Blood From the Soul “To Spite the Gland That Breeds” CD

Here's another long lost gem that I've been meaning to post about for quite some time now. I mean, am I the only one that ever liked this damn band or something? 'Cause it always seemed like very few people even knew this duo existed, and that always confused the shit outta me. Formed by Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury (who handled all the music) and Sick of it All vocalist Lou Koller, Blood From the Soul was what I guess you'd classify as an "industrial" side project, and this was their sole release. (Though rumor has it there's going to be a second, very different, album at some point, with Mirai from Sigh instead of Lou. This does not interest me in the least. Maybe that makes me an asshole, but sometimes I can live with that.) Released by Earache in early-1994 (within the same general period that Mitch Harris did the first Meathook Seed album with some of the Obituary guys, which I posted about a couple years ago), I never really knew much background information about what brought this album to fruition, but it didn't matter! I was probably about 16 years old, Napalm Death was still riding the wave of what remains my favorite of their albums to this day ("Utopia Banished"), as was Sick of it All with the absolutely classic "Just Look Around" (not to mention that they were probably my favorite hardcore band, period, at the time), and that was all I needed to know. I was sold.

I wasn't a huge fan of "industrial" music (never really have been), but I dug some Ministry stuff, and actually thought this material was even better by comparison. Perhaps because it wasn't going for that grating kind of "crispy" distortion sound or anything, but still employed some of the staple samples, sparse electronics, and drum programming. Whatever the case, there's a lot of cool shit happening in terms of unexpectedly dark, twisted riffing, plenty of tempo changes, and generally gnarly atmospherics that fit the whole vibe of the album fairly well. I feel like a lot of side projects these days leave me feeling quite unsatisfied, but both of these guys really kind of stepped outside of what they were thought of as doing at the time, and the end result doesn't particularly sound anything like what Napalm Death or Sick of it All were known for back then, though it should appeal to open-minded fans of both (which is why it always blew my mind that so few people seemed to know about this album). Shane Embury really displays some fucking talent on this one too, 'cause there are just loads of killer riffs all over the place, and there's a real sense of feeling and emotion to the style of the compositions that colors things up nicely and catches your ear in a manner unlike any other band I can think of, which is pretty damn intriguing—even after all these years. Such an underrated record, this one... I just can't make sense of the world.

Blood From the Soul "The Image and the Helpless"
Blood From the Soul "Suspension of My Disbelief"

Cold and indifferent. A state of burnt offerings. Above it all I lie condemned. Confused and isolated. A thousand lost souls. Their only guidance? No guidance. No guidance at all. Force-fed the notion. Like an impure dream. Refined, dissected, rejected. Just a smile secures my innocence in pursuit of the ideal lie... the ideal lie.

Get It

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