There are bands that just do not seem to get the ‘artistic freedom’ everyone admires. Take Most Precious Blood for instance. Their new cd ‘Merciless’ shows a cover of an authentic looking corpse in an apartment with his mail stacking up. Mostly, I’ll give a short introduction about the band, their biography and a little anecdote before I start the review. Rumors because of this artwork made me decide not to do so. Instead, I’ll quote Justin Brannan (guitarist/co-lyricist) and his comments. Enjoy!

‘It’s real life; it’s someone our age that just dies and no one cares enough to notice. We’ve got World War 3 going on; we have no time for poetry and guitar solos. It’s back to the old school of hardcore, get in, say what you want to say and get out. More than ever, hardcore should write that the end of the world can come tomorrow, instead most bands are writing like we have our whole life ahead us. We wanted to write an album that isn’t dumbed down but has short songs with lyrics you can relate to immediately.’ (Brannan, 2005)

Well, Is MPB really in trouble, just because of this, maybe a little bit overenthusiastic, decision? Actually, no, they are not. Then the question rises who is? Might it be the government, who’s being considered as corrupt whether settled in the US or Ethiopia? No, it’s just us, you and I, the listeners, because right from the very first fucking touch of the guitar strings, the choir singing some kind of Oooooo, you and I start to realize WW3 is actually so going on, meaning just one thing: hell is finally introduced for the mortals.

The record is so full of anger, fear, heaviness, frustration, emotion and speed. The songs are following upon each other as hell (hey, where have we seen that word before?) whereas the singer is shouting his as off through the two little bitches we call speakers. Unfortunately, the lyrics weren’t included, and because the release of this cd is on September 19th, I couldn’t find them on the website either. So I cannot give you an impression what the band is up to, but one wild guess tells me it has something to do with dislike, filth and disapproving.

As Brannan already mentioned, the songs aren’t that long, most of them take less than three minutes. The production is worked out almost perfectly. All the individual instruments are clear to notice, and the influence of samples gives the record the little extra dimension of a professional product.

So, what about the songs then? Could we say we’ve got a typical hardcore album? Is MPB really able to kick everyone awake with this record? Well, yes and no. The breakdowns, the intention, the emotion are so very strong, that every hardcore fan must at least hear it once. A big chance that the disk will end up in their collection. But, as we all know, the hardcore scene is not that big, and outsiders have really high demands towards liking hardcore. Therefore, something else is needed. And that extra thing has to do with distinguishing, the pure identity. In this way, I think MPB is still a little bit too much hardcore, but the variation of high speed, the slow parts (like in the final track ‘Temporary solution to a permanent problem’ ) and the almost poetry the song titles are (‘World War You, Narcoleptic Sleepwalker) ensuring me there’s a lot more to come from this band. And sure very, very much to discuss about.

P.S. Because of respect of the band, and because we do believe in artistic freedom, we’ll show you the banned cover of this record.