[TR24][OF] Suburban Dirts - I Want Blood - 2018 (Country)

This is an album that asks a big question. That question is, how does a band from Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, UK manage to get such an authentic Americana sound?! Listening to this album you would swear this band had southern States dirt under their fingernails – it’s dark, broody and moody in all the best possible ways and it has American gothic influences running all the way through it!
Perhaps the main reason for all of this is the subject matter of the album. ‘I Want Blood’ is a concept album based on the story of the Harpe Brothers. Many people in the UK will never have heard of the Harpe Brothers, but it’s a story that bears investigation – especially if you like your tales liberally sprinkled with gore and guts, murder and mayhem. The Harpe Brothers are often credited with being America’s first recorded serial killers; a very dark claim to fame, but these were very dark characters. Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harp were born in the mid-late 1700s and were known as highwaymen, horse thieves and river pirates, as well as having been soldiers and plantation overseers. They are credited with at least thirty nine killings and their total tally may have exceeded fifty! It’s a fascinating story and well worth reading up on, though it’s not for the faint hearted.
As the subject for an album of songs the story is an inspired choice and Suburban Dirts do it full credit. The album starts with the menacing ‘The Harpe Brothers’ and one of the more memorable opening lines you’re likely to hear on a record – “We cut them open, carve out their guts, and fill their innards up with stones,” apparently the means the brothers used to dispose of their victims; having filled the body cavity with stones they then dumped the cadaver in the river. The track has a spooky, eerie presence, as you’d expect given the subject matter, driven by distorted guitar and scratched violin, it’s slightly reminiscent of Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ and the dynamics of the track are excellent. It really makes you sit up and take notice and is a great entry point to the album.