Your Bloodwork Came Back, It’s The Manimals

A good title goes a long way, especially when you’re cruising through the highways of same old-same old on bandcamp. Death metal bands with olde-English font text. Yeah yeah. Anything tagged ‘synthwave’ with a neon LA style cover. Yeah yeah. So when I saw a record called Your Bloodwork Came Back, It’s The Manimals, it made me smile enough to click.

Then I saw that band members had nicknames such as ‘The Bear’ and ‘The Dick’ and my enthusiasm waned again. Like when you were at school and some kid tried to introduce a new title for himself,  “yeah, whatever mate” you think, “tosser”.

So with mixed feeling I started playing the first track, ‘Cause Of Death’. I’m glad I did because it made me smile and made me roll my eyes in equal measure. They may tag themselves punk but they’re punky only in the same style as the kind of bands you’ll find on The Return Of The Living Dead soundtrack. They’re trashy and glammy and the guitar licks are probably accompanied by real licks down your neck. They remind us of The Cramps with the self-effacing wit of Wreckless Eric with a dash of classic 50s rock ‘n’ roll. As soon as Hayley Bowery starts singing you’re totally on board. Let’s make one thing clear, if the chorus below appeals to you, this band is for you:

You wanna be a superstar?
That cocaine heart won’t get you far
Another case of death by guitar
You gotta save your soul
It’s only rock ‘n’ roll
Woah-oh-oh, woah-oh-oh

By the end the entire band is singing along and everyone is having a boozy ol’ time.

‘Boys’ is waspy and as sharp as shark fins. Based around the gag of a girl rock ‘n’ roll singer singing “I wanna be the boy in a rock band” it’s the sound of a party you wanna be invited to.

‘Wild As You Wanna’ spews up with adrenaline guitars and riot inciting vocals. Then it all smears into one, like any good night out. Then, suitably, it all collapses, like falling into the bins and ending up under last nights pizza boxes.

Your bloodwork came back, it’s good news…

https://manimalsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/your-bloodwork-came-back-its-the-manimals

https://www.facebook.com/themanimals