REVIEW: Uncle Acid and the deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight
Photo-negative album cover of a creepy castle? Song titles about evil and murder? Out-of-time grooves that get your knees quaking and your booty shakin’? Yep, it’s definitely a new UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS album.
To immediately dispel any sort of speculation from the get-go, Shapes Of Midnight is UNCLE ACID par excellence. After a time making a GOBLIN-esque movie soundtrack, the band are back with their first proper rock record since 2018’s Wasteland, which now seems like a lifetime ago. This time it’s a semi-concept album inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death mixed with the nightmares of the modern age - and there are few things more UNCLE ACID than that. It has been far, far too long since their last release, the last time they had an album out the economy was doing semi-ok and nobody had known the trappings of a global pandemic. But now here we are, older and wiser, and hopefully this gap is the longest this band has for the foreseeable future, because if UNCLE ACID can maintain their quality for this long, then it’s more than likely that they can produce greatness like this for years to come.
From the outset this thing is absolutely red-hot with more jams than a pastry tart, the opener, House By The Grave, is an instant classic in the vein of URIAH HEEP (seriously, it could be a sister track to Walking In Your Shadow). It really has to be heard to be believed. In that typical UNCLE ACID style where it feels like a SABBATH song dunked in candlewax, the production is clearer and more biting than Blood Lust’s was, and the vibe is altogether creepy yet classic. Immaculate. When Evil Wakes shows that the band can still annihilate a slower jam if they feel so inclined, complete with some seriously disturbing lyrics. There’s always a compulsion to compare this band with some of the other classic rock groups of the 70s, and yes, the influences are worn clearly on the sleeve, but UNCLE ACID have absolutely perfected their niche and are SO good that they stand on their own. Don’t Let It Control You is a punky number in the vein of GENTLE GIANT’s I Betcha Thought We Couldn’t Do It as the very much non-punk group take a solid crack at the genre. Psycho On The Loose feels like it fell out of a time portal, and it would be pretty perfect for one of those Scooby-Doo chase sequences too. I Won’t Sleep (‘Til You’re Gone) is a glammy jam with a very sexy saxophone, and The Other Side Of The Sky swings low and heavy before ending with a corker of a solo. The album closes on the slow-jam Sleep No More, which grooves its way to oblivion.
The album is altogether cohesive and tremendous. Once it's over it seems extremely difficult to not gently tap the “replay” button so you can experience it all over again. It is an added notch on their belt and another bonafide classic to enter the 2020s doom metal canon.
Score: 9/10
Shapes Of Midnight will be released on 18th September 2026 via Killer Candy Records.
Words: Kiarash Golshani
Photos: Karin Hunt
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