World Domination is a big old task. Both in terms of, um, well, actually taking over the world, but also in terms of taking everything about the fifth full-length from Norwegian collective Blood Command in. Twenty tracks, and everything from Black Metal to slick pop, via snarling punk, metallic stomping Hardcore, and even the odd pause for breath (though only a sharp intake before heading off somewhere else, into urban beats, or shimmery synths, or kicking someone’s head in). 

When the World Domination (Hassle Records / Loyal Blood Records) machine is ripping and in full flow, the Blood Command power is a joyous energy to experience. At its peak, the vitriolic punk explodes in six-string vibrancy as chords crash, and vocalist Nikki Brumens alternates between throat-abuse and spiky melodicisms. This is best showcased when the songs are slightly more developed, encouraging a flow from punk to metallic chug to wilder rides (“The Band With The Three Stripes”, “Bare Witness”, “Heaven’s Hate” and the glorious “Forever Soldiers of Esther”), and is especially evident on the rollicking buzz-saw anthem of “The Plague On Both Your Houses”, a tornado that channels the spirit of early Kvelertak and latter day Darkthrone into a perfect blackened storm, 

World Domination plays on an interesting album dynamic and structure, too, as Blood Command takes inspiration from Hip-Hop by peppering the album with interludes. However, rather than these being skits or glitchy asides, their interludes are often sub-one-minute hardcore punk riots which serves to up the ante and maintain a consistent ferocity.  A conscious decision has been made to pare the heavy tracks down to their most focused bones, with several 90-second attacks grouped together around these untamed outbursts.    The seething then abates with the advent of our later tracks, the dreamy “Decades”, our title-track and closing pair of “Losing Faith” and “Tetragram”.

It’s a bold move, and one that doesn’t always pay off. “Some of it is fucking brilliant, some of it is annoying, some of it stock, most of it is really good” read my holding message to Da Ed whilst this review was in construction. And I stand by that, as there’s just so much content, and the disruptive feral bursts both aid and undermine the flow of the album at different points, while some of the shorter tracks that are placed together do sound like they are, or should be, one longer piece that has been broken up. That said, the jump from death pop to hardcore and back again does give some cool contrasts and juxtaposition as “Keep My Seat Warm” moshes it’s punked-up breakdown into the sinister pop-groove of “Burn Again”, and the listener is left guessing whether they’re going to be drenched with smoothness or battered to a pulp at any given turn.

And there is something to be said for doing something different, and doing it with pride, confidence, and sheer fucking conviction. And on that front, Blood Command have resolutely been successful. 

Buy the album here:

https://hasslerecords.ffm.to/world-domination

7 / 10

STEVE TOVEY