After debuting in 2010 with the so-rare-it-barely-exists Volume 1 and following it in 2011 with the landmark arrival that was Blood Lust – an album for which one can still hear the hyperbole echoing on the wind if one listens just right – British horror rockers Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats emerge with another round of malevolent fuzz on Mind Control. Though Blood Lust was reissued by Rise Above last year, Mind Control marks the Cambridge four-piece’s debut proper on the label (Metal Blade in the US), and if the response to the advance single “Poison Apple” and the sold-out live debut at London’s The Garage venue are any indication, the monstrous hype that swelled for Blood Lust is primed to take hold again for the new collection, which is longer at nine tracks/50 minutes than the second album. More importantly than the visceral nature of the blind praise it’s almost predestined to receive, Mind Control showcases some distinct changes in Uncle Acid’s approach, taking their late-‘60s garage fuzz to far-out psychedelic ranges while also balancing those influences with the strong pop sensibilities that came to fruition the last time out, so that a song like the later “Valley of the Dolls” is languid, fuzzed mellotron’ed and meandering – also doomed – but still proffering one of Mind Control’s strongest hooks. While one of the most distinct aspects of the band’s sound two years ago was their ability to capture a classic horror aesthetic in their songwriting, Mind Control is less tied to that single idea specifically, and though it doesn’t want for foreboding atmosphere or an underlying sense of ill intentions, the impression is delivered through what’s at times a strikingly sweet package. To wit, “Follow the Leader,” which owes more to The Beatles’ Revolver than to the Hammer House of Horror, or the progressive soloing that arises in the second half of the earlier “Desert Ceremony.” They’re on a different – though no less individualized – trip, still putting the overarching affect of the material at the fore rather an any one member’s performance, but taking the means of their methods to new and more evolved ends.

One of the great strengths of Blood Lust was its use of classic pop structures, and that’s something Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have carried over into Mind Control as well, though as much as that album transferred verses and choruses into felonies of surgical precision, some of these songs’ best moments are their most drawn out. The opener and one of the longer cuts, “Mt. Abraxas” (7:09), hints at some of the psychedelia that comes up later in the closing trio, but really does most of its work in heralding the tonal consistency with the band’s prior outings while also showcasing the uptick in production value accomplished through working with Jim Spencer at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, showing also in its midsection just how much of Uncle Acid’s tonality – fast becoming their signature – is owed to circa-1974 Black Sabbath, the guitars taking on classic Iommi layered interplay between lead and rhythm lines. I was left wondering though why the song had been chosen to lead off Mind Control until the crashes and slowdown after the 4:30 mark that leads the way instrumentally through the remainder of the track, which hone directly in on Uncle Acid’s psychotic cabaret stomp and give the record one of its most lasting grooves, duly ridden. Perhaps also “Mt. Abraxas” is meant to signal a departure from the form of Blood Lust, since it functions not so much as a direct chorus hook as did that album’s launch, “I’ll Cut You Down,” but instead as more of a lead-in to the rest of this album as a whole, the pace picking up with the ensuing “Mind Crawler.” With a synth line buried beneath the guitars, bass and drums to offer a sense of urgency fitting the more upbeat tempo, “Mind Crawler” is both a strong hook and an immediate contrast to the opener, finding companionship shortly with the more metallic “Evil Love” in a quicker rush that builds to a stop in the second half before repetitions of the title at the end give it a second chorus as much as an outro. The swaggering jaunt of “Poison Apple” follows, its initial verse following a simple pattern of proclamations rounding out with the lines, “Don’t you worry baby, you’re safe with me/I’m the poison apple in your tree.” From there, it’s riffy groove, spiders in the brains, infections and a host of other threatening images to go with one of Mind Control’s best basslines and a toe-tapping rhythm. The vocals, almost always delivered by more than one member of the band at once, are rarely at the fore, but present enough in the mix to carry across the hook of “Poison Apple” well, setting up the more spacious “Desert Ceremony,” which takes some of the Sabbathisms that showed up in “Mt. Abraxas” and makes them the core of the progression.

