Shapes of Midnight LP

Downloads include choice of MP3, WAV, or FLAC

Two years on from the mesmeric Nell’ Ora Blu, their synth-laden soundtrack for an imaginary Giallo movie, orphic Cambridge heavies Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats return with their seventh full-length Shapes Of Midnight. A brilliantly macabre concept album partly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death and the too-real nightmares of our modern age, Shapes Of Midnight refines the group’s ‘Evil Beatles’ sound: a thrilling, expertly composed fusion of eerie harmonies, pop hooks, Thin Lizzy-esque twin-guitar brilliance and the kind of fleet-footed heaviness that’s become their trademark.

Shapes Of Midnight was tracked at Abbey Road Studios – live to analogue tape, natch – in a blessed three-day blitz in the company of storied engineer Chris Bolster, whose previous clients include Phil Spector, Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney. The band employed era-appropriate tech, from antique Neumann mics once breathed upon by the Fabs and the Floyd, to consoles and compressors from the peak era of recorded sound. The mastering, meanwhile, was completed by Grammy-nominated engineer Noel Summerville (The White Stripes, The Clash, My Bloody Valentine).

The album marks a return to the guitar-forward attack of their earlier records, but also an evolution. Their blessed invocation of proto-metal heaviness is gilded by blasts of uncanny melancholic pop, bruising NWOBHM gallop, jazzy textures and complexities, and Krautrock-y cro-magnon synth damage. It’s a deliciously dark listen, for sure; as songwriter Kevin Starrs says, “our albums exist in an alternate universe to our own. They're all stories that could happen here, but everything's just a bit ‘off’.”

TRACKLIST:

1. House By The Grave - 6.50
2. Shapes Of Midnight - 5.15
3. When Evil Wakes - 6.36
4. Don’t Let It Control You - 3.45
5. Psycho On The Loose - 5.10
6. I Won’t Sleep (’Til You’re Gone) - 6.08
7. The Other Side Of The Sky - 4.52
8. Sleep No More - 6.24

TOTAL PRESSING NUMBERS:

BLACK // 2000

N.AMERICA PURPLE // 1500

EU BLACK ICE SPARKLE // 750