Blood For Blood

Livin’ in Exile (Victory)
by Tim Den

Another slab of self-righteousness that this band claims to be the enemy of. Blood For Blood pride themselves on being “the enemy of all you hold dear” and the middle finger in society’s face, but what they don’t realize is that their preaching of hatred is the same kind of prejudice that they are supposed to be against. Crying “fuck you”s to everyone but their kind, I wonder how Blood For Blood can’t hear the echo of their own anthems in the way mainstream society’s treated them. Yes, it’s true that wanna-be gangsta white kids from the suburbs and rich college yuppies need to be taught some harsh lessons in life. Yes, it’s true that Blood For Blood has every right to be proud of their rough background and be mad at the fucks who’ve kept them down. But hating back the same way those fucks hated the “outcasts and outlaws” that Blood For Blood claim to be doesn’t make the outcasts any better than the mainstream stiffs. The establishment judged you and ousted you based on ignorance, so now you’re going to be just as dumb as they are? Come on, I know you guys are better than that. Fuck the system and the way it alienates anyone different from them. Don’t copy their blind prejudice.

If Blood For Blood made their energetic, street-wise rock’n’roll into tools of awareness instead of unreasoned, poorly-thought-out ranting, there might be change in this fucked oppression of “outcasts.” Point out how society fucks with the poor and the under-privileged. Show the world how mainstream culture dismisses underground culture without reason. Show why this “music from the streets” is kept there because the establishment fears the individuality it possesses, and how it’s hated simply for being unlike the status quo. Don’t just “fuck this” and “fuck that” with no logical support. It gives the general masses yet another superficial reason to dismiss you as animals that don’t deserve recognition. Rise above and prove to them that street-level knowledge has made you better, stronger, and more intelligent than they are. That’ll drive the message home and piss them off a helluva lot more than simple hatred.
(PO Box 146546 Chicago, IL 60614)