Blood Bath is especially worth a listen for folks who might have skipped over Dragon in years past, as it's a bit easier to digest than a lot of his other work. Despite the fact this is only an EP, it is among his most accessible and interesting work. Those two facts might actually go hand in hand: As he's moved away from the absurdly avant-garde and into a slightly more listenable realm, he's brought a new type of songwriting chop to the table.
The EP's opener, "A 2012 Veil," is about as close to old Hunter Dragon as the record gets. It playfully dances around the electro-folk landscape, with Dragon's croon taking him deep into a reverb cave hidden somewhere inside an enchanted forest. The song even has a hook or two embedded in it -- a trick not generally associated with Dragon's music, as he usually tends to flip hooks around before they get stuck in your mind.
From there, the experimentation moves away from any folk roots Dragon might have had. "Cell Celebration Song," despite its title, is a fuzzed-out instrumental electro warble that doesn't even bother to include lyrics. The rest of the six-song EP continues in this vein. It's never pop music, but it's not as left-field as a lot of his other work as been. The record ends with "Ode to Hunter S.," a cut-up recording of Hunter S. Thompson's voice and Dragon's whacked-out guitar noodling that ends up serving as a better description of Dragon's intentions and influences than any traditional song could.
