50SHR #47: Bloodgood (Washington)

50 STATES OF HARD ROCK #47: WASHINGTON

Band: Bloodgood
Release: Rock in a Hard Place
Year: 1988
Line-up: Les Carlson (vocals), David Zaffiro (guitars), Michael Bloodgood (bass), Mark Welling (drums).

Track Listing:

1.  Shakin' It   2:57 2.   Never be the Same   4:00 3.   The Presence   3:31 4.   What Have I Done?   3:46 5.   Heaven on Earth   3:49 6.   Do or Die   2:26 7.   She's Gone   4:36 8.   The World (Keeps Movin' Around)   4:14 9.   Seven   4:56

Fletchanator's comment: Washington, and Seattle in particular, are more associated with the death of hair metal than the genre itself. But that city did produce some good hard rock/heavy metal bands, like Queensryche, Metal Church and TKO. It is also the home of Christian rockers Bloodgood, named after bassist and principal songwriter Michael Bloodgood.
Bloodgood formed in 1985 and released a demo that same year. Full-length albums quickly followed in 1986 and 1987, portraying a distinctly melodic heavy metal sound. But for this, their third album, Bloodgood changed to a more radio-friendly AOR/hard rock sound.
Singer Les Carlsen sounds a lot like Steve Perry, so Journey is the best comparison I can make for Bloodgood. They don't have the standout hits that band did, but this album is definitely a good listen - guitarist David Zaffiro (who later joined fellow Christian rockers Whitecross) shows some good axemanship.
After a further two studio albums and three live releases, Bloodgood called it quits in 1994. However, they got back together in 2006 and released a new album in 2013 called Dangerously Close, which features Stryper's Oz Fox on guitar (replacing Zaffiro).

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