Black Angels - Death Song

  by Adrian Janes

published: 8 / 5 / 2017

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Review

If the musical epicentre of 2014 mini-album ‘Clear Lake Forest’ was 1966/67, the Black Angels’ heavier sound, as produced by Phil Eck (known for work with Father John Misty and Fleet Foxes) now seems to locate them in the late 60s/early 70s. Like that earlier period when peace and love came up against a deeply resistant order this album was made in an increasingly bitter political climate, and much of the resulting music reflects and refracts it. With a billionaire businessman now President, ‘Currency’ fades in ominously to condemn, over fat fuzz and clamorous guitar, the dollar’s devalued motto (“There’s no truth in who we trust”) and a dehumanising, materialistic culture: “You pay with your life/A slave 9 to 5.” It’s a powerful performance, pierced by a searing solo. The ironically-titled ‘Medicine’ links an attack on the industry that promotes profitable pharmaceutical dependence (“Reds, whites and blues/Cure our hearts”) to a more general confusion: “I see you and me/Strung out on delusion.” It’s a musical compound too, a Scissor Sisters dance track as attempted by the Electric Prunes, touches of organ poking through a blanket of distorted guitar. Other tracks may not have such an openly political thrust, but still betray the Unsettled States of Anxiety. ‘Comanche Moon’ is dominated by tortured fuzz bass, while the initial impression of ‘Hunt Me Down’ is of classic heavy riffing rock, full of compulsive percussive energy. Yet it has its reflective moments too, typical of these songs which refuse to be merely one thing, a characteristic perhaps even better heard in the alternately blazing and shivering guitars and cool mellotron backdrop of ‘I’d Kill for Her’. ‘I Dreamt’, by contrast, leaves plenty of space in the sound – the Angels are a band who know how to hold back and understate as well as unleash their anger and pain – and in that space Alex Maas’ vocal unease is all the clearer, as though recalling the remnants of a nightmare. The album ends on the apparently polar opposites of ‘Death March’ and ‘Life Song’. Yet it’s the latter which poignantly laments “I’m dying”, its only potential comfort being to say “I’ll see you on the other side”, while ‘Death March’ by contrast, with its heavily echoed vocals and forceful drums as if stomping on the Grim Reaper’s head, moves forward with vital energy. Not having produced an album for four years might have prompted rumours of the Black Angels’ demise. But ‘Death Song’ more than confirms the band’s continuing creative health.

Track Listing:-

1 Currency
2 I'd Kill For Her
3 Half Believing
4 Comanche Moon
5 Hunt Me Down
6 Grab As Much (As You Can)
7 Estimate
8 I Dreamt
9 Medicine
10 Death March
11 Life Song

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/theblackangel
http://theblackangels.com/
https://twitter.com/theblackangels

Label Links:-

https://www.youtube.com/user/partisanr
https://instagram.com/partisanrecords/
https://twitter.com/partisanrecords
http://www.partisanrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/partisanrecor