UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS - Shapes Of Midnight

A fuzz like a blade: it's the sign that Uncle Acid have shed their skin without betraying their own blood. After the cinematic detour of "Nell'ora blu" (2024), Kevin Starrs and co. return to their heavy riffs, but they do it with a new, more direct, almost political fury. The concept is explicit: Poe's "The Masque Of The Red Death", the prince who barricades himself in the castle while plague devours the village. Two centuries later, the allegory hasn't lost an ounce of its venom.

“Shapes Of Midnight” was recorded at Abbey Road studios in just three days, entirely live and cut to analogue tape with a vintage Neumann microphone. That's why the record sounds warmer and meaner than usual. No more cavernous cathedral reverb: here the band is right on top of you, breathing down your neck. Rachel Burnett – in her official debut – brings keyboards and sax that widen the palette without diluting it. The organ snaking through “When Evil Wakes” evokes the Doors, while the superb sax on “I Won’t Sleep (‘Til You’re Gone)” is one of the most surprising moments in the band's entire catalogue. A great addition to an already rich, well-blended ensemble.
The first half of the record is a genuine string of bangers: “House By The Grave” opens with a biting riff, “Shapes Of Midnight” sways between Thin Lizzy harmonies and cosmic synths, “Don’t Let It Control You” (the single that preceded the album) hits hard. Then comes “Psycho On The Loose”, an danse macabre straight out of an Eighties disco, masked Judas Priest, grotesquely irresistible.

The coordinates are the ones we've already come to appreciate – with an unmistakable soundscape in the vein of “Black Sabbath Vol. 4”, while the political anger running through the lyrics (water companies poisoning rivers, genocide, wealth barricading itself inside the castle) sometimes stays on the surface and feels more like a slogan than a vision. But when the band hits its mark musically, it leaves a mark that lasts: “When Evil Wakes” and “The Other Side Of The Sky” are among the best things recorded in recent years.
“Shapes Of Midnight” certainly isn't a return to “Blood Lust”, but it's among the tightest and fiercest records Uncle Acid have made. Death is climbing the hill, and the soundtrack is perfect!

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25/09/2026