Bloodstains Bloodstains
- Format
12 Inch
Black
£18.00
‘They live inside your brain, they’ll take control, they’ll take your soul, outside the limits of your sight, they hide behind the static’ (Nuclear Age)
You could probably write, in fact, I’m sure someone will have done, a pretty diverting thesis on the interactions between place and music – how one shapes the other. That is not to say that musical styles cannot travel with reasonable success, but rather that there exists an organic connection between certain places and certain ‘sounds’. A clear example of this would be the melodic hardcore punk that has emerged in waves of varying intensity over the past forty years from Southern California.
The latest flagbearers are Orange County’s Bloodstains. The band took their 7-inch bow in 2023 and this, their self-titled debut full-length, has swiftly followed. All the hallmarks you would anticipate are firmly in place – the nasal, back of throat vocals, darkly melodic guitars that are just the right side of burly, an aggressively supple rhythm section. But, perhaps, more importantly each track is tightly crafted and delivered with an undeniable vigour as the band explore themes of political disaffection, social control, military adventurism, and police violence.
In a reasonably ballsy move, the album kicks off with a surging surf-infused instrumental, The Last Rites, which sets up what follows perfectly. The stomping Nuclear Age and the fierce crescendo to Combat Shock are highlights of side one. Meanwhile, side two includes the remarkably infectious Anti-Social, which is defined by a haunting melody that you will quite possibly never shake. However, perhaps, the stand-out track is the irresistibly constructed Suburban Suicide, before the melancholic Stray Bullets provides a bleakly robust finale.