Thursday 27 February 2020

ALBUM REVIEW: Bone Church, "Acid Communion"


By: Chris Markwell

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 13/03/2020
Label: Ripple Music





“Acid Communion” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Heavy Heaven
2). Witch in the Cellar
3). Bone Church
4). Iron Temple
5). If They Float
6). Acid Communion

The Review:

“You’re always welcome at the Church of Bone
Where you can live the Life Divine!”



Dearly beloved and bedamned, we are gathered here today in the sight of our Almighty Sludgelord, to bring unto you our latest sermon.  And lo! We listened, and it was good! 

I bring to you, this day: a vision of future grooves, that will instil, fulfil, satiate and satisfy.  In the near future – March 13, 2020, to be exact – the Ripple Music Label will bestow unto the masses an “Acid Communion”, made by New Haven, Connecticut’s Bone Church.  And there will be much rejoicing, for the sounds will be sweet on this blessed day, and every day henceforth. 

“Acid Communion” is the follow-up to Bone Church’s 2017’s self-titled release and features six tracks of acid-washed doomer rock, guaranteed to make you sing ‘Hallelujah!’ to the pantheon of Sonic Deities.  These five gents who make up Bone Church have obviously studied their holy scriptures of Sabbath, and the divine epistle that is “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. 

Bone Church have teased the world at large with releasing the track ‘Witch in the Cellar’ early, for us to better anticipate the rapturous noise to come.  Please listen to it, and prepare yourself for the awesomeness to come.  Vocalist Jack Rune sounds like a John Fogerty that’s been pulled from another dimension, with his vocal prowess adding this extra punch to the lyrical stories told in each sonic tale. 

When listening to this album, I also felt the Holy presence of Sheffield’s Black Spiders in the mix.  The riffs may be slower, but there’s this familiar aggression and swagger that reaches through the speakers and brings back sweet audio memories.  The track ‘If They Float’, for example, has this breakdown that reminds me of ‘Stay Down’ from Black Spiders’ repertoire.  Sabbath and Spiders are the foundation of Bone Church.  What’s not to love about that? 

I say to thee, brothers and sisters of the Gods of Rock, this album shakes and rattles and rolls with the mighty sounds of festivals of yore.  Each track feels festival-tinged: a sound singed with summer heat, heady with the fumes of illicit vapours, and topped up with the potent wines of the Merlot Melodious and distributed via the decanter Distortion.  Drink up, my brethren, and savour the righteous power of the “Acid Communion”! 

“Acid Communion” is available HERE




Band info: bandcamp || facebook