I LIKE to play a game when the CD of a band I haven’t come across before slides from the review pile towards the player.

Before its dulcet tones spring forth I try to second-guess the nature of the band from just the information on the sleeve – band name, album title and artwork. The names and titles here sound subversive, hard edged; the artwork dark and experimental; the lettering suggests a no nonsense approach. Metal? Hardcore? Alt-rock? Punk? It could easily be anyone of those.

By the time I’m a couple of songs in I realise that it isn’t any of those…it is, in fact, all of those! Whilst there is an infectious melody at the heart of what Blood Command does, it comes in a street smart, hard hitting package, one forged of intense drives, thunderous beats, banshee wails, punk attitude, hardcore swagger, euphoric dynamism and fist in the air anthemics.

But if you think that referencing those tried and tested genres is nothing new, the way that they use these building blocks to create something totally fresh, original and most of all exciting is the real trick here. At a time when rock and all its myriad subgenres are undergoing an identity crisis, when more than ever it needs someone to come along and bush aside the dead wood so that something new has space to grow. That something is Blood Command. But their answer to making some elbowroom is to roll a few hand grenades into the current complacent and stale scene and throw a gig in the smoking crater that it creates. And why the hell not?

PS: Includes Mariachi Hardcore… now you’re intrigued aren’t you? - Dave Franklin