United Kingdom band BLOOD RED SAINTS formed in 2014 and has three albums to their credit. Their latest one, "Pulse," was released in 2018.

 The album opens with the track "Believer".  Featuring an almost psychedelic tone the track is very catchy and easy to enjoy. It's a great reminder of how excellent hard rock can be when it's played by people who really appreciate it. Even though I'm really not into the genre as much as I was when I was younger this song still made me smile as I listened to it because it was so good. The following track, "Animals," starts with a raucous guitar riff that is in stark contrast to the previous song's "vibe". It took me a moment to warm up to it, but once I did I liked the song quite a bit. I could really hear the DEF LEPPARD influence, too, which will undoubtedly appeal to fans of that band.

 The third song, "Cross To Bear," is a synth-heavy composition designed to pluck at the heart strings. I'm not a fan of ballads of this nature, but for anyone who is they will appreciate it since it is sufficiently pretty and sweet.  "Invincible" is the fourth track on the album which revealed its' true nature immediately with a broody, moody intro which essentially screamed 'POWER BALLAD'. All well and good, but once I discovered the subject of the song was a poor young woman who is struggling with life's problems, but carrying on anyway I was bored. I've lived that life myself so a song about it is of very little interest, thank you anyway. I think even fans of hard rock might have a hard time embracing it due to a subject that has been literally done-to-death.

 Unfortunately, the remaining tracks on the album continue to be more of the same predictable tried-and-true compositions that can be found within almost anyone's late 1980s/early 1990s album collections. I'm not saying that the songs are bad, exactly; they're really not. However, it's hard to get excited by something that I've heard so many times before by various other bands. So, here is my final assessment of "Pulse"; get it if you are a die hard fan of classic Hard Rock from the late 20th Century because you'll probably enjoy it. If you're not into that genre so much because of the whole cliched image it bears then you'd probably be wiser not to get it because there's nothing to capture your interest for very long. A good effort, but it falls short somehow.