BLOOD CEREMONY
The Eldritch Dark
Rise Above (2013)
Rating: 8/10
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Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony are such a snazzy bunch of doomsters, and The Eldritch Dark is the quartet’s third opus.
Alongside England’s Purson, these guys seem to have found a niche amid the stoned Black Sabbath imitators clogging up the current revival rock scene. Their brand of progressive, esoteric rock is an intriguing one to say the least.
Blood Ceremony is fronted by the dulcet tones of Alia O’Brien whose honeyed tones give the album a mystical feel. As with Purson’s exotic-looking Rosalie Cunningham, O’ Brien has clearly crawled out from under the same rock that once concealed the brooding talents of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick and Coven’s Jinx Dawson. Not only does O’Brien possess a bewitching vocal, but she also extends her talents to organ and flute which litter this platter.
Album opener ‘Witchwood’ has all the oaken glory of the already mentioned American outfit Coven; it’s a doom-laden, organ-drenched slow-mover of a track weighed down by the darkly-tinged guitar sound of Sean Kennedy. The drums and bass on offer thud along, enabling this track to combine folk-influence with a Jethro Tull-inspired oddness.
The flute is certainly the most powerful instrument on the album, giving the opus a mischievous, fantasy, conjuring images of dancing witches and cavorting goblins best viewed in the fireside glow. Lead single ‘Goodbye Gemini’ has a flute backbone that enables the track to rise above the mediocre, and coupled with O’Brien’s enchanting vocal swoon and the rumbling percussion it’s a superb little track that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Jefferson Airplane album.
The peculiar yet haunting ‘Lord Summerisle’ has all the eerie qualities of the 1973 movie The Wicker Man, a film I will cite time and time again while summing up the majestic weirdness of this band. This time however O’Brien is accompanied by bassist Lucas Gadke on vocals, and as a track it’s the album’s most spine-chilling. The strong folk influence cannot be denied, as one imagines the band sitting around a woodland fire at dusk, spinning yarns of remote horrors that could still lurk out in the wilderness.
Blood Ceremony is clearly not your average metal band; in fact such is the diversity within their sound that to class them as such would be criminal. ‘Ballad Of The Weird Sisters’ is a fine example of the band’s abilities to shift between mood and musical style. It opens as a weighty affair before meandering off its path with an injection of whining violin and that distinctive flute.
Meanwhile, the title track conjures up Hammer Horror-style images, introducing itself on a sinister go-go organ and spiraling guitar. It’s the only track that strays close to the classic Black Sabbath sound that so many so-called occult rock bands seem obsessed with nowadays. Lyrically, it’s very much of the esoteric variety with tales of dark, fiery legends, reminding me of Fairport Convention if they’d made a pact with the devil!
The album also offers us the 60s psych drone of ‘Drawing Down The Moon’, with its sun-blessed organ, the uplifting yet reflective ‘Faunus’ and epic closer ‘The Magician’, with its hypnotic riff.
Blood Ceremony most certainly revels in the annals of folklore, and it’s no surprise they’ve toured with the likes of Sweden’s Ghost. Mind you, I much prefer these Canadian rockers to the costumed spooks.
The Eldritch Dark is another creepy installment that’ll have you stripping naked and dancing round a woodland fire before you can say “Hocus pocus”.
Neil Arnold
