Forgotten Gems-Blood Money:Red, raw and bleeding!

Back in the mid to late 1980's thrash was certainly my favorite metal sub-genre. I listened to any thrash I could get my hands on. That doesn't mean that I liked all the thrash that I heard back then, but I did enjoy a lot of it. However like any popular musical movement there are bound to be bands that slip through the cracks. Some times there is a good reason why that happens and some times not so much. Even though I am not as amaze by thrash as I was 25 or so years ago I am open to giving a chance to a thrash release from back then that I missed out on. I never heard of Blood Money until just a year or so ago and never got around to hearing this album until. This UK band had formed in 1984, knocked out a demo a year later and by 1986 released this their debut album. I always found it interesting that much of the roots of thrash can be traced back to the NWOBHM as bands like Venom, Raven and others were huge influences for the young acts that were hot on their heels. Yet the number of known thrash bands coming out of the UK in the mid-late 1980's seemed far less than the number of thrash coming out of the states or Germany. However that doesn't mean that there weren't some capable acts churning out thrash in the UK. For 1986 Blood Money may have been slightly behind the times with their sound on this album. The sound here is closer to what was going on in 84-85 as opposed to the thrash explosion that occurred in 1986. Still these guys were very tight and played some catchy, hard driving songs. Oddly enough the top two acts I here are Neil Turbin era-Anthrax and early Joey Belladonna-era Anthrax as well. Beyond that I also hear some Agent Steel and no surprise some NWOBHM influences too including Venom. This is unpolished, un-compromising early thrash. They won't earn a huge amount of style points, but I am sure they didn't care about that either. Instead they charge on and tie it all together as they go. For me I often preferred thrash before a band progressed or tried too hard. Blood Money certainly capture that sound on this album. These guys would knock out one more album after this one. Band members of went onto to be in China Beach, Morgueazm and Xanthoma. Definitely track this one down if you have never heard it before.