Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
What flows through our veins is not just a physical aspect of life, but there is also the conscious, the drive, it is In Our Blood, it is the essence of all we wish to achieve and create; and whether we do it all under our own given name or reveal more of our nature by appointing the by-line to an alter-ego, in our blood it exists…every drop of pain, of pleasure, of melancholic wanderings, of the exuberance felt as inspiration strikes as you watch the dawn rise from the safety of The Gown And Gavel, as another goal is awarded to the Bulldogs in downtown Hamilton.
Our world is in our blood, and for Ontario born Mark “Kaz” Kasprzyk, that blood is hot, it is raging with fire, and in each track of his new album, In Our Blood, it is a fluid of extraordinary persuasion; this is more than a reminder of kinship, this is walking down the very same King Street West, of being by the side as the musician rode out to the heat and sweat of California, and merged the two experiences together in a reveal of anger and venom stoked by memory and belief.
Under the pseudonym of Redlight Knight, monster like epics such as King Again, Eye Of A Hurricane, Raise The Dead, End Of A Shotgun, Paid Off, and the album title track of In Our Blood, the sense of pride of the blue collar upbringing, the heat of steel and being the backbone of the province and the country is forever etched in the minds of those with a deep connection, the sense of the old pioneer, the march towards an industrial heartland that was built up on the shores of Lake Ontario. This is what is in the blood, a life installed by grime, grit, determination, and an ethic…and In Our Blood is a principle, a founding stone in which to hang the beat upon.
This is an album founded on twin loves, both cultures, that of the Californian easy-going charm and the Hamilton industrial furnace, and they meld, merge together with ferocity, there are vocals that are densely packed, they are forced from a pit of Hell, and soar to the heavens as if carried by angels to a former forgiveness.
To walk down the street and speak with a person who occupies two states of being is an honour, and Redlight King is such a performer, the id and the alter ego combining to bring together an album of generous vocal and inspiring ideas…never mind the golden sunsets off the Pacific Ocean, or the stoking fires that glowed as foundry workers dreamed of pints in The Gown And Gavel, this is a place in between, this is in our blood.
Redlight King release In Our Blood on March 3rd via AFM Records.
Ian D. Hall