SANTA CRUZ – Bad Blood Rising (2017) + 2 New Songs 2019

Finnish hard rockers SANTA CRUZ are working in a new album due this fall. Meanwhile they have released 2 new 2019 tracks, and as one of you asked for this, their latest full album “Bad Blood Rising“, here we go with the complete package.
“Bad Blood Rising“ is without a doubt the band’s catchiest, rocking, punchy record ever. And one of the best of the year of its release…

Praised by Rolling Stone magazine as “one of the Top 10 bands you need to know” for their “debaucherous, flamboyant flair,” Santa Cruz was formed with the mutual aspiration of playing their rear ends off and kicking people’s derrieres.

Inspired initially by the likes of Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses, the young act developed a strong buzz through stupefying live shows and two well-received albums on Spinefarm Records where they took their throwback hard rock sound and combined it with modern elements, punk and metal, put it in their own special blender, then iced the mix with blinding energetic performances and a healthy dash of bad attitude.

Santa Cruz’s eponymous second album debuted at No. 3 on the Finnish chart upon its release in 2015 and featured “We Are The Ones To Fall”, the most aired song of the year on the Finnish station Radio Rock. The band also appeared in a Mercedes-Benz commercial and on the AXS TV show “Breaking Bands”, and toured all over America, Europe and Japan.

“Bad Blood Rising” has all you can expect the Santa Cruz sound: fast guitars, heavy drums, rumbling bass and glammy vocals.
However, I think this 2017 Santa Cruz is much more catchy, commercial and melodic hard rock oriented.
Sure, there’s still some heavy moments like on “Pure F@cking Adrenaline” which truly makes justice to its title, but the rest of the album is easy listening.

In fact, many tracks are acoustically filled such as “Breathe” – some kind of Guns N’ Roses GN’R Lies updated 2017 with great harmony vocals, “Drag Me out of the Darkness”, or the terrific midtempo “Get Me out of California” (great solo here in the vein of Warrant).

Then you have the fist-in-the-air, arena ready anthems “Young Blood Rising”, “Fire Running through Our Veins” and the slightly sleazy “Back from the Dead” (killer gang harmonies here).
And balancing it all, the melodic hard rockers “River Phoenix” and “Bad Habits Die Hard” round up this fantastic new record from “Santa Cruz.

“Bad Blood Rising” was among the “Best Of the Year” list for this blog. Yeah, it’s a phenomenal album from a band which are the future of Melodic Hard Rock.
The songs are amazingly catchy and where the band make the difference with the rest is in the arrangements. The harmony vocals are superb, and then you have this bombastic, modern sound design, still managing to keep that ’80s feel.
You gotta listen this album with a big pair of headphones, it’s terrific.

Speaking about the new songs, both are engineered, mixed and mastered by Kane Churko (Ozzy Osbourne) and are strong. “Tell Me Why” is really melodious and catchy, while ‘Changing of Seasons’, darker, heavier.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

01 – Tell Me Why (New Track 2019)
02 – Changing of Seasons (New Track 2019)

01. Young Blood Rising
02. River Phoenix (Album Version)
03. Fire Running through Our Veins
04. Drag Me Out of the Darkness
05. Breathe
06. Voice of the New Generation
07. Back from the Dead
08. Bad Habits Die Hard
09. Pure F@cking Adrenaline
10. Get Me Out of California
11. River Phoenix (Part 2)

Archie – Vocals, Guitar
Johnny – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Middy – Bass, Backing Vocals
Taz – Drums, Backing Vocals
Ero Cruz – Bass on 2019 tracks
Toxy Cruz – Drums on 2019 tracks

BUY IT :
www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Blood-Rising-Santa-Cruz/dp/B075MR83YB

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