Megalomania

The Blood are a band that I believe sit somewhere on the often blurry and easy to cross line between oi and street punk. While not fitting squarely into one or the other, The Blood could be easily compared to bands like G.B.H. or The Skeptix as well as Angelic Upstarts or Cockney Rejects and not be too dissimilar but yet sound distinct enough to where you would not likely confuse them with those other bands. Much like their metal counterpart, oi and street punk produced a large amount of bands in a relatively short period of time, inevitably allowing its earliest, most unique, and or most innovative practitioners to rise as far to the top as their respective scenes could propel them, and allowing the rest to either try and catch up to the best of their abilities or sadly be relegated to obscurity. The Blood are a band that reside somewhere in the middle. They were not quite early enough to be innovators, nor large enough to have a significant impact, but they have a unique sound and quality to their music that makes it their own.

There are only three songs on Megalomania, so it makes for a brief, yet energetic and entertaining display of punk fury. The first song Megalomania begins with a relatively upbeat piano intro before breaking into a fast paced, melodic rush of buzz saw guitar playing and features a rather metallic guitar solo in the middle. I think this is easily the best song on the EP. The next song, Parasite In Paradise begins with a guitar only intro before another brief guitar solo kicks off the song, of which there a couple throughout. Its overall song structure doesn't deviate too much from the first, but this is by no means a negative attribute. The final song, Calling The Shots, is a little slower than its predecessors and features some soloing that would not sound out of place on a metal album of the same time and place. One thing that makes this EP very memorable is its sense of speed, melody, and aggression which meld together perfectly. The music on Megalomania is moderately heavy for the era.

For an EP that was likely recorded independently and on a minimal budget in the early 1980s, the production is actually very good. All of the musicianship can be heard clearly and all of the instruments stand in nice contrast to one another. The players are all quite good at what they do and the performance is very tight. The rhythm section is fast and pulverizing, and the guitar solos are especially good. I can't tell with certainty if the guitarist is taking any influence from metal bands, but there is definitely a trace of that style in his playing. The vocals of Cardinal Jesus Hate are gruff and punk, yet still retain sense of melody and musicality which are undeniable.

While The Blood didn't have the tremendous impact of other UK punk bands like Discharge or Crass, they still managed to leave us with great, highly enjoyable music which has held up wonderfully over the decades. I would highly recommend this to fans of G.B.H, The English Dogs, Cockney Rejects, and Blitz.