Review: Old Blood ‘Midnight Climax’
It’s been a long four years since the release of 2020’s Acid Doom, the second album by Californian heavyweights Old Blood. In that time, the band have been busy refining their dynamics, reinforcing their strengths, and plotting for world domination. Back in my first summer of writing for The Shaman, I had the absolute honour of reviewing that very release, and it was on my Top Ten list for the year.
I found both the band, and the album, to be just so utterly engaging, and interesting, in equal measure. The blend of psychedelic occult bluesiness, mixed with those hard rocking theatrics completely blew my mind. Now here we are. Four years on, and the unit have never sounded tighter.
On Acid Doom vocalist Lynx was a relatively new addition, but those sparkles of greatness were evident. Now, fully fledged in the ranks, the vocal dynamics are at the next level and have more than helped to shape Old Blood 2024. Midnight Climax shows just how much Lynx and the boys have embraced their uniquely lavish sound, and have brought something to the table that is very much needed, an air of mystery to music again.
The sounds are vibrantly nostalgic, darkly wondrous and richly intoxicating. The heady desert rock meets psychedelia vibe gives for more of an eclectic sound, which is reminiscent of Jess And The Ancient Ones, but with more of an Americana swagger. Over the course of the seven tracks, this is driven firmly home, and even for seven tracks, you are still getting an incredible forty minutes of otherworldly goodness. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s forty minutes jam packed with awesomeness, which is all killer, no filler.
Opening with the title track, and a somewhat suggestively titled Midnight Climax, the band wastes no time in reintroducing themselves, and picking up where they left off with Acid Doom. With a distorted spacy guitar introduction, the band, one by one, emerge from the darkness and into the light. Dark, brooding and dripping in ‘70s ooze, they firmly announce their return, and it’s somewhat spiritual. Lynx’s vocal is as overwhelming as ever, and with a saucy, sensual display the outpouring begins. It’s a full body desert rock at midnight kind of affair, naughty, but very very nice.
Without a break to recompose Noble Oath follows up closely behind, full of energy, and gnawing at the bit to unleash. As is the case with Old Blood, on The Chained Elephant the band fully explore their darker side. Moodier, darker, and with the inclusion of additional instruments, the Hyde side of Old Blood, the parallel to the Jekyll, strays into our path, to shake things up.
vibrantly nostalgic, darkly wondrous and richly intoxicating…
Close your eyes and you can practically feel the coldness of the rain against the windowpane, as smoke drifts across your face. There is a real French Noir cinematic feel, which is perfectly acceptable, pretty much all Old Blood’s musical repertoire would be right at home on a 1950s black and white whodunnit movie. It also sees the first inclusion of some epic powerhouse guitar shredding thrown in for good measure, just to make the whole affair even crazier.
Oh, You’re High, Right? hardly needs an explanation as this trippy little number has been perfectly forged as the natural accompaniment to a late-night extracurricular smoke. Running in a manner much like smoke on the air, it washes over elegantly, in unison with the relaxed ebb and flow of softened breath, to create a vibe to relax into the sofa with.
As the longest track on the album, Kosmonaut, is given the luxury of feeling somewhat limitless and as such, slowly evolves towards its goal. A pensive start opens out into a wall of sonic intensity, rammed full of hard rocking thunder. This one feels more like a full-on rock opera, it’s large, boisterous, and has an energy unparalleled elsewhere. It takes a few minutes for Lynx to roll in, but boy, when she does, it’s mind-blowing. This is the benchmark for the band, it encapsulates everything they are and want to be. You can hear the enthusiasm through the speakers as the band joyfully dominates the aural ambience.
Poison In Disguise pulls us back into that ‘70s occult playhouse. Filled with spook show dynamics, the band entice us on menacingly. After this, all that’s left is album closer Snakes, and it’s one last opportunity to shine. This is where we catch Old Blood at their most dangerous as this final flourish eloquently seals the fate of the album in a darkly delicious way.
So here we are again, another solid powerhouse by the band, it’s every bit as awesome as Acid Doom was but multiplied by a thousand. Having found their feet, this is truly a band in control of their own little corner of the heavy music genre, all hail OLD BLOOD.
Label: Glory Or Death Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Lee Beamish
