Bloodrock 2
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Album Summary
Bloodrock 2 came rolling out of Capitol Records in 1970, the second studio offering from Fort Worth, Texas hard rockers Bloodrock, and baby, this one meant business. Recorded in Los Angeles with the Capitol Records production team riding the boards alongside the band, this record found Bloodrock stretching out and getting heavier, more theatrical, more daring than anything they'd put to wax before. Hot on the heels of their self-titled debut, the band stepped into the studio with a hunger to prove they were no one-shot wonder, and what they laid down was a collection of tracks that pushed early hard rock into darker, more dramatic territory — a sound that was all their own.
Reception
- The album reached #104 on the Billboard 200 chart, a modest but meaningful foothold for a hard rock outfit still building its audience.
- Critics of the day offered mixed verdicts, acknowledging the band's raw musicianship while debating whether the material held together as a complete statement against the heavy competition of the era.
- Among hard rock devotees and underground rock circles, the album found a warmer welcome, quietly earning the kind of devoted cult following that only time and true believers can build.
Significance
- Bloodrock 2 marked a decisive step toward more elaborately structured and theatrically conceived hard rock at a moment when the genre was still finding the boundaries of what it could be.
- The album stood as a proud flag for the Texas hard rock scene during a time when the national spotlight on heavy music was almost exclusively trained on British bands and California acts.
- With its flair for dramatic storytelling and heavy sonic atmosphere, Bloodrock 2 placed the band ahead of the curve, anticipating the theatrical hard rock sensibility that would eventually break wide open later in the decade.
Tracklist
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A1 Lucky In The Morning 164
5:43
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A2 Cheater 172
6:43
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A3 Sable And Pearl 132
4:12
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A4 Fallin' 126
4:00
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B1 Children's Heritage 150
3:30
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B2 Dier Not A Lover 143
4:05
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B3 D.O.A. 133
8:25
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B4 Fancy Space Odyssey 141
5:06
Artist Details
Bloodrock was a heavy rock outfit that came together in Fort Worth, Texas, around 1969, carving out a raw, thunderous sound that sat right at the crossroads of hard rock and early heavy metal, with swirling organ lines and guitar crunch that made them a regional powerhouse and a Capitol Records act with genuine national reach. They are best remembered for their 1971 gut-punch of a track D.O.A., a dark, cinematic meditation on death told from the perspective of a dying plane crash victim that became one of the most chilling and unforgettable album cuts of the entire early seventies, earning heavy FM airplay despite — or maybe because of — its deeply unsettling nature. Bloodrock never quite broke through to the top tier of rock stardom, but their willingness to go to dark and dramatic places in their music made them a cult touchstone and a true artifact of that restless, boundary-pushing spirit that defined the early hard rock era.
