Guilty as Sin

Released in a year of blistering thrash masterpieces like Master Of Puppets, Reign In Blood, Darkness Descends, and countless other metal opuses that gained rather critical acclaim from the metal community, there was Guilty As Sin.

Every song contained in this condensed 29 minute and 33 second package is nothing short of a pure, dark, masterclass of speed metal mayhem. The album kicks off with "Soldier of Fortune". Beginning with a, while simple, effective acoustic guitar intro that gives the listener the false perception that this ISN'T about to blow their fucking ears off. Then the drums kick in and the speed metal begins and never stops until the album ends. Brutalizing the listener with scorching song after song in a full on speed metal assault.

If I were to describe this album I would say that it was like if you took Paul Dianno Iron Maiden, gave it a hit of cocaine, and sent it off to tear the ears off of any MGK wanna be metal head that dares press play. While taking obvious Maiden themes, it builds upon them and makes them even darker. Take "Bleeding For You" for example. A song about a mental deranged man hunting down his ex girlfriend after she breaks up with him and murdering her in an ally way as she begs for mercy. Hot damn! You aren't gonna see that shit on the B side of any Winger record.

Some people may find criticism in the fact that the production value is not the greatest. While I agree to some extent I think that it only adds to the dark, grimy feel that this record has. This record gives no fucks and it's only appropriate that their sound mimics that. Another criticism is the run time. Clocking in at a short 29 minute and 33 second run time it's fair to say that it's short. But in complaining about the run time are you not saying that you were dying for more? This album comes in, tears your fucking face off, and gets the fuck out. No filler and no shits given. I personally hate it when fantastic albums are dulled down by useless instrumentals or obvious uninspired tunes made to just make the run time longer. You aren't gonna find that with this album. Every song has a purpose and it delivers every time.

The musicianship on this album is nothing on the level of "Special" but it gets the job done and then some. The major standout I'd like to credit in making this album as good as it is is the lead singer Guy Lord. His voice perfectly matches the grimy nature of the music portrayed. He has a hint of Stacy Anderson, J.D Kimball, all piled on top of the obvious Paul Dianno influences. When he hits those high notes on songs such as "Tear It Up" and "Too Scared To Run" you can't help but scrunch up your face and bang your head. While Guy Lord kicks absolute ass with his vocal delivery, the other members aren't slacking either. Mark E. Guestas is an absolute powerhouse behind the drum kit. His sloppy yet powerful drum delivery completely pummels the listener on songs like "Tear It Up" and "Soldier Of Fortune". Every second he can he throws in an awesome single stroke roll fill moving from roto tom to floor tom. Some may say its overkill and I say fuck yea it is! And he doesn't care what you say. The guitars on this album are nothing short but stellar. On "Tear It Up" half the song is dedicated to a duel guitar solo that pummels the listener with pure speed metal riffage.

Overall this little metal gem from 1986 is a true masterclass in speed metal fury that provides the listener with 7 fist pumping anthems. Every song on this album is incredible in their own right and deserve to be heard. If you want an album filled with technical prowess and high falsetto vocals, you aren't gonna find it here. But if you want an album to rip your fucking face off with masterful shredding, pounding drums, and bad ass vocals, then Guilty As Sin is the perfect album for you.

Back in the mid-eighties, things seemed to be easy. Are you a poser? No? Okay, than you are a thrasher. But beware, some shades of grey existed. Bloodlust’s “Guilty of Sin” had enough speedy rhythms to count the band to the good half of the scene, but their level of aggression left room for improvement. The same was true for their hairstyles. The pictures of the individual musicians clearly showed overly styled hair. Despite the proximity of the names in the alphabet not Bonjovi-compatible, but slightly filthy thrashers looked different. However, let’s focus on the musical content.

First of all, the production sucks. It is a dull, ill-defined and pretty powerless sound. Some parts of the drums are hardly audible. The only detail that stands out of the acoustic mishmash are some high-pitched screams of lead vocalist Guy Lord, a child of his time who could not perform without these shrieks. But a bad production does not necessarily kill an entire album. Too bad that the compositional level of the band also does not convince. Some melodic parts (“Ride to Death” or “Too Scared to Run”) lack expression and whenever the band prefers a mid-tempo approach (“Chainsaw”), things become completely indifferent.

