It seems like everyone wants to thrash in an old-school way these days. The latest new kids on the Bay Area block, although the band actually hail from L.A., are Bonded by Blood and, lets face it, with a name like that how could they ever pretend to be anything else? In all fairness the guys openly admit to being huge Exodus fans and they all cite the Bay Area legends first album in their top 5 of all time list. 

With their mid to up-tempo riffing and pounding drum assault allied to Aladdin's Baloffesqe vocals Bonded by Blood run the risk of being overlooked altogether, given that these elements are almost the norm for this scene, they also give a nod to the humour that the original bands back in the day used to have with their thrashed up version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme. 

The biggest problem that Bonded by Blood have at the moment is that they struggle for an element of individuality that would help them stand out in what's starting to become a overcrowded genre. They do tick all of the right boxes apart from this one however and given the collective ages of the band - ironically none of the band were born when that seminal Exodus record was released - they have plenty of time to develop and find their niche and mature their arranging and lyric writing. 

 I hope this is the case as songs such as the title track and "Mind Pollution" show that the band can write material that would have been the equal of many of their peers had Bonded by Blood hit the scene in the mid-eighties, the question is can they build on these solid foundations and deliver a truly memorable release? Next time around maybe, but this is a decent enough first effort and is worth investigating further.

John Lewins