Blood Money

So the Metal collector world has indeed been upside-down for the last decade and plenty of the albums we thought were fairly available only yesterday are now rare as hen's cocks. This one's been on my to-do list for ages anyways, but as of 2025, it seems to be on just about every second want list I come across so let's finally get Bloody to it...

I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. While Blood Money could hardly be called one-hit-wonders, there is one truly Special stand-out track on this album and it is the almighty "Lazarus". The absolutely insane, BRUTAL, pounding rhythm of this masterpiece has zero contemporary competition simply because there are no other tracks remotely like it from this era (...or elsewhen, but I really wouldn't know) - they even called their album tour the "Lazarus tour" for doGssake! so they were obviously self-aware enough to have realized that they'd created something truly special here. Just... please? Check out this track on your streaming service of choice at this very moment. The longer you wait, the viler the curses you will swing on your person for not doing it sooner.

...but, "Red, Raw And Bleeding" as a whole then, what does it sound like? It sound like early JAGUAR with VENOM filth, thankfully skipping the total chaos-bit of the Venom influences for good measure. Frankly this is pure Archetype Speed Metal, as in neither Heavy nor Thrash but truly Speeeed Steel in the best of British post-NWOBHM ways. It's on Ebony so of course the mix and production is... Ebony, but in this case it fits the band's style perfectly. I freakin' love the Venom/1st Bathory-goes-Power "Metalyzed" opener, the Onslaught'y "Gor" and especially the krrrrayzee Motörhead-on-45 "Nazi Zombie Flesh Eating Devil Killers" - a title so absolutely perfect that they had to censor it into an acronym in order to not self-implode in utter Metal coolness.

The rain/reign of perfect Speed Metal rippers continue on side B with "Stormer", "Taras Bulba", "The Third Wish" and "Death Heavy" (man how COOL are these titles?!) and here the ultimate description of Blood Money's particular brand of MetalSpeed finally descends: If you've ever wondered what the Bathory debut would have sounded like with classic NWOBHM vocals, this is truly It. Intermissioned smack in the middle of these bulldozers we also get the excellent Cloven Hoof-goes-Thrash "Deathstiny", so yeah, still ultra-British Steel all the way to the finish line.

I think I can confidently say that both Blood Money albums are currently the most expensive and sought-after Ebony releases, bar perhaps a few of the ridiculously rare, later Reaction Records compilations* and for a fairly good reason. Are they qualitywise on par with fewllow UK speedster behemoths Onslaught or Sabbat? Ha! Of course not, but maybe baby almost in the league of, let's say Deathwish or Snyper, so consider this a very solid Corroseum endorsement.

* = Not counting the 2 early synth compilations of course, but those are on an entirely different level..