The playing time of less than half an hour is also characteristical, as is the otherwise very sparse output of the combo. A comparatively lively song like “Tear it Up” with its Exciter riffing gave hope that the band can develop into something greater. Well, today we know it better. The absence of a proper back catalogue is definitely no coincidence. All in all, the songs lack of any surprising element, but what do you expect when it comes to pieces with lyrics like “I gave you my love and then you tore it apart“? Perhaps the five dudes from California liked Bonjovi better than I suspected above after all. But let’s stay fair, the band had more in common with Raven or Anvil (both in bad form).

Usually Roadrunner was a very reliable and well appreciated supplier of good metal in the eighties. However, here they failed. Don’t judge a book by the cover, but here the artwork indicates the level of excitement. I wish I could find some more positive aspects, but the terribly weak chorus of the last track spoils my mood for the last time, not only because of its hackneyed "hour / power" rhyme. Yes, the eighties were the golden decade of metal, but when if not in the case of Bloodlust applies: all that glitters is not gold. So historically interested listeners can find certainly good craftsmanship, no doubt at all, yet that alone is not enough.

Bloodlust is a speed metal band from Los Angeles that released its first album, Guilty as Sin, in early 1986 on Metal Blade Records, despite not appearing on any of that label's Metal Massacre compilations. But was it good enough to deserve the label's interest? Let's find out...

Bloodlust's main style is speed metal in the vein of Exciter. Unusually for a metal album, this has only seven tracks clocking in at under 30 minutes. Although its brevity is not necessarily a drawback, it could have benefited from an extra track or two. Although speed metal is often criticised for being too one-dimensional, here there's a lot of variety - the tracks can be divided along these lines as follows: fast speed metal ('Soldier of Fortune', 'Tear It Up' and 'Rising Power'), mid-tempo swingers ('Chainsaw', 'Bleeding For You') and slow groovers ('Ride to Death' and 'Too Scared to Run'). The highlight of the album is the opener 'Soldier of Fortune', which starts with a lengthy acoustic intro before kicking into high gear.

Frontman Guy Lord has an impressive vocal range with a lot of power behind it, regularly switching between lower pitched growls and Rob Halford-esque screams. He doesn't just relegate himself to shouting however, and is able to sing quite competently on many of the choruses which makes them more memorable. The album falls somewhat short in the riff department however. There's some good riffs, sure, especially on 'Rising Power', but otherwise the similarity with Judas Priest and others is too great for this band to really set themselves apart. Production-wise, the guitar tone is raw and abrasive which enhances its overall impact. The drums sound alright too but could have been produced better, as much of the double bass work unfortunately gets buried.

Overall, Guilty as Sin is a decent effort that encapsulates what speed metal was all about in the mid-1980s, but turns out to be rather underwhelming when compared with similar contemporary bands like Exciter and Razor. The vocals are easily the album's strongest suit, but the songwriting and production leave much to be desired. Ultimately, this was Bloodlust's only full album, and they would only put out one more EP before breaking up in 1988.

"Tip of the Metal Blade" is a review series delving into some of the most obscure bands on Metal Blade Records' roster during the 1980s.

“…I’ve got motor breath, wings of steel, bullets of fire, and targets to feel…”

L.A.’s Bloodlust isn't really known for more than forcing the New Jersey Bloodlust to forget the lust of it all and just dig in with Blood Feast as well as for harboring Abattoir’s escapee lungman, Steve Gaines, a few years after this release. While hardly the surprise of the day, this who? status admittedly may not be entirely deserved, but that’s really only when intangible stuff like panache, know-how, and workmanship heat up the equation. Realistically, when a catalog boasts a career of one full-length and a mini, any mention beyond ‘novelty’ (or just a mention, period) is a day in outta the rain.

At their most aggressive here, Bloodlust is a speed metal band (alright, listen up - if ya want an example showing the difference between speed and thrash, listen to “Soldier of Fortune” from both Bloodlust [start right after the drum break] and Razor [from 1:39 to the end of the solo] - I’ll eat my hat if the difference in rhythmic velocity and aggression isn’t plain as oatmeal) that, like many of this narrow and often misinterpreted style, haven’t lost track of their important traditional roots, and it’s these roots that enliven the above-ordinary catchiness most of this disc uses as traveling currency. One or two memorable songs are more likely a fluke than any measure of talent, but becomes a solid, promotable skill with seven or eight.

