Praise Armageddonism

Blood Command: on track for arena status

PRESS

HASSLE

Bergen’s aggro-pop insurgents re-up and return to the fray

NORWEGIAN DEATH-DISCO

INVENTORS Blood Command really should be a lot bigger than they are at this point. Their last two full-length albums, 2012’s Funeral Beach and 2017’s Cult Drugs, were a hugely unique and utterly seductive mix of Blondie-style disco pop/ rock nuggets pumped up with riffs and aggression that could go toe to toe with any abrasive hardcore band. Not many bands could make sounding like Paramore and The Blood Brothers at the same time appear effortless, but they did it without skipping on the tunes.

Quite why they haven’t connected more may be down to the revolving door of vocalists, with former Pagan yelper Nikki Brumen making her debut here.

Hopefully the upheaval is over and the band can finally break through to more people this time around. Once again, Blood Command have hit the spot with Praise Armageddonism and 10 more tracks of eccentric, dynamic, instant punk rock thrills that are catchier than the common cold.

Nikki fits the BC model perfectly, with a voice that swerves from cutting screams to candy floss-sweet depending on whether the band are banging their heads or shaking their hips. Songs like A Villain’s Monologue, A Questionable Taste In Friends and the amazing Saturday City – which borrows from hyper-pop and power metal and features a chorus that wouldn’t leave your brain even if you had a Men In Black memory-eraser on the go – immediately sound like classic Blood Command anthems.