’t give any guidance as to what music the band plays (thrash, speed, doom, death, black(ha!)), and is solely concerned with the lyrics. As easily 80% of the metal fanbase has never really cared about the message, wholly absorbed in the riffs and rhythms at play, song texts in metal have always played second fiddle to the point of being completely disregarded. The other annoying aspect of the Christian metal brotherhood is the guys’ tendency to become too preachy and insistently dogmatic, unlike their main adversaries from the black metal community who just spit their hatred towards religion not caring who will follow them into the pits of Hell. This, I guess, is the main reason why there aren’t hordes of renowned white metal acts around the globe; Stryper come to mind immediately, of course; but that’s about it…

Bloodgood started their career at roughly around the same time as the Yellow and Black Attackers, and released their self-titled debut showing an obvious fascination with the recently released Motley Crue’s “Theatre of Pain”. As pop metal was growing stronger at the time, the band would have been just fine carrying on in the same direction… Well, surprise was the name of the game in their case, and a year later they followed up with this “Detonation” here. They couldn’t have chosen the title any more appropriately since this is such a primal slab of American power/speed metal that if you had asked the guys from Omen, Liege Lord, or Attacker to come up with their magnum opus at the time, they would have disgraced themselves beyond redemption when stood against this explosive opus.

“Battle of the Flesh” and “Vagrant People” are arguably the greatest duo to open an American metal album of the 80’s. They will throw you into a speed metal frenzy, and please make sure to find a room in the house with no furniture around: the damage may be big… At this initial stage the guys sound like an almost entirely new band the only connection being the characteristic hoarse, soulful vocals of Les Carlsen. So far, so great; comes “Self-Destruction” with another portion of crushing riffs, but the mood is kind of more playful with Carlsen trying to hit the higher registers to a slightly laughable effect. The “bloody” attack takes a break with “Alone in Suicide”, an amazing nostalgic heavy/power metal hymn with Carlsen outstanding behind the mike. A further break is taken with the semi-ballad “Heartbeat of the City”, so far the only reminder of the band’s softer beginnings…

Part two is pretty much the history of American speed metal revisited with “Eat the Flesh”, “Holy Fire”, and “Crucify” unleashing a supreme cavalcade of fiery, blitzkrieg riffs putting to shame even the finest performers from the German scene at the time; an outstanding trio of ripping, outrageous metal at its primal best. “The Messiah” is the logical pause after such a tornado, one of the ten best ballads in metal history despite its overtly preachy message hence the revealing title. And, this is it, half an hour of fast’n furious American metal coming from the least expected place. Oh, I was going to forget, the closer, “Live Wire”, obviously not much to talk about, a frolic heavy rocker with a rock’n roll vibe, another not very necessary reminder of the guys’ roots.

Truly memorable stuff, and the reviewer was quite pleased to find out that this album is quite known around the world, as a matter of fact; it’s by no means an underground phenomenon as quite a few fans are well aware of its existence. Well, at least this will spare me the role of the next preacher or propagator… Let me just clarify the band name: Michael Bloodgood is the name of the leader who is responsible for the several thundering bassisms heard. Since this is by no means a show-offy band, don’t expect the man to shatter the foundations of your house with a portion of ship-sinking reverberations; everyone performs professionally to the best of his abilities without overshadowing his colleagues, and this act could possibly pass for the one with the most modest, unobtrusive frontman.

Alas, this superb piece of metal aggression was never backed up; the band soon returned to their friendlier hard rock-oriented sound with “Rock in a Hard Place”, definitely to their new fans’ utter chagrin. In 1988 all metal genres were alive and well with no signs of untimely sunsets, but I guess the guys’ heart lied with the rock/hard rock audience, perhaps also an indication of their ambition to find a bigger commercial exposure. Neither of their subsequent works is a waste; they’re all fairly cool pieces of classic hard’n heavy with casual stretches towards more intense waters, including the excellent, sorrowful “All Stand Together”, the band’s most melodic, but also most emotional album so far. With “Dangerously Close” released in 2013 the band returned to the fore after more than twenty years of inactivity; another pretty good slab of the good old heavy rock still holding on to the staple Christian message, more or less tightly.