Like the halfway decent thinkers I’m pretty sure they are, they let “Soldier of Fortune” cut the disc loose, a tune that uses a melodramatic entrance to pump the song’s heart with rough, palm-muted picking that’ll be much less the stranger after introductions to side two exclusives “Bleeding for You”, “Rising Power”, and the Exciter-ed “Tear It Up”. While this moderately-aggressive speed-picking is the largest block these particular songs are built upon, don’t underestimate the diversity shaped by the smaller ones. Observe the turning of the tables of these speed traps: the methodical mid-pace of “Ride to Death”, ramblin’ “Chainsaw”, and evidently, “Too Scared to Run”, an intimidating stalker of its grooves.

Frontman Guy Lord resides in an unevenly split vocal realm; it’s similar to the kingdom where Glen May (Tyrant [US]) spends most of his night bellowing menacingly, then screams daylight’s welcome with cloud-shearing pitch, however Lord has a third turret, an unneeded place from where he assaults the kinda boneheaded chorus (and overall lyrics) of “Chainsaw”, portions of “Tear it Up”, and smaller limbs of “Bleeding for You” with ignoble, juvenile screeching that sprays goofy graffiti on the coolness that he’s built. Aside from that, while Lord’s style is more versatile, sometimes considerably so, than the future voices for Savage Steel, Vio-lence, Sacred Reich, and Damien Thorne, his proficiency and capacity is still a few streets down from May, however I’m sure they can see each other from their balconies. All told, he’s a popular (and the most enticing) factor of this lp’s local sphere of success.

The rest of ‘em seem to hold up their personal ends of the rope adequately enough, yet AWOL is just about any flash n’ bang or notable punch-up factor that coulda brought this closer to clinging distance on creativity’s higher ridges or spiked their fairly full holding tank of catchy songwriting with some kind of hundred-proof gagger. Lumberjacks Anthony Romero and Earl Mendenhall seem adept in their base axe slinging, but aside from brief tandem flare ups and one or two unexpected wild hairs, seem unwilling to deviate from the text. The addition of these extra edges could have given Guilty as Sin the edge, or a sharper one, or at the very least may have unclogged a production that gives the album the gloss of a dead leaf.

Still, to my mind Bloodlust belongs clogging Jersey’s dingy sewers, which is also an adorable resting place for this thing’s waste of a front cover. What’s worse than a creatively-blank artist? Besides the retard who bought it, one with the patience to stare at it for days...this, I dunno, iced-over dog pen? A window at Santa’s house? An escape hatch for on-the-run Ice Capades?

Unfortunately for us record collectors, the cassette had a better cover.

Nobody can say that the 80s weren’t the greatest years for metal. There were many and incredibly good bands, also in the underground. You know, sometimes people say that if you didn’t reach the top is because you haven’t done something important to make you notice by the labels and the people, and so, why does this band signed a contract with Metal Blade and this good album still remains in the underground? Answer this…

Their style is the classic speed/thrash metal that by the middle of that decade was really great, especially in Canada and in the U.S.A. with bands like Exciter, Détente, Znowhite, Agent Steel and many others. I think you know that I love mostly short albums in metal (few long ones really captured my attention during these years) because you can always pay attention to the sound in each single note, without risking to fall asleep, and this Guilty As Sin belongs to the short ones with its 29 minutes of length.

So, let’s begin from the arpeggios of the opener, “Soldier of Fortunes”. The melodies are audible but after awhile the electric guitars comes and the atmosphere is heavier. The singer is very good, passing easily from a not annoying falsetto to a more rough and heavy tone of voice. He’s very good. The guitars are scratchy and metallic enough to play speed metal and with the following “Ride To Death” the tempo is a bit more epic but less fast. It’s a sort of a march with melodic guitars parts, a catchy refrain and beautiful solos.

“Chainsaw” is the classic street fight speed metal song with heavy riffs and pounding drums. Sometimes, they reminded me a bit the very first Anthrax but Bloodlust are heavier for the tone of voice and less melodic for the guitars. The fast palm muting riffs and the drums rolls are perfect to introduce another excellent and fast guitar solo. “Tear It Up” is faster with the classic speed metal semi up tempo and heavy mid paced breaks; while “Too Scared To Run” is slower and epic during the refrain.

“Rising Power” is the last speed metal attack by the band. It’s fast but always with an eye to the melody. That’s why I love speed metal. All in all, a good album with well balanced songs, that go from speed ones to more mid paced and epic others. The guitars solos and the vocals are the two elements that contribute in making this album even more enjoyable and nostalgic. For 80s metal fans.