Blood for Blood - Serenity

(2004, Thorp Records)
It's kind of funny. In the world of hardcore punk, the usual standard operating procedure seems to be for bands to put out albums of 15+ two-minute-or-less songs at a pace of about one every couple years. Yet somehow, Blood for Blood has only managed two full-length releases in over a decade. Well, the bad news is that this is another EP, totaling nine tracks, with the first just being a few seconds of talking, and the second and final tracks being almost identical filler intro/outro things, leaving you with about fourteen minutes of worthwhile new material. The good news is that this might be the best thing Blood for Blood ever put out. It's a little lighter and more laid-back than previous stuff, but that's not to say this isn't still heavy and pissed-off, it's just heavy and pissed-off in different ways. There's a little more street punk and old-fashioned rocking going on here, and it works well to separate them from all the other guys out there yelling and pretending to not be heavy metal bands. Lyrically, this is similar to older Blood for Blood, with the key word being bleak. Urban blight, ("Hanging on the Corner") suicide, ("My Jesus Mercy") drug addiction, ("City Boy") and the fact that their musical genre hopelessly sucks ("Live the Lie") are all explored here, and you get the feeling these aren't happy dudes. Another departure here is that White Trash Rob (the higher-pitched, kinda nasally, incredibly Boston-sounding guy) seems to handle the bulk of the vocal duties, with Buddha (deep, growly, not quite as Boston-sounding fat guy) doing more backing vocals, which is weird, because the when one guy plays an instrument and the other just sings, it's usually the other way around. But hey, whatever works, and it works really well. And somewhere along the line, they manage to throw a cover of Del Shannon's 1961 hit "Runaway" into the mix, which when done in Blood for Blood's own style, somehow manages to to sound natural next to everything else on here. If there's any problem I could have with this, it's that I wish there were like ten more songs worth of it. And hey, if you're not a downloading cheapskate, you get neat Enhanced CD stuff, too, which includes a "making of" video, outtakes from said video, a photo gallery, a dedication to Steven Caruso, (the guy that "My Jesus Mercy" is about) and instrumental demo versions of most of the tracks on the album. Overall, this rules.

Track Listing:

1. A Prayer to the Night Sky
2. Serenity
3. Hanging on the Corner
4. Live the Lie
5. A Rock N' Roll Song
6. My Jesus Mercy
7. Runaway
8. City Boy
9. Serenity (Reprise)