Even if you are not familiar with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, the name alone should be plenty to entice you into giving them a spin. Having formed in 2009, the Cambridge Psychedelic Doom groovers are far more than a mere curiosity, and have their feet well under the table with a healthy seven studio albums to date, the latest being Shapes Of Midnight.
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Brian Boyle
The fact that this is a concept album based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death just adds to the intrigue of what lies ahead. Even if that is not your literary choice of weapon, the way this band deliver their music does have the ability to suck you into their world and get your mind far beyond the comfort zone.
Although Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats proudly distance themselves from the mainstream, that did not stop them from booking themselves into the hallowed ground of Abbey Road Studios, a space that had also been occupied by artists that would probably make them upchuck their sacrificial elevenses.
But they were in and out in a three day campaign of analogue traditionality, and the results are compelling.
Opener House By The Grave pretty much sums them up in a little under seven minutes. Riddled with a stabbing riff and a dark melody, it as good as transports you into a damp cemetery on a grey December afternoon.
But that is what we want. Envisioning Laura Ingalls running through a field with her dog is not likely here. It is all about embracing the darkness.
Vocalist Kevin Starrs has made no secret of his disdain for modern rock music, labelling it “clean and sanitised”. So it is no surprise that those feelings ring out on the wonderfully squalid When Evil Wakes, a track that hits all the psychedelic rock criteria with heavy doses of abrasiveness and chunky reverb.
But where it goes slightly beyond the norm is Starrs unnerving vocal. Your mind may wander, so much so, you can almost see him do it with a sinister grin and week old dirt under his nails.
Of course, if you want to ignore the haunting concept and would just rather drop the needle and rattle your skull, Don’t Let It Control You and Psycho On The Loose will give you everything you need.
The title track is no shrinking violet either. There is an eerie boogie that might set you to thinking that this is what Status Quo might have sounded like had Tony Iommi joined them around the Blue For You period.
Elsewhere, you might not have expected to hear saxophone lurking about on an album drenched in the macabre, but on I Won’t Sleep(‘Til You’re Gone) you get a near hallucinogenic solo that works better than you might think.
It is now 13 years since that landing on your feet support slot with Black Sabbath on their 13 Tour. And if that is news to you, one quick turn of The Other Side Of The Sky will tell you why. Far from a copycat scenario of Jayler proportions, but in some ways you would like to think they got a sneaky look at the manual.
It is important to mention that you do not need to have read The Masque Of The Red Death to get the full experience of this album. I have not, and have no intention to. I can enjoy the bluesy closing track Sleep No More without having the shite scared out of me, thank you very much.
But they could be singing about 50mm thick sheets of MDF for all I know, and it still would not halt this being a thrilling listen.
You do not get many albums where you find melodies and riffs addictively unsettling. This album has them by the bucketload.
Superb piece of work.
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats released Shapes Of Midnight on 18 September 2026 via Killer Candy Records. For more details, visit KillerCandyRecords.com.
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