Album review: Saint Agnes – Bloodsuckers

It’s easy to discern why Saint Agnes have titled their second album the way they have. The bloodsuckers in question are evidently the toxic, time-draining people that have made Kitty A. Austen boil over, to the extent that a lot of the album is frothing with hatred. On the flipside, the Londoners have always had a thing with vampires – indeed, the night-dwelling, garlic-hating creatures gave their name to the quartet’s 2021 album. The sad irony about Bloodsuckers, however, is much of it is as clichéd as the image of a vampire itself.

Often, they're let down by the lyrics’ overused phraseology. The scratchy Animal’s declaration of savagery and fortitude doesn’t have the power behind it that it wants when it resorts to clichés about not behaving, confessing sins and being 'the worst of the worst'. Meanwhile, Middle Finger bristles with an oddly baseless fury, like the rage of a rebel without a cause ('We’ve got our middle fingers raised / In your motherfucking face!'). And then there’s the small matter of the many, many uses of ‘motherfucker’ – take a shot every time you hear it and you’d end up in A&E.

What Saint Agnes do sonically, however, is much more interesting. They’ve created an angsty Frankenstein's monster out of punk and nu-metal, with a dose of Prodigy-esque corrosiveness (and it’s no coincidence they do a great live cover of Firestarter). The title-track has all the makings of a skull-rattling, festival-ready anthem, while the murky At War With Myself sounds intriguingly cavernous and barren. The same could be said of This Is Not The End, a harrowing ballad about Kitty’s mother’s sudden death which is made of the same bare dread as Nirvana’s Something In The Way.

It’s clearly a sign of what Saint Agnes could be capable of, but the fact these highs don’t manifest elsewhere within Bloodsuckers is often frustrating. Maybe they’re made of sharper stuff, and what they’re doing just needs some refining.

Verdict: 2/5

For fans of: WARGASM, Ho99o9, The Prodigy

Bloodsuckers is released on July 21 via Spinefarm