Bloodgood - Detonation
1987, Frontline
1. Battle of the Flesh
2. Vagrant People
3. Self Destruction
4. Alone in Suicide
5. Heartbeat (of the City)
6. Eat the Flesh
7. Holy Fire
8. Crucify
9. Messiah
10. Live Wire
So there I stood. A young fifth grader with two tapes in my hands. One was Bride's Silence is Madness. The other was Bloodgood's Out of the Darkness. I could only get one. Trying to pick one tape to get out of many was probably the best feeling I'd ever had up until that point. Agonizing, yes, but awesome because there was SO MUCH cool music out there. I said all that to say this - I picked Bride and somehow Bloodgood got lost by the wayside and I never got into them. My experience with Detonation is coming twenty years late. Sad, I know. Have to say though, I think the record holds up pretty well. The thin production cannot hide the passion that these guys must have had back in the day. The music hits hard as well as the lyrics. Bloodgood has a flair for the theatrical which is evident in "Eat the Flesh" but even more apparent in the two-song cycle "Crucify" and "Messiah." These are simply amazing tunes. Such emotion! I think the band got some crap for "Alone in Suicide" even though it's very obviously against suicide. I should also mention that the cover art rocks. I can see now why people have such respect for this band.
Useless Fact: Okay this is very much a "non fact" but Bloodgood put out two live album/videos. True to the theatrical nature of the songs there were a lot of cool costumes, actors, etc. They haven't made anything brand new since 1991's All Stand Together.
Better late than never, brother. Better late than never.
ReplyDeleteI think Bloodgood put out some of the best metal music ever. Everything you said abut the quality of the music is right on target. Unfortunately, the production quality sometimes undermined their albums a bit (e.g., the great, albeit more melodic, Rock In A Hard Place had almost no bottom end to it). I think it's a testament to the quality of the performances and the songs that even substandard production couldn't ruin them. It's criminal that the record label[s] haven't remixed, remastered, and reissued the entre Bloodgood catalog. (ALL of their albums deserve to be heard sounding as good as Out of the Darkness. Can you imagine Detonation then?).
I have both of the live videos you mentioned. It's a shame they'll never be available on DVD.
I bought Bloodgood's first four albums, but (for some reason) never got All Stand Together. So I'm not familiar enough with it to say how well it compares to the others.
They were a class act. It's a shame that Stryper gets all the attention (and all the finacial investment in their back catalog). No offense to Stryper, but Bloodgood's just got better songs.
Useless fact for you: Stryper lead guitarist Oz Fox has toured as a member of Bloodgood for several years (except when Stryper has a gig).