Band : Bonded By Blood
Album title : Exiled To Earth
Label : Earache Records
Distribution : Rough Trade Benelux
Release date : 06/08/2010
Review : CD

Bonded By Blood is a thrash metal band from Pomona, California, where the band was formed in 2005. Even though the band members are in their twenties, the band produces an old school sound, that takes us back to the legendary Bay Area thrash from the eighties. No wonder the band named itself after the debut album of Exodus. The career of Bonded By Blood really took off when they won a battle of bands, out of 250 bands. In 2008, their first album Feed The Beast was released through Earache Records. Bass player Ruben Dominguez left the band in November 2009 and was replaced by Jerry Garcia.

And now there’s the second album, Exiled To Earth, a concept album about an extra-terrestrial race that wants to conquer the world. OK, Bonded By Blood doesn’t add something original to the scene, but they are good at what they do and are part of the thrash metal revival, together with bands like for instance Evile, Gama Bomb, Fueled By Fire, Warbringer, Toxic Holocaust and Municipal Waste. So, you know what you are going to get: nothing new under the sun, but the youngsters from Bonded By Blood provide energetic thrash metal, with neck-snapping riffs from guitar player Alex Lee and the voice of Jose Barrales that reminds me a bit of Zetro Souza. Exiled To Earth contains 11 songs and has a playing time of 42 minutes. Highlights of the album are the opening track “600 A.B. (After The Bomb)”, “Prototype: Death Machine”, “Genetic Encryption”, “Blood Spilled Offerings”, “Desolate Future” and “Cross-Insemination”.

Bonded By Blood are on tour in the USA untill the end of 2010 and will come over to Europe in 2011.

77/100

Erik.