Blood Money, Pt. 1

Chicago metal vets Dope return after an extended seven-year hiatus with their sixth album, Blood Money, Pt. 1. The blistering release is an evolution of Dope's industrial-influenced attack. If their earlier work could stand with contemporaries like Marilyn Manson and Gravity Kills, their sound on Blood Money is updated by the incorporation of the furious spirits of Slipknot and Motionless in White. From the crazed title track to the cover of Hole's "Violet," Dope are reinvigorated and unrelenting. Blood Money, Pt. 1 debuted in the Top 30 of the Billboard 200, while breaking into the Top Three of both the Indie and Hard Rock charts. ~ Neil Z. Yeung