One can look at Mind Control as functioning on a couple different levels. Cuts like “Mt. Abraxas,” “Follow the Leader,” “Valley of the Dolls” and “Devil’s Work” are longer, and particularly in the case of the last three, working in more psychedelic realms, where “Mind Crawler,” “Poison Apple,” “Evil Love” and “Death Valley Blues” keep a more straightforward – structurally – feel, the latter nonetheless providing transition atmospherically into the rest of side B’s freakout. At very least I’d argue that’s the case, and if so, “Desert Ceremony” is where the two sides of Uncle Acid’s sound meet and get down on some drawn-out lysergics while smoothly shifting into some of the album’s most satisfying riffing, the guitars harmonizing here and there and setting a table for the end of the first half that arrives with “Evil Love.” Classic proto-NWOBHM chugging – more biker movie than otherworldly horror creep, but well done – shows up in the chorus, but the sound is stripped of the lushness that “Desert Ceremony” hinted at in its midsection, and that’s the biggest change. The momentum already established by the time “Poison Apple” ends carries through “Desert Ceremony” to “Evil Love,” so that the shift back to a faster tempo isn’t jarring, and the simple chorus of “You need our love/Our evil love/You are dear/To our purpose” (that third line might be something else) showing off the band’s ability to make the most out of near-minimalist lyricism. The song ends cold, marking a distinct break between the first halves of Mind Control even on a linear medium (CD or digital), and “Death Valley Blues” starts with a quiet introduction to its chorus guitar line, establishing a theme with “Desert Ceremony” even as the sweet first verse turns sinister with the heavier guitar that enters for the chorus at full breadth. Its threat made clear, “Death Valley Blues” plays off the I’m-harmless-watch-me-kill-you contrast of the airier pop verse and the vicious chorus, moving after a couple turns through to a near-vaudevillian riff that seems to echo the ending “Mt. Abraxas” even as vocals are introduced over top, the chaos coming to a head as the murderous vibe loses consciousness in its own repetitions, crashing and ringing out to start “Follow the Leader” from a base of total silence.

Which is as fitting a place to start, since “Follow the Leader” essentially redefines the course of Mind Control for the remainder of its duration. Amp rumble meets with Eastern-sounding acoustic guitar lines, shaker percussion and the most acid-caked feel I’ve yet heard from Uncle Acid. On that level, it’s their most adventurous single track to date and in large part the source of the Beatles Revolver comparison above, the vocals made Lennon-esque in the context of the droning guitar line and righteous psych melody. There’s movement to it thanks to the already noted percussion, but the absence of a full drum kit makes a big difference in the overall sound, allowing for more of a wash as the layers of guitar intertwine in an active, but nonetheless stiller feel. Because its sensibility is more or less bringing the album to a halt, and because of its hypnotic wanderings, it would be easy to think of “Follow the Leader” as worthy of closing the album, but Uncle Acid have more in store as “Valley of the Dolls” reintroduces the drums, albeit at a lumbering, slow pace. Doomed. Classically so, but hardly traditional. The psychedelic context of “Follow the Leader” isn’t lost, thanks in large part to the vocals, which are drawn out over the slower riffing, but the guitar line that leads the way through the track is darker, slower and more downtrodden than anything yet on the record, and the mellotron that accompanies only adds to its miseries. With the recent death of Roger Ebert, one can call “Valley of the Dolls” – named for the 1967 original film from which the Ebert-penned 1970 sequel, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which is also referenced in the lyrics here, is derived – timely, but the band could hardly have planned it that way, so it doesn’t really seem fair. More to the song’s credit, the chorus hones in on a fitting barbiturate, drool-from-out-the-side-of-the-mouth stoned feel, so that I don’t even know how many times Uncle Acid have intoned the line “valley of the dolls” before they shift gears after the halfway mark and start adding “beyond the” to the front of it, but the dual-guitar solo that carries the track past its midpoint offers a bit of momentary respite. As much as anything could, anyway.

The bass picks up a “Heaven and Hell”-type line, slowed down considerably, and “Valley of the Dolls” rounds out with single hits ringing out between, eventually giving way to rumble and a fadeout into the immediate guitar march of “Devil’s Work.” This single riff – chug, chug, chug, chug – will comprise much of Mind Control’s closer, opening for a bit for the chorus, but never moving too far out of focus. Melodic oohs and soon enough the verse take hold, but the drums and bass follow the guitar line such that Uncle Acid in their final moments are united in the expression of just this one idea, the line in the chorus, “I am the devil/And I’m here to do the devil’s work,” meeting the sporadic-but-not-random lead guitar notes and tom fill with like-minded effective simplicity. A semi-build emerges with the chugging progression as its foundation, guitars emerging to space out over the fading line as Mind Control weaves its way toward the closing rumble that comprises the final few minutes of “Devil’s Work,” which, though its ending is more for that of the album as a whole, winds up with a deceptively catchy hook, slow and drugged as it is. That balance speaks to Uncle Acid’s strength of songwriting overall, however, and though they share little sonically in common, it’s a distorted pop influence they share with Sweden’s Ghost, who’ve been able to take classic structures and bend them to their own sonic will to considerable critical (not to mention commercial) success. Whether such lies in store for Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats in the wake of Mind Control, I don’t know and won’t bother to speculate. More pivotally, the band have underscored the point that although they owe their hearts to a very specific set of atmospheric principles – the horror, the late ‘60s fuzz, etc. – they’re able to take those and create something of their own with them. As much as Blood Lust caught many off guard with its ultra-cohesive presentation, Mind Control is primed as the follow-up to surprise with what it adds to that already established formula. An easy pick for one of the year’s best and most anticipated albums.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Poison Apple”

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats’ website

Rise Above Records

Metal Blade

Tags: Metal Blade, Mind Control, Rise Above, UK, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats Mind Control

This entry was posted on Monday, April 8th, 2013 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.