From the ashes the phoenix shall rise. After the collapse of Climates just weeks after the release of their debut album, the members of the band regrouped, re-evaluated and refocused their musical style to birth Blood Youth with just a neon logo and a hype train in tow. Now after months of anticipation, the eve of the release of debut EP ‘Inside My Head’ is here and the band are eager to see if their rebranding will see them soar or sink in the vast boiling pot that is melodic hardcore.

The blueprint of what Blood Youth seem to want to achieve is an interesting one. ‘Inside My Head’ boasts some obnoxiously grooving riffs that collide brilliantly with a vocal performance filled with grit and intent. On the other hand, beneath its rock hard shell there is a gooey pop rock centre, which glimmers with feeling and melody against the rough and ready noise. ‘Piece By Piece’ opens proceedings and oozes positive vibes alongside hectic guitars while ‘Failure’ toys with anthemic chants and ‘Cold Sweat’ pushes out mosh ready bounce along with finger snapping pop sensibility.

All is well and good but as the EP chugs on, something niggles and becomes more apparent. Even though ‘Dead Space’ revs past with circle pit-inducing drums and maliciously pumped hardcore undertones and closer ‘Big Smoke’ possesses a chorus to be sung from the rooftops, it’s all a little too similar in flavor. Blood Youth are travelling at 80mph throughout, but ‘Inside My Head’ does seem very comfortable within what it knows. Allowing the fact that it is their first offering, the potential that the band clearly has to bother every corner of the scene is there and it is just a case of harnessing that in the future.

Overall ‘Inside My Head’ is absolutely fine. Bringing together so many different body parts from different areas and putting together a Frankenstein of sorts is always a risky game and at times Blood Youth nail it. Pumping in enough mosh to fill up a whole album in just 5 tracks is an impressive feat and also managing not to take themselves too seriously along the way is worth an extra credit. There’s plenty of room for growth, improvement and focus but for a first effort after such a change of pace, Blood Youth may be heading down a long and exciting road for the near future.

3.5/5

‘Inside My Head’ EP by Blood Youth is out now on Rude Records.

Blood Youth links: Facebook|Twitter

Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)