I’ve been keeping tabs on this relatively new band from the North East of England for a while now, so I was pretty excited to learn that their debut album was due for release. I badgered drummer Dave for an advance copy and the result is a fantastic album chock full of punk-hardcore-whatever you want to call it melodic anthems.

There was a time when you didn’t need to pigeonhole bands – they just fell under a broader umbrella of underground punk rock. Think of Doughboys, Shudder To Think, Junction, Sofa Head and many more – none of them sounded remotely alike but they were all moving in the same direction. I feel that Fast Blood sits firmly in that camp. They cherry-pick touches here and there, but the result is a cohesive powerhouse of punk. On first listen, these are super bouncy tunes to enjoy from the get-go, but diving deeper into the sound, there is a hell of a lot to get your teeth into. 

All sorts of musical wizardry provide a superb backdrop to Abigail’s vocals. She veers from singing sugar-sweet passages, but throws in off-kilter screams here and there to keep you on edge. Lyrically this is no easy ride either with a lot of personal distress and political despair prevalent. Album closer and title track Sunny Blunts deals a final killer emotional blow and rounds off a brilliant debut album, which, incidentally, you can order here Tom Chapman