BASTARD “Rotten Blood”
By Dr. Abner Mality
When MIDNIGHT goes on tour behind their new album, this is the band they should have open up for them. It would be a great match, as BASTARD play much the same kind of evil metal rock n roll as the hooded ones do. “Rotten Blood” is one of those albums where the sheer energy carries you past the obvious fact that this has all been done before, many times.
The band apparenly has members from the long defunct HARKONIN, which is surprising, because I remember HARKONIN as being very much modern death metal. BASTARD is a rancid stew of MOTÖRHEAD, VENOM, early German thrash and dirty rawk like HOOKERS and ZEKE. Lots of talk about Satan, booze, motorcycles...you know the drill. But boy, they hit the ground running and just don’t let up for the whole album. You can hear the MOTÖRHEAD influences long and strong on “Protector” and the title track, while “Hellfire and Steel” and “Whipstrike” have more of the thrash touch. But it’s all fast and raucous.
For sure, this is one of those album that you just slap on and get ready to bang, originality be damned. A good entry in the dirty, evil metal sweepstakes…