I’ve just discovered the existence of a fourth Blood Ceremony album. The vinyl version (with MP3) is currently £10.70 on Amazon for the next two hours as a lightening deal. If I did vinyl I would have bought it. I haven’t heard a note so I have no idea how good or bad it is, but the previous albums are truly excellent. In the past they sounded like Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull, but in a good way.
From the Amazon product description:
Taking it’s title from this fascinating slice of religious history, Blood Ceremony’s fourth album evokes pagan rites and the bizarre mystical underbelly of rural Britain. Embracing the psychedelic and progressive in their indelible songcraft, guitarist Sean Kennedy, bassist Lucas Gadke, drummer Michael Carrillo and triple threat vocalist/flautist/organist Alia O’Brien have created what Kennedy calls “a very English album,” despite the band’s very Canadian heritage. Recorded to analogue tape with producer Liam Watson at Toe Rag Studios in London, Lord Of Misrule possesses a timeless quality within the rock epoch: It could stand alongside a Shocking Blue or Deep Purple record as easily as it will take it’s place among 2016’s finest albums. Lord Of Misrule conjures a lush atmosphere in which the pastoral horror of The Wicker Man and the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin-as viewed through the lens flare of Ava Gardner’s witchy turn in 1970’s The Devil’s Widow-are alchemized into songs of seduction and mortality. “There’s no defining concept running through the album, unless one can imagine a lord of misrule offering each song as a different entertainment,” Kennedy says. “The lyrics tend to deal, in different measure, with obsession, love and death.”
LOUDspeaker says
My 2011 review of their second album Living With The Ancients:
Excellent Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull psychedelic groove metal.
I was very pleasantly surprised by how good this album was. It’s turned out to be oddly addictive as well as I’ve been playing it a lot more than is usual. I’m not even that big a fan of Black Sabbath.
It’s very derivative of Black Sabbath, there’s no doubt about that. Although they don’t do anything original with the basic Sabbath sound, apart from maybe adding some bucolic Jethro Tull style flute, they have lucked into a substantial amount of mysterious and inexplicable X factor. Somehow it just gels together and is more than the sum of its parts.
The lyrics are so-so but it doesn’t matter. The groove, the forward propulsion is what matters with this band. She has a nice singing voice that slots in with the music in an unobtrusive way. I’ve been told that Ozzy technically sang like a girl, so female vocals on this type of music might work better than you may think. As I don’t pay too much attention to the words, and I’m usually a lyrics first type of person, I find this album works as great ambient music.
There are no slow tracks, but there are dynamics within the songs so it’s not just one paced throughout.
The 51 minute album is a bit samey sounding but the songs are strong. It might be unoriginal and locked in an early 70s time capsule, but in this case that’s not a bad thing.
1. The Great God Pan 7:30 (9 out of 10 stars)
A great, very satisfying track to open the album. Perfectly formed heavy blues, prog-tinged metal music.
2. Coven Tree 4:47 (7 out of 10 stars)
Lots of flute on this track which brings to mind Jethro Tull. The song is also a bit more verbose.
3. The Hermit 2:34 (9 out of 10 stars)
The flute is the lead instrument taking the place where a screaming guitar is usually found. Very melodic instrumental.
4. My Demon Brother 4:48 (8 out of 10 stars)
More melodic than is usually expected for a metal song. The lyrics don’t really go anywhere but it doesn’t matter, they’re there to just add some satanic atmosphere, not to tell an engaging story.
5. Morning Of The Magicians 6:58 (5 out of 10 stars)
Has a disjointed feel to it like it hasn’t been fully completed. Sounds to me like a jam that isn’t as good as everyone thinks it is. It’s as if it hasn’t been refined into something more streamlined and palatable. They failed to organise it into something melodic that has a groove. It’s grooveless. It’s not bad, but it’s average at best. It does have a nice acoustic sounding coda which feels tacked on to extend the track for its own sake.
6. Oliver Haddo 8:12 (7 out of 10 stars)
The vocals seem a bit more pronounced but she doesn’t really have anything to say. Which again I’m not bothered about. Good song but there’s nothing really notable about it.
7. Night Of Augury 6:05 (7 out of 10 stars)
The churchy organ is the lead instrument. It even gets a solo that turns into a long instrumental passage for the whole band to slowly join in one at a time. The lyrics are the usual indifferent but competently decent stuff.
8. The Witches Dance 0:40 (5 out of 10 stars)
Harmless instrumental interlude. Too short to be either good or bad.
9. Daughter Of The Sun 10:10 (8 out of 10 stars)
Very effective extended track. The lyrics aren’t up to much but they’re among her more memorable ones. The guitar sounds very David Gilmour like at the 9 minute mark.
The album is not just for people looking for retro soundalike rock music. In my opinion the album transcends its obvious influences.
Overall 9 out of 10 for the album.
NOTE 6 MONTHS LATER: I gave Morning of the Magicians only 5 out of 10! I said it had no groove?! I was an idiot. I think I was deliberately harsh on it just to stop my review coming across as easily dismissed fawning nonsense.
My new and improved track review:
“5. Morning of the Magicians 6:58 (8 out of 10 stars)
A brilliant prog-metal monster of a track. Its groove is a bit more disjointed and less straight and direct than it is on most of the other songs. The acoustic guitar section towards the end sounds great, and is a nice change of pace and sound before it rocks out with a short heavy coda.”
Anyway the real reason I’m here is to say that the album has stood the test of time. I still listen to it a lot. I like it as much now as I did back then. Raise every score by one point.
I’m upping the overall score to 10 out of 10 stars.
NOTE: Their third album is perhaps even better than the second.
Kid Dynamite says
This sounds excellent. I will check them out. In the meantime, if you want more Sabbath inspired vaguely pagan doomy folky metal, you could do a lot worse than listen to the 2016 releases from Crumbling Ghost and Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. There are reviews with clips on this site if you get jiggy with the search button
LOUDspeaker says
Fuck it. I bought the vinyl for the hell of it.
EDIT: I commented before actually buying it. The postage stopped me and I opted to place the CD version in my basket instead for the next time I get over the £20 limit.
timtunes says
Looks interesting – I’m in
Moose the Mooche says
“A rare thing these days…. a martyr’s death”
Sadly very dated.