In Blood is the Hey Colossus’s 14th album and the follow-up to 2020’s critically acclaimed Dances/Curses.

It was typical of a band so well-known for stellar live performances to release their most successful album at a time when they were unable to back it up on the road. As was the case for many, lockdown changed the band’s lives in unexpected ways. Some felt a form of cabin fever at not being able to continue to make music (diverting their energies elsewhere - founding Wrong Speed Records for starters) whereas others relished the peace and quiet, perhaps questioning whether they wanted to return to the life they had before. Gigs (so long the lifeblood of the band) were booked, postponed, and cancelled. Things began to unravel and perhaps for the first time since the band formed in 2003 it was hard to see how it could continue.

A plan was hatched to attempt to re-energise and reassemble the band: they would begin work on a new album. They would approach this as though a Somerset version of The Desert Sessions – members old and new and guests would contribute as and when time and restrictions allowed.

The same writing and recording approaches were deployed as previous albums – explosions of group energy captured during intense studio sessions and then later whittled down into more manageable forms. This isn’t unique by any means but the group’s familiarity and trust in the process now produces something approaching traditional songs, albeit created spontaneously, without discussion and without committee and captured at the beautiful moment before understanding gives way to familiarity. The ‘open door’ policy of the sessions rapidly solidified into an entirely new Hey Colossus line-up, bringing with it fresh enthusiasm and enough initial material for a double album.