Blood Patrol – demo tape

Don’t push me too hard on the hows and whys, but recently I have been spending a lot of time listening to a demo by a band called Blood Patrol, operating out of somewhere in Germany.

I’ll be honest with you – I’ve not really made much of an effort to keep up with recent developments in the world of metal. In fact I am pretty much ignorant of everything that has transpired in the genre since I gave up reading ‘Terrorizer’ four or five years ago. I pick up new records by bands I already know I like, and one or two other things people have recommended to me, but aside from that…

I’m sure that there are dozens, probably hundreds, of incredible, innovative, awe-inspiring metal bands around whose work I’ve entirely missed out on. I daresay you could throw a brick on Camden high street and hit a more innovative, awe-inspiring metal band than Blood Patrol. Hell, most of the members of Blood Patrol are probably in a more innovative, awe-inspiring band than Blood Patrol.

But those other bands are not Blood Patrol.

I should probably say that in capitals. BLOOD PATROL!

What’s special about Blood Patrol?

Nothing.

So why, of all the metal bands in all the world, am I listening to Blood Patrol?

Because, dude – Blood Patrol RULES.

Metal logic. Best logic.

Listening to these demos – rejoicing in the muffled gut-thump of the practice room > portastudio > cassette > mp3 translation process – makes me want to learn to drive, get my licence, and buy a car. This is solely so that I could drive around aimlessly and give people lifts. And as they sit in the passenger seat, I’ll jam this tape in the stereo. I’ll start drinking fizzy drinks again, so that I can slurp from a big drive-thru cup as I say “yeah man, this is Blood Patrol” and start bashing out blast-beats on the steering wheel.

Hopefully it’ll be a long drive, so that I can cherish their expression of cautious relief in the moment of silence when the tape comes to an end… before I instinctively reach over and put it on again. I reckon I could spin it at least six times during an average slog across London.

Looking around me, I see indie records, psychedelic records, garage-punk records, whatever else. I listen to the sound of Blood Patrol from my computer speakers, and I think, fuck man, I’ve been wasting my life. I could have been listening to stuff that sounds like Blood Patrol. Why would anyone want to listen to music that doesn’t sound like this?

A metal review demands sub-genres, so what ‘THIS’ is is…. well I guess it’s kind of a hardcore/thrash crossover thing, with land speed record H/C drumming (not actually blast-beats, despite what I said earlier), low end Entombed/Bolt Thrower guitar chug, deranged ‘Reign in Blood’ whammy bar carnage and grave-soil gargling BM vocals. Perfection, in other words.

Completely devoid of the pretension and dry technicality that dooms much contemporary metal to the ‘not right now thanks’ pile, this tape is about as far as you can get from the pristine, multi-tracked headache factory of a studio death metal album. But at the same time, it doesn’t retreat back to the mysterioso trashcan-holocaust guff of yr average kvlt BM release either. Basically this just sounds like we always wanted metal so sound, before things got all silly – a functional low fidelity recording of some guys in a room, rocking it out with energy of a teenage punk band and the chops of stadium beserkers. It’s just plain fucking FUN. They’re singing about blood and thunder and destruction and zombie bloodbaths and rampaging through the dark night on galloping stallions and tearing monsters’ throats out, and they’re having the time of their lives. It’s exhilarating! It’s rock music! It’s METAL! It’s BLOOD PATROL. It… well, it rules.

Here they are doing ‘Unhallowed & Old’ and their self-titled song:




We ride at dawn for Blood Patrol’s myspace page!

Labels: Blood Patrol, METAL, tapes