For those of you who have never heard Blood For Blood, two things can be said: 1. You're missing out on one of the greatest hardcore bands touring today, and 2. No record collection can be complete without BFB's latest, "Outlaw Anthems".
Blood For Blood is an old school style hardcore band from Boston, MA. After 4 releases, they developed quite a following made up of fans to similar acts such as Agnostic Front and Madball. One common complaint with BFB, however, is that they sing about the same old topics in every single song - being poor, being white trash, and their hatred for society. Well this album is no different. In fact, the band may even go overboard with it at times.
The first track is an intro titled "A Post Card From The Edge". Like many BFB intro's, it starts with a bar room scene of yelling, talking, and cursing. However, this time around it goes on and on and on. By the end of this intro, you feel like you've just listened to a good 2 tracks. And that's not a good thing.
However, the quality of the songs that follow immediately make up for the sub-par intro. "Mother Dear" and "Ain't Like You" are very typical BFB songs. Loud, fast, aggressive, sing-along style chorus's, and some of the most in-your-face beatdowns ever written. It's hard to listen to the beatdown in "Mother Dear" without wanting to pick up the change right then and there.
Later in the CD, most noteably on "White Trash Anthem", Blood For Blood takes a different route than usual. Guitarist and primary songwriter White Trash Rob (brother to Mark Lind, singer of The Ducky Boys) takes over on vocals. The songs he sings are generally a lot poppier and upbeat sounding than BFB regularly does. This of course compared to Buddha, the regular singer, and his low, rough voice.
The album closes with probably two of the highlights to any listener. First is "Bloodshed", which is a cover of oi! legends The Bruisers. BFB does this song excellent and goes beyond the original version ever could have. Following this is "She's Still a Bitch (Called Hope)", which is a remake of one of BFB's own songs from early on in their careers. This is also an excellent track that is sure to make any hardcore kid a fan of the band.
My only complaint with this CD is that I felt the band was trying to be controversial. I can honestly say the word "fuck" is used at minimum 4 times in each track, with the exception of the intro of course. Lines such as "Fucking your pussy was like fucking the wound from a shotgun blast" and "If you don't like it you can suck my dick!" (which is repeated over and over) and "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you and fuck society too!" The mindlessness of it just seemed to take away from a near perfect record.
Despite that one minor complaint, this record is a MUST have for any old school punk or hardcore kid. Download "Tear Out My Eyes" and it's almost a guarantee that you will want to buy this album. If you like Blink or Sum or Mest, I'm telling you now, this is NOT the record for you. But if you're looking for an amazingly catchy, aggressive and hard album, pick Blood For Blood's "Outlaw Anthems" up as soon as possible. Without a doubt, one of the greatest releases of 2002.