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To Germany, With Love! Artist:  Bloodgood Label:  Magdalene Records Length: 14 tracks

Bloodgood is one of those bands that never really got the attention they deserved.  Although they had a fairly strong following in Europe in the early 1990s, audiences in America never really jumped on the bandwagon.  It's hard to understand why, actually. Their contemporaries, such as Stryper and Barren 
Cross, received a warm reception from American crowds, and surely "Anguish and Pain" was no cheesier than "To Hell With the Devil."  Good news, though, Bloodgood fans!  Magdalene Records has re-released the band's live album, To Germany, With Love!, in the hopes of perhaps gaining a few more fans.  Unfortunately, I doubt that the album will attract many new fans at all--it may even embarrass older fans into burning their LPs!

For starters, the sound quality is absolutely terrible.  Some bands, after recording a "live" album, return to a studio to touch up their mistakes, and end up essentially recording another studio record.  It's obvious that Bloodgood didn't do this, but the sound quality is so poor that it sounds like it wasn't even taken from the sound board.  This may not matter to hardcore fans of the band, but potential new listeners will likely be turned off by the quality.

And then there's the music. To Germany, With Love!  was recorded in 1993, and it had to sound dated then, so you can just imagine how it comes across seven years later.  It's been fifteen years since some of these songs were written, and we'll just say that they haven't aged all that well.  When lead 
singer Les Carlson says "We're gonna do one ballad" right before "I Want to Live in Your Heart," it's all you can do to keep from cringing, knowing the power ballad that's about to come through your speakers. 

So no, To Germany, With Love!  won't do much in the way of attracting new listeners to Bloodgood's charms.  However, if you're a longtime fan, and aren't afraid to take a long hard look at the past, order the album and take a trip down memory lane.

Michial Farmer 06/11/2000

At my first Cornerstone, this pop music fan discovered metal and Bloodgood and my taste in music hasn't been the same since. Over the years, I managed to see Bloodgood several times. Eventually, the band broke up for many of the reasons bands are still breaking up--lack of support, age, families to support etc.

Like today, metal was more popular in Europe than in the US. One of the concerts near the end of their career was in Germany. The concert was released on CD in Germany with a few copies of the album made it to Radrockers at what I considered an outrageous price. I waited for it to go down but as fate would have it; the price kept going up.  The last time (a few years ago) I checked it was going for over $200. I gave up hopes of ever owning a copy. I still see it on a lot of people's want lists. Imaging by surprise to find the album on M8's release list.  I knew the sound quality is absolutely terrible but I still had to have it. Actually, the sound wasn't quite as bad as I expected.  Yes, time has marched on and the album does have a dated sound today but hardcore fans of Bloodgood and other 80's style metal will want a copy of this album which manages to captures a little bit of that period. Thanks to M8 and Magdalene Records for continuing to bring us these great old albums. 

Shari Lloyd 06/11/2000