The adage that you should never judge a book by its cover applies to many things, including judging a band by its image. The promo shot – and video – for this release hints at either metal or technoindustrial, so the overly-pop-flavoured soulful electronica of ‘Blood’ comes as something of a surprise. It’s a pleasant surprise, that places the song in the kind of territory occupied by Depeche Mode, sounding somehow sparsely as arranged yet sonically dense, and rich in emotional depth, with Lea Alazam (singer in Besvärjelsen and former live drummer of REIN) picking through personal trauma and purging pain in the name of art as she sings ‘I’ll show you blood’.
The Brides’ bio is a little unusual, describing them as ‘an artistic collective existing for the sole purpose of serving our eternal Mother. The harder the outside world has tried to destroy, the harder the collective has become. For every blow, they have grown stronger’, and ‘After revealing the identities of Ginger Kahn aka Tom Åsberg (previously of Priest), Carolina Lindahl (previously of The Operating Tracks) and Lea Alazam, the collective is now ready to release the second episode of a story in ten parts called Blood and Fire’ (due September 2021
In context, their eponymous debut EP, previous single ‘Fire Disciple’ and now ‘Blood’ seem to serve as less of a taster and more of a warning, having (un)comfortably established the main themes we can expect from them. And it’s all sounding extremely promising indeed.