It’s been a long four years since the release of 2020’s Acid Doom, the second album by Californian heavyweights Old Blood. In that time, the band have been busy refining their dynamics, reinforcing their strengths, and plotting for world domination. Back in my first summer of writing for The Shaman, I had the absolute honour of reviewing that very release, and it was on my Top Ten list for the year.
I found both the band, and the album, to be just so utterly engaging, and interesting, in equal measure. The blend of psychedelic occult bluesiness, mixed with those hard rocking theatrics completely blew my mind. Now here we are. Four years on, and the unit have never sounded tighter.
On Acid Doom vocalist Lynx was a relatively new addition, but those sparkles of greatness were evident. Now, fully fledged in the ranks, the vocal dynamics are at the next level and have more than helped to shape Old Blood 2024. Midnight Climax shows just how much Lynx and the boys have embraced their uniquely lavish sound, and have brought something to the table that is very much needed, an air of mystery to music again.
The sounds are vibrantly nostalgic, darkly wondrous and richly intoxicating. The heady desert rock meets psychedelia vibe gives for more of an eclectic sound, which is reminiscent of Jess And The Ancient Ones, but with more of an Americana swagger. Over the course of the seven tracks, this is driven firmly home, and even for seven tracks, you are still getting an incredible forty minutes of otherworldly goodness. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s forty minutes jam packed with awesomeness, which is all killer, no filler.
Opening with the title track, and a somewhat suggestively titled Midnight Climax, the band wastes no time in reintroducing themselves, and picking up where they left off with Acid Doom. With a distorted spacy guitar introduction, the band, one by one, emerge from the darkness and into the light. Dark, brooding and dripping in ‘70s ooze, they firmly announce their return, and it’s somewhat spiritual. Lynx’s vocal is as overwhelming as ever, and with a saucy, sensual display the outpouring begins. It’s a full body desert rock at midnight kind of affair, naughty, but very very nice. From: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/old-blood-midnight-climax/
