Literary references by punk and metal bands are nothing new, but Bloodhag take it one step further. The short, sludgy punk and metal songs on Hell Bent For Letters pay tribute to science fiction and authors, and under the subgenre title of "edu-core", the band actively pushes a connection between punk/metal and reading. It's a positive message wrapped in heavy, heavy wrapping.
Bloodhag Makes Reading Fun
The band is composed of science fiction authors Prof. J.B. Stratton (vocals), Dr. J.M. McNulty (guitar), Sir Zachary Orgel (bass) and Master Brent Carpenter (drums), and each song simply bears the name of the author it pays tribute to.
Musically, Bloodhag is hard! Sometimes they play fast, sometimes slow, but never weakly. Even so, they manage to mix it up; songs range from slow and sludgy like "Gene Wolfe", to faster and punk/thrash heavy, like "Thomas M. Disch". One of the best tracks on the album, "Edgar Allen Poe", even has a suitably dark goth metal sound.
As is typical of music with this sound, much of the lyrics are lost in guttural vocals. This just makes it more fun when you catch references you recognize, like (and I'm giving away my geekiness now) the chorus of "Tesseract" on "Madeline L'Engle", and when the band chants "Save Pern! Save Pern!" on Anne McCaffrey.
Read The Liner Notes... Bloodhag Likes It When You Read
The liner notes are a literary masterpiece in and of themselves, and are broken up into two chapters. The first chapter, "The Meeting Atop Mount Hatheg-Kla", is a short Lovecraftian epic heralding the band and cleverly placing their thank yous in story form. The second chapter, "Hell Bent For Letters" contains the lyrics in their entirety, which I'm glad for, because these lyrics are too much fun to allow to be lost in Stratton's roaring vocals.
The lyrics range from biographical comments on the writers' lives ("He served the Air Corps in the Second World War and brought his typewriter back to the U.S. shore." - "Frederik Pohl"), to simple mentions of the band's favorite authors ("Bloodhag always carry some Swanwick with us. Stations Of The Tide is ubiquitous" - "Michael Swanwick"). The last track, "Jack Womack", even comes across as a hard rap ballad about a real tough character:
"Here's the early facts on Jack Womack:
raised in a shack, trained in the bookshop stacks.
If you like Random Acts of Senseless Violence, you've got Jack to thank.
Great read from front to back, take that to the bank."
Hell Bent For Letters is much more than just a gimmick album. Fans of science fiction who are not into this sound will probably dig it for its novelty value, but fans of true hard heavy sludge metal and thrash punk will like this album whether or not they are literary buffs, and if it leads them to pick up a book by an author referenced on the album, so much the better. Edu-core has done its job.
