The Black Heart Death Cult – The Black Heart Death Cult – Album Review
"A brave new dark age of droney bliss in the sonic bazaar"....or some such nonsense!
Hippy, trippy (occasional drippy) Australian psych-rockers The Black Heart Death Cult talk about “a brave new dark age of droney bliss in the sonic bazaar” and their reverb-obsessed flights of fancy favour the likes of The 13th Floor Elevators and Syd Barrett…..only they’re no where near as good as those icons.
Droney (but not ‘drone’ in the sense we would probably prefer) mantras are laid over fuzzy-space-jams which go on and on and, occasionally, launch into space, particularly on the rumbling bass heavy “Davidian Dream Beam”. Sadly, the remainder of the tracks could have come from an Austin Powers soundtrack, if Mike Myers had decided to tackle 60’s drug culture with a little more fervour!
Perhaps we should have just left this one alone, and realised sooner that this was not Worship Metal material, but we’d started writing the thing by then, so fuck it, we’re finishing the review!
Basically, imagine a heavier, trippier Kula Shaker (remember those fucktards?!) and you’ll be in the right ballpark. If that sounds like your thing, go explore (bandcamp link here). The rest of us are better off remaining in the present and leaving the 60’s well alone! 4/10
Welcome to the debut album from Melbourne, Australian psych quintet The Black Heart Death Cult. A side: droney sitar sling (Setting Sun), space rocked mellotron flutes through fuzz pedals (She s a Believer), walls of verb (Black Rainbow), psych folk wanderings (The Magic Lamp) guitar-o-rama (Aloha from Hell) show these future sailors know their way around the high psych seas. Droney dark but always with some light shining through, expect pretty much the same thing from the B side, an intergalactic fret board freak out!!