Blood Stained Love Story

Blood Stained Love Story is the fifth studio album by American rock band Saliva which was released on January 23, 2007. This is their first album with rhythm guitarist Jonathan Montoya after the departure of Chris D’Abaldo. The song "Ladies and Gentlemen" was the official theme song for the WWE PPV WrestleMania 23. It also has appeared on many other sporting event telecasts. The song "King Of The Stereo" was modified and featured as ESPN Varsity Inc's Theme song, under the name "King Of The Stadium" with appropriately edited lyrics. The original title for the album was The Rise & Fall Of The Glorified Kingdom.[citation needed]

Blood Stained Love Story
A drawing of a heart with flames coming out of the top behind a stylized depiction of the band's name and a small banner with the album's name written on it.
Studio album by
ReleasedJanuary 23, 2007
Recorded2006
Studio
GenreRap rock, post-grunge[1]
Length39:58
LabelIsland
ProducerBob Marlette
Saliva chronology
Survival of the Sickest
(2004)
Blood Stained Love Story
(2007)
Cinco Diablo
(2008)
Singles from Blood Stained Love Story
  1. "Ladies and Gentlemen"
    Released: November 7, 2006
  2. "Broken Sunday"
    Released: June 19, 2007
  3. "King of the Stereo"
    Released: 2007

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 19, selling 31,000 copies in its first week.[2]

Critical reception

edit
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [1]
Alternative Addiction     [3]
Entertainment WeeklyB[4]
Melodic     [5]
Metal Hammer          
PopMatters          [6]
Rolling Stone     [7]
Tunelab Music          [8]

PopMatters contributor Andrew Blackie was mixed about the record, calling it "one of the strongest entries in the nu-metal crew's catalog" for showing maturation in their musicianship and experimenting with different instruments but felt it defaults into either "redundancy or washout" to reveal their worst qualities on tracks that are just "slightly sappy and/or melodramatic" and contain "king-size cliché[s]" lyrics, saying that "[I]t's not the first option you'd want to check out if you're looking for the best of what's on radio, therefore; but if this is already your type of music and you're willing to sit through the plain awful among the tentatively good, then it may well satisfy."[6] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted how the album mixes their usual nu-metal techniques with "'90s heavy rock clichés" that emulate bands ranging from Nirvana ("Black Sheep"), Creed ("Starting Over") and Third Eye Blind ("Never Gonna Change"), and that it sounds like "a record designed to rule the charts in 2000 instead of 2007," concluding that "There's not much hunger here, but there is precision, along with a creeping sense of maturity in how they polish their craft and now sound more comfortable with power ballads than they do with hard rockers."[1] Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard said, "The fourth album from this Memphis quintet rocks like a motherfucker, tosses in atmospheric keys and shimmery sound effects, and drops a couple of slow ones. But there's no remedy for crappy arena metal like "Ladies and Gentlemen" and mushy radio filler like "Starting Over.""[7] A writer for Alternative Addiction compared the record negatively to their 2002 effort Back into Your System, saying the songs weren't as heartfelt and passionate than the ones found on that record and was too simplistic by going back to the "style over substance" days of Every Six Seconds, concluding that "Saliva takes a big step backwards with Blood Stained Love Story, but let’s hope they recover to old form. This band can produce great albums with lots of hits. It just didn’t happen this time around."[3]

Track listing

edit

All songs by Saliva and Bob Marlette.

No.TitleLength
1."Ladies and Gentlemen"3:37
2."Broken Sunday"3:53
3."Never Gonna Change"4:09
4."King of the Stereo"3:42
5."One More Chance"3:55
6."Going Under"3:56
7."Twister"3:18
8."Black Sheep (feat. John 5)"5:23
9."Starting Over"3:59
10."Here with You"4:06
Total length:39:58

Best Buy sold a limited edition version of Blood Stained Love Story that includes a bonus disc with the following bonus tracks:

No.TitleLength
1."Is It You"3:43
2."Write Your Name"3:28

Credits

edit

Credits adapted from album’s liner notes.[9]

Chart positions

edit
Album
Chart (2007) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[10] 19
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
2007 "Ladies and Gentlemen" Pop 100 96
Bubbling Under Hot 100 1
Mainstream Rock Tracks 2
Modern Rock Tracks 25
"Broken Sunday" Mainstream Rock Tracks 8
"King of the Stereo" Mainstream Rock Tracks 24

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Blood Stained Love Story - Saliva at AllMusic. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  2. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (January 31, 2007). "Pretty Ricky, Shins Grab Top Album Chart Spots". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved February 1, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "Album Review of Blood Stained Love Story by Saliva". Alternative Addiction. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  4. ^ Collis, Clark (February 16, 2007). "Blood Stained Love Story". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Archived from the original on January 25, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  5. ^ Roth, Kaj. "Saliva - Blood Stained Love Story". Melodic. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  6. ^ a b Blackie, Andrew (January 28, 2007). "Saliva: Blood Stained Love Story". PopMatters. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Hoard, Christian (February 6, 2007). "Saliva: Blood Stained Love Story". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 29, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  8. ^ "Saliva: Blood Stained Love Story". Tunelab Music. Archived from the original on February 5, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  9. ^ Blood Stained Love Story (booklet). Island. 2007.
  10. ^ "Saliva Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved December 30, 2018.