The Black Angels, “Death Song”
Available: Friday, April 21, via Partisan Records on compact disc and standard black double vinyl LP. Also available at your local independent record store. Special, limited-edition pre-order CD and vinyl bundles are available directly from the band at their website and includes a multitude of extras, such as autographed screen-printed posters, vinyl slip mats, herb grinders, T-shirts, and even a satin jacket.
“Death Song” is the first full-length record in four years from the Austin-based progenitors of modern psych and was recorded between their hometown and Seattle. Sessions in both locales were produced, engineered, and mixed by the great Phil Ek, who has worked with the likes of Built to Spill, Les Savy Fav, The Shins, and Fleet Foxes among countless others.
“Written and recorded in large part during the recent election cycle, the music on ‘Death Song’ serves as part protest, part emotional catharsis in a climate dominated by division, anxiety, and unease,” according to the band’s website. The songs themselves do not stray, thankfully, too terribly far from their usual formula of heaviness, bombast, murky fuzz, and tribal drone. That said, a handful of tracks on the album are some of the best they’ve written to date. The lurching, chug of tracks like “Comanche Moon,” “I Dreamt,” and “Death March” will certainly appeal to both pre-existing fans and new ones alike.
The Black Angels are currently touring the new album, more or less, all summer, both in the United States and abroad. Catch them with A Place to Bury Strangers through May.
Recommended for fans of Roky Erikson/The 13th Floor Elevators, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Night Beats, or Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Jon E. Lynch[email protected]
