Blind Ride

Blind Ride was released in Japan first, by King Records on 26 January 2011, with the worldwide edition following later on Cleopatra Records. Japan getting a record ahead of everywhere else marked another step in the relationship built by The Skull Collectors. The title track opens the album and lays out the whole picture in thirty seconds: a driving riff under Iuri Sanson's upper register. "Nonconforming Minds" and "Shoot Me Down" became live fixtures, and the latter got a video. "Welcome to the Horror Show" and "The Shelter's on Fire" reach harder for shifting metres and key changes, pushing the band's technical side to the front, while "I Feel No Bliss" and "Beyond Regrets of the Past" put melody in charge and give the record its light and shade. Through to the closing "Rotten Souls", eleven songs give up neither speed nor construction. On the tour behind it, the band's May 2011 show at Shinagawa Prince Stellar Ball in Tokyo was filmed and recorded, and released the following year as Blinded by Tokyo – Live in Japan — their first properly produced live release, and the last appearance by founding guitarist Diego Kasper. The Japanese edition, KICP-1530, added a cover of Frank Sinatra's "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die" as a bonus track; the Brazilian edition added "I Feel No Bliss (acoustic version)".