BLOOD OF THE SUN - Blood's Thicker Than Love

Released November 2/18 (Listenable)

While initiating opener 'Keep The Lemmy's Comin'' with a riff straight out of Motorhead's Overkill opus sure grabbed my attention, the addition of rollicking Jon Lord-ian keyboard flourishes on top of it had me fully out of my seat in surprise. Concluding with an extended jam section, guitars and keyboards fighting for dominance, the close to six-minute track had me air guitarin' in absolute glee.

What follows can best be described as sounding like early Deep Purple using riffs lifted from a number of southern rock bands as flimsy premises for partaking in some extended jocular jam sessions. Take 'Livin' For The Night', which appropriates a Molly Hatchet riff, before ending in an appropriate chicken scratch guitar solo conclusion, or 'Blood Of The Road' which sounds like they just crashed the tail end of a 'Roadhouse Blues' jam.

Texas-based Blood Of The Sun have clearly knocked the proverbial ball out of the park here, or, perhaps more appropriately, have concocted the ultimate pig-roast-at-a-biker-rally-70's-throwback release heard in eons. I can easily envisage this growing into an all-time classic like my well-worn copies of Flirtin' With Disaster, Machine Head and Marauder.

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