By:
Richard Maw
Album
Type: Full
Length
Date
Released: 25/03/2016
Label:
Rise
Above Records
If you are new to Blood Ceremony, this album is as fine a place to
start as any. If you have heard any of their previous albums and enjoyed them,
your enjoyment of this one is guaranteed. This is as good an example as any of
a band looking to the past both in terms of musical and folklore tradition to
create fantastical and occult inspired music.
“Lord
of Misrule” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
The Devil’s Widow
2.
Loreley
3.
The Rogue’s Lot
4.
Lord of Misrule
5.
Half Moon Street
6.
The Weird of Finistere
7.
Flower Phantoms
8.
Old Fires
9.
Things Present, Things Past
The
Review:
Blood
Ceremony
returns with their latest album. It shares a title with the late Sir
Christopher Lee's autobiography and features some of the same atmosphere and
sense of macabre theatrics that the great man brought to his films. “The
Devil's Widow” kicks things off sounding like, well, Blood Ceremony-
that is to say that it sounds like how Jethro Tull would have sounded if Tony Iommi
had stayed on playing guitar and Ian Anderson decided to hand over the vocals
to a female chanteuse while still playing flute.
The
sound is reliably retro and, yes, shimmery. The drums have that 70's sound but
with modern muscle in the tones, while reverb is ever present elsewhere. Like Tull,
the band makes excellent use of light and shade, quiet and loud. The rather airy “Loreley” contrasts
well with the more leaden “The Rogue's Lot”.
Certainly, the band has come on since “Ceremony
of the Ancients”- but not so much as to be unrecognisable. Being Canadian, Blood Ceremony
perhaps lack some of the authenticity of a band raised in a place permeated by
folklore and old main tracks, but that is only if you are aware that they don't
hail from deepest Cornwall or some such other olde worlde enclave.
The
title track is one of the shorter tracks on display here and features a driving
riff and rhythm with percussion and bass driving the groove home with aplomb.
One of Blood
Ceremony's strengths is their willingness to incorporate Hammond
organ, percussion, flute and so on- marking them out as unusual in the
“bass-guitar-drums-vox” rigid line ups of most bands; even the retro ones. “Half
Moon Street” uses a rather nice syncopated riff and swings along
very nicely. The band are not afraid to really slow things down on “The
Weird of Finistere” as they take a full-on folk persona.
By
contrast, “Flower Phantoms” sounds as if it is straight out of the late
60's with an insistent vocal refrain. “Old Fires” is a straightforward
rocker with a juddering rhythm. The intriguingly titled “Things Present, Things Past”
is the albums parting shot and it is also one of the best tracks here. Acoustic
guitars and echoey vocals coalesce very effectively. Some great lyrics here too
(“If
there's anything you need... just ask Mephistopheles”- superb!).
If
you are new to Blood
Ceremony, this album is as fine a place to start as any. If you have
heard any of their previous albums and enjoyed them, your enjoyment of this one
is guaranteed. This is as good an example as any of a band looking to the past
both in terms of musical and folklore tradition to create fantastical and
occult inspired music.
“Lord of Misrule” is available here
Band info: facebook
