Blood Ceremony's self-titled is one of my go-to feel good "doom metal" records (I use the term doom like that because I find that this isn't miserable enough to fall under the doom tag proper, although it does incorporate a lot of elements from that genre). As mentioned elsewhere on this website recently, my distain for the explosion in female-fronted edgy rock music continues to grow, but let's fuck all that trend-jocking shit for a minute and focus on Blood Ceremony.
Imagine mixing Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane and an enormously illegal quantity of opiates at a smoky blues club, and you're on the right track here. Songs about witches, covens, toads, wizards and smoking "black drugs from Saturn's bong" are abound, as is trippy flutework, masterful guitar sweepery and enough synthesizer alchemy to make Gary Numan prick up his ears. The opening song, "Master Of Confusion" is totally classic, and should be on the playlist of anyone with an inclination towards this type of stuff. The flute solo on "I'm Coming With You" is insane, and my favourite track is "Hop Toad", which is also mainly flute-driven.
I'm lucky enough to have caught these guys (and gal) live twice in the last 3 years, and I wouldn't hesitate in a heartbeat to go and watch them perform again. Stellar stuff! You can stream this on Spotify, buy it on CD or even take out a second mortgage to buy the Rise Above vinyl version, if you have a big enough hipster beard to qualify for that.
Now, onto those "black drugs"....
No comments:
Post a Comment