The Hong Kong Blood Opera

- Keytars & Violins

“If you like metal and electro, these guys are really interesting. I don’t even have a genre category for this. Go ahead. Make one up. For all you hard rock Moggers out there.”
- Lady Miss Ian

"Hong Kong Blood Opera played out Debaser in Malmö (Sweden) like no one's ever done before.....They mixed together the best in punk, hardcore and rocknroll, and did it with an energy and refinement that you don't find that often these days......Their liveshow was intense, sweaty, and in-your-face...... a new favorite band."
- Denimzine oct08 (Punk Rock Garage Magazine)

"The Hong Kong Blood Opera played at the Nottinghill Artsclub and attacked it with viscious abandon throwing themselves at the music and the crowd like the young punks they are?..this would not be enough if the music wasn't so bloody good?..but it was!" - NHAC London oct08

Bang Bang You're Dead! Cold and precise. Like an old stylish Asian killer movie. But the Hong Kong Blood Opera are nothing like that. They are sweaty, full of emotions and very ecstatic. They're still stylish, though! But it's not the kind of cool menacing triad gang style. More like a red dressed chaotic latino all-over-the-place rock band style. Don't be fooled, The Hong Kong Blood Opera are the new ÜBER-band from Mexico. These guys are crazy and weird like Molotov but always true to their punk rock sound – think The (International) Noise Conspiracy meet The Hives on a Screamo band battle.
The drums punch through the songs like a hungry swarm of rattle snakes on speed while singer Sebastián's angry voice fights a fierce battle with the wild synthies and psycho guitars (check out their songs “Killing Joke” and “Disco Sucks”and you'll know what we mean). Your ear will be pierced by so many punk rock bullets it'll make John Woo's “The Killer” look like the Teletubbies. The Hong Kong Blood Opera will play their first ever concert in Germany – so come and give them an unforgettable welcome! - Reeperbahn Festival

THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Synth-punks fight their way out of the Mexican
underground.
The Hong Kong Blood Opera were just a young rock act from the Mexican city of Hermosillo when it beat out 7,000 other contestants in a national Battle of the Bands two years ago. Apparently no one was more surprised by the win than the band itself.

“We were a really weird band to win that kind of high profile Battle of the Bands,” says HKBO vocalist Sebastián Samaniego. “There were a lot of good, mellow pop-rock acts with really catchy radio songs. Most of them sounded like they’d do a lot better than us [commercially]. The judges could have chosen a band the sounded like the Killers, but instead they picked a noisy, messed-up band that sounds more like the Refused and the Blood Brothers.”

Noiselab, a Mexican indie label, recently released the group’s debut, The Critical Paparazzi, and hopes to release a follow-up by year’s end. To be closer to the label, HKBO recently relocated to Mexico City where the synth-punk band also found bigger promotional opportunities opening for American acts like The Killers, Incubus and AFI. These pairings make sense, though, as all these bands are known for using such an ample palette of ideas and influences. HKBO even takes many of its cues from film and literature, including the origin of its name.

“I like a lot of the John Woo movies like Hard-Boiled and The Killer, and the film genre is called ‘Hong Kong Blood Opera,’” explains Samaniego. “I’ve never heard it used for a band, and I think it goes really well with the music and aesthetic of the band. It’s like our little homage to those violent action movies from the ‘80s.”

Elaborating on these influences, he adds, “We are really into film, and I’m personally really into horror films. We’ve tried to pay homage to these films in little ways. For example, we got the song title ‘Switchblade Romance’ from the French horror film High Tension.”

The band, whose song highlights include “Hear You Scream” and “Killing Joke,” certainly isn’t the average Latin rock band. Besides their wide swath of non-musical influences, the group seems more akin to European punk and metal than anything on this side of the Atlantic. With a combination of metal-meets-LCD Soundsystem or the Refused on a Tijuana acid trip, it’s enough to make Samaniego look like the Mexican Chow Yun-Fat.

- Meanstreet Magazine

The Hong Kong Blood Opera is a mind-blowing, ear-melting, blast-furnace, band from Hermosillo, Mexico.
This is a band that makes the crowds go beserk. Don’t take my word for it, You got to see them to believe it.
Whoever goes to any of their gigs is in for an unexpected treat.
I’ve seen them in person and they’re right up there with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin as crowd ravers.
Enjoy! - Blogger

On Recreation Records :" which Andrew Chester is hailing "the first one EVER where the artist gets 100% royalties" – for them and a few other bands. But if the rest – including the Hong Kong Blood Opera, who Chester describes as "the best rock'n'roll band on the planet right now" – are as good as Black Jackson, it might even start giving proper indie labels a good reputation."

April 14, 2009.

- Andrew Chester (UK) @ guardian.co.uk

Imagine Phil Anselmo of Pantera jamming with LCD Soundsystem, or Steve Albini and Paul Epworth arguing about who's going to produce the next Hives album.
- Guardian.co.uk

... - SPIN, june 09