Over the past year or so, I have been discovering bands that sound like they have time travelled straight out of the 80s and 90s and I am all for it. Band’s like Midnight, Unto Others and Evil Invaders all put a fresh spin on a vintage sound that takes me back to my formative years. Today I will be reviewing the new album for Bastard, a blackened thrash band from St. Louis. Rotten Blood is the band’s second full-length album and first release since 2015. I was wondering why such long gap in releases and found out some of the members are in other projects. Scott the guitarist also pulls bass duty in The Lion’s Daughter while the drummer Jason Asberry does vocals and guitars for the black metal duo Stormruler. These guys are very busy outside of this project but the quality across all their projects are top notch. Starting off this absolute ripper of an album is the track “Whipstrike” which give us break neck speed metal style riffs right out of the gate to get the blood pumping. The vocal style that the vocalist Jason Barron uses fits perfectly for this group. It is more of a death metal growl instead of the higher pitched style that most thrash bands use. Track “The Possesion” starts off real groovy and mid paced before launching into a frenzy that nearly got me up out of my seat to start a circle pit. Between the fast riffing and galloping drums, this would be a perfect song for a live set to get the crowd involved. “Leather Bound Book of Lies” brings the blasphemy lyrically and sonically. Singing about ripping up the bible while ripping up the listener’s ears with black metal riffs makes for a great time. This was one of the standout tracks on the album and kept coming back to it after each listen of the album. Track “Crescent Horn” is another rager of a track. I got big Motorhead vibes on this one which is never a bad thing in my opinion, just a fun track all around. “Protector” continues with the previous track’s vibe but a little darker and evil. The title track of the album brings that speed metal back into the fold with fast paced riffs and drumming until about half way thought until they go into full black metal mode to close the track. Final track “Bewitched” closes out the album with a mid-paced rager with a sing along chorus with gang vocals yelling the title of the track throughout the song before fading out to end the album. This album was a lot of fun to listen to and I kept coming back for more whenever I had the chance. It definitely has a nostalgia factor to it as well, which probably is why I enjoyed it so much. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
- The Metal Architect
