If you have never heard or seen them, let me explain, Evil Blizzard have comprised at varying times a drummer vocalist, a keyboard player guitarist and four bass players, yes four bass players. The band also wear rubber masks a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre and have been compared to a sort of Victorian freak show.
The new album, `Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale` their fifth, was written during and post lockdown and ‘reflects the claustrophobia, fear, and paranoia of those days’ according to guitarist (not bassist!) Filthydirty. “The band has changed. One of our 4 bassists Kav left, and we were joined by Fleshcrawl (aka Mr. Dibs, Hawkwind’s vocalist and bassist for over 12 years). Kav was inimitable as a musician, so it never crossed our minds to try and ‘replace’ him, so when Fleshcrawl scurried in he brought a whole new range of sounds and toys to the sandpit. Also, we’d run out of sonic space to play with, having just the basses, and everything had got a bit stale – so I switched to lead guitar which brought a whole new range of possibilities.”
The album opens with `All Pigs With Snouts In The Trough` and it`s a fairly hypnotic listen with just the right amount of underlying menace. The addition of lyrics from the nursery rhyme `This Little Pig Went to Market` which dates back to 1758 adds a further sense of danger. The title may refer to politicians, Torys in the main I imagine and corporate greed, but I may well be reading something that isn`t really there. We have a heavier vibe to `Bad People` and to me it felt as if I’d entered into a kind of fiendish ceremony or gathering, akin to The Wicker Man but without the hassle of trying to get to the island of Summerisle.
`Pro Driver` is a song that i`m sure PIL`s John Lydon had wished he`d written about being proficient behind the wheel of an automobile, while `Tiny People` is a fifty-seven second adrenaline rush of pounding dynamic noise with a rhetoric about dancing in a small club with people with minute feet and shoes, bizarre but compelling.
`Clouds Like Ghosts` is a fairly psychedelic trippy composition with vocals that are whispered possibly via a spiritual entity and it`s a piece that really draws you into its magnetic ambience . A title like `Lullaby` suggests a child`s bedtime song and although this is, it`s as if it was delivered by a malevolent or paranormal entity. At around the halfway mark we head off into a jam like cacophony of sound with includes music box like chimes and a soothing melody to send you off to never, never land!!
Title track `Rotting In The Belly Of the Whale` is a sort of doom or stoner trip with lyrics that again appear to encompass nursery rhyme snippets but have a more disturbing element as the number develops. In `Darkness` we have a submission that runs at over eleven minutes and although the title suggests the partial or total absence of light the song is neither gloomy nor dull. There`s a robust or forceful sentiment challenging evil shared throughout this initially dreamy, delightful trancelike all absorbing auditory landscape. At around the midpoint the track veers off on a spellbinding almost hallucinogenic voyage where you just have to strap yourself in, take a deep breath and hope you`ll arrive safely in one piece, unhurt.
The album closes out with `Buried Believers` which is a final entrancing irresistible listen which has a mesmerising rhythm which really entices you to listen to it`s almost subliminal persuasive message.
The band feel that that this new album is much more representational of the band’s record collections: it retains the ‘Sabbath-meets PiL-meets Killing Joke’ sound found on the band’s earlier albums, but now encompasses dub, goth, and electronica in its tracks, with clear nods in the general direction of Sonic Youth, Jane’s Addiction, Leftfield and The Mission.
`Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale` did encompass Black Sabbath and Public Image Limited at times but Evil Blizzard for me have their own almost unique recognisable sound which is delightfully hypnotic and almost insatiable once you`ve opened the box. They`re the sort of band that should have signs that read `Danger do not enter` and have that intrigue that makes you want to touch the hot plate in a restaurant.
Once again Evil Blizzard have created an oeuvre that you should be filed under ‘Uneasy Listening’, you have been warned.
Rating 9 /10
