Bionic – Black Blood – Review

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Black Blood (Signed By Force)
By Craig Regala

Nice, tense, wound-up, rocked-up gunk with enough of the historia del rocka rootage to draw in anyone with the a taste for the sharp, short shock gulping the pilled-up Who/Yardbirds ’60s Mod nerve through the vicious bite of MC5/Stooges/Simply Saucer/Devo ’70s. Bulk this up with the roaring ’80s punk-ID’d bands that never flew the dumbfuck flag (The Zero Boys, The Effigies), and a firm working knowledge of hard rock (someone here likes BTO/Steppenwolf), cut with the feel of a kickass blues/garage howler itching to bust into Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” pretty much most of the time. Bionic sound offhand natural. The ideas they trot out flow together without drawing attention to themselves. They work musically to craft their songs, real good ones. They lock a groove, roll out the riffs, bait the hook, and set it on fire. Fuck, Vern, what more do ya want ?

These guys can gig with a ton of bands and get over. You could slot “Silver Jet Plane” between AC/DC and The Hives and you wouldn’t lose hardly anyone, even when they bust into the shit heisted from Monster Magnet or Cactus. Energy peaks, keeps the pressure on, and then slides into a bridge or chorus to store up additional bang! Throw’m on a bill with Electric Frankenstein and RPG and they’ll sell outta those black light Black Blood panties in a minute. I mean, shit, these guys are rockers! in the best non-denominational sense of it. I’d roll out a couple hundred mile drive to catch’m pound out a full set, and I’m fucking 48 in two months, k?
(www.signedbyforce.com)