Hope Of The States have always been a band with "something to say", and the scale and ambition of their intent did seem to put many off. But while Blood Meridian is still throughly opinionated, and throughly rabble-rousing, there's something additional here. A streamlining of sound, an extra purposefulness that makes it seem more concise than before. Succinct. Catchy, even.
It is mesmerising. Disgusted, yet refusing to be be bowed, it's a call-to-arms against the liars and the cheats of the world ("Emergency, emergency / someone acted honestly", Sam Herlihy contemptuously spits), played with a charged determination to lay waste to the meaningless, frivolous bands that have multiplied in their absence.
After two years away, you couldn't really have asked for a better comeback. And by the time it reaches its stunning denouement of exploding instrumentation, you'll know that if Hope Of The States don't inherit the world this time round, there really is no justice.
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