Don’t you feel sometimes like letting go of all your inhibitions and doing what’s in the gut, instead of what’s expected of you? Don’t you want to be like a hot rod car every so often, visually unattractive and unpolished, yet being able to flex your muscles totally unrestrained? Bottom line – it must be satisfying to let the caution go, pull out all of the stops and change to the opposite of what has been recently. I know, I should be doing this more often myself.

Fredrik Mannberg and Nils Eriksson obviously know the feeling too. Guitarist and bassist of Nocturnal Rites, respectively, must have had enough of their main power melodic metal act and decided to give it another go with their previously one-and-done band Guillotine. Not to misconstrue, both men are still in Nocturnal Rites, but for me the band was over somewhere around Afterlife. Apparently, even Nocturnal Rites own members needed to let things loose after the abomination which was The 8th Sin.

Blood Money leaves power metal completely in the dust, instead reaching for uncompromising, unyielding, unbending Northern Eurothrash built around whipping, edgy, tough riffs. Guillotine is dead set on destruction of your senses and inflicting maximum pain in the process. Thickly produced, the record does not go for much melody either, the chorus of Rebellion almost begging for a little melodic inflection. Instead, we get a quick solo (Insane Oppression), a harmonized guitar section (Liar) and some resemblance of another atmospheric layer (Dying World) amidst the barrage. Almost never slowing down (except somewhat in Insanity), Blood Money is one vibrant and vibrating record, practically infectious in its own single-mindedness. Mostly nasty, but sometimes playful (Liar), where other people see a sense of normalcy, Guillotine observes the “insane”, in a form of aptly named short melodic instrumental Madness. To pound the drums and the second guitar Mannberg and Eriksson recruited a duo from Persuader, Efraim Juntunen and Daniel Sundbom. The drumming on Blood Money is not varied much, but does the job, it keeps the pace frantic and the pulse constantly ticking. Not trusting any other average Joe Blow with vocals, Mannberg does it himself, sounding like a little cleaner and definitely rejuvenated version of Schmier.

Blood Money is one album which won’t win any commercial or “sophistication” awards, but the amount of energy it is going to billow out of your speakers will have them shaking. They will feel as if that hot rod I mentioned above roared mightily by.