Rankelson’s debut album from back in the NWOBHM days (1986) gets a release on CD with a couple of bonus tracks.
The band were from the Cardiff area in Wales. Lasted a few years in the mid-1980s with two albums to their name.
It’s not straight ahead NWOBHM. There’s other stuff going on more akin to “hair” metal which was also popular at the time.
To me Hungry for Blood is an album which can’t quite make its mind up what it wants to be.
There some excellent, atmospheric well-paced slightly progressive metal songs aided by some tasty keyboard swells.
Then there are some rather generic, repetitive “how fast can we play” type stuff which to my ears all sound the same and have little to recommend them.
The opener – Beak the Chains is one of those atmospheric slightly proggy songs. The keys are effective swelling out the sound allied with a big drum sound, throbbing bass and nice, chunky guitar. Excellent first track.
The title track falls in to the same category with the throbbing bass-driven style more to the fore and it’s quite hypnotic even. Have a listen:
Bronx Warrior not dissimilar then the closer before the bonus tracks – New York City – ramps things up a bit further and it’s an excellent hard/heavy/atmospheric piece.
That’s all the good stuff.
Of the others. Hmmmmm. Not so good. Sex Slave is best forgotten. Can’t Stop Rockin’ doesn’t really start rocking. Sounds a bit weak with the keys too high in the mix. Hot Tonite and Abuser too fast for the sake of it and sound the same as do the two bonus tracks.
In my opinion (and paraphrasing an over-used soccer cliché), Hungry for Blood is an album of two halves.
Half of it very good (Beak the Chains, Hungry for Blood, Bronx Warrior, New York City) and the rest far too generic hair/glam metal style which do nothing for me.
A bit of a shame (again, in my opinion) that a band which could come up with well-constructed, driving, atmospheric stuff like Break the Chains or New York City could go to the other end of the extreme with poor stuff like Hot Tonite.
I do enjoy the good stuff here – though hit the skip button on the CD player in between.
If you’d like to check out this curiosity from the NWOBHM days, I got mine from the label (Diabolic Might Records). Link to them and a couple of other places I’ve seen it available below.
https://diabolicmightrecords.com/
https://www.noremorse.gr/
https://www.sonicagerecords.com/