Album Review: Bloodclot - Souls
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
Bloodclot hail from the Mecca of Hardcore New York City, and along with being from NY feature John Joseph the voice on the legendary Cro Mags album “The Age of Quarral” enough said on that regard really. Also along with JJ have also previously featured the late Todd Youth (Warzone, Agnostic Front, Danzig) along with Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss) to name a few notable ex members of the band. Souls which is the band's first release since the death of Todd Youth who passed in 2018 features a complete line up overhaul again made up of members of bands such as Bold, Maximum Penalty, Madball to name a few.
Souls absolutely comes straight at you as it opens, as it opens with an aggressive thrashy vibe with its opening riff. This track brings a real Slayer vibe which I wasn’t expecting and with the intensity of the verse section combined with JJ who’s vocal stylings on this song do have a similar sound to Tom Araya it absolutely rips your face off. Now the hardcore sound is definitely not lost and it’s not a case of a hardcore band trying to write metal but there are multiple examples of Bloodclot offering a more straight up metal feel to the song structure and sound on Souls.
Now as aggressive as the music that Bloodclot composes it’s definitely the vocals which add the extra bite to the furious vibes on Souls which let’s be honest is what you need on a hardcore record. Joseph is not one to hide his opinions and Souls among the subjects discussed within the tracks media manipulation is very front and centre in its subject matter, and no matter your opinion on what comes out of his mouth his performance is definitely not a case of a guy going through the motions, there is genuine feeling being showcased with his performance. Production wise Souls sounds absolutely brilliant, you can really feel all the energy put into the songs and through each instrument.
Souls is a well written and recorded EP. The tracks have a real energetic spark and the mixture of the metal vibes within their songwriting definitely works and has really good balance. It won’t appeal to everyone but people more interested in the thrash/crossover hardcore vibe should enjoy Souls.
