https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lIcXga1oepjiFRNjpTG1q_gGPQpb-97UQ&si=ttpTa94rloI7YxhJ


Robert Davis – Guitar
Roo Farthing – Drums
Tim Farthing – Guitar
Chris Summerlin – Guitar
Paul Sykes – Vocals
Joe Thompson - Bass

Recorded and mixed with Ben Turner at Axe and Trap
Mastered by Peter Fletcher at Black Bay
Artwork by Faith Coloccia

In Blood is the group’s 14th album and the follow-up to 2020’s critically acclaimed Dances/Curses.



It was typical of a band so well-known for stellar live performances to release their most successful album at a time when they were unable to back it up on the road. As was the case for many, lockdown changed the band’s lives in unexpected ways. Some felt a form of cabin fever at not being able to continue to make music (diverting their energies elsewhere - founding Wrong Speed Records for starters) whereas others relished the peace and quiet, perhaps questioning whether they wanted to return to the life they had before. Gigs (so long the lifeblood of the band) were booked, postponed, and cancelled. Things began to unravel and perhaps for the first time since the band formed in 2003 it was hard to see how it could continue.

A plan was hatched to attempt to re-energise and reassemble the band: they would begin work on a new album. They would approach this as though a Somerset version of The Desert Sessions – members old and new and guests would contribute as and when time and restrictions allowed.

The same writing and recording approaches were deployed as previous albums – explosions of group energy captured during intense studio sessions and then later whittled down into more manageable forms. This isn’t unique by any means but the group’s familiarity and trust in the process now produces something approaching traditional songs, albeit created spontaneously, without discussion and without committee and captured at the beautiful moment before understanding gives way to familiarity. The ‘open door’ policy of the sessions rapidly solidified into an entirely new Hey Colossus line-up, bringing with it fresh enthusiasm and enough initial material for a double album.

Lyrically, British folk and ghost mythology provided the starting position for th.......
more