Review Summary: Should your music fix include late-‘60s-to-mid-‘70s vintage rock, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats debut album is a long lost friend from the past, stopping by to say hello and catch up on what has been, what is and what will be.
The ‘70s occult heavy rock revival is projecting itself onto the second decade of the 21st century with full force, following its atypical and rather “pale” commencement during the early-to- mid ‘00s. This projection has attained characteristics of a rapidly growing appeal to a newly established fan base and, in effect, to the major labels and their managers. The latter almost exclusively account for old-school rock fans or members of disbanded (for the most part) and similar in style music ensembles, who decided to establish their own small labels in order to distribute their favorite music since no one else would (Lee Dorrian and Rise Above Records is one example out of the not so many). Bands that started their activity during the ‘00s in small and underground labels (Witchcraft, Graveyard and The Devil’s Blood, to name a few), now prosper from the support of major labels, namely Nuclear Blast and Metal Blade. The important thing though, is that this revival is not finite, as new bands of equal or greater quality are constantly popping out, presenting slightly differentiated yet awesome mixtures of the same base musical blend. One such band is the English act of Uncle Acid and the Dead Beats and their debut self-financed album
Vol. 1, which is nectar to the ears of those who are thirsty for high quality vintage heavy rock.
The band is a power trio comprised of Uncle Acid on vocals, guitars and keyboards, Kat on handling out the low frequencies and Red behind the drum kit. Everything else about the band’s whereabouts lies in utter obscurity, yet any selling point oriented information other than their actual music, would be really redundant. In a nutshell, their music is where it is at. Implementing a sound production that simulates perfectly the misty stench of ‘60s London skid rows, the heavy rock of Uncle Acid and Co. appears to be relatively constrained at first. Soon enough though, a structural relaxation towards diverse musical pathways becomes gradually observable. Whereas there’s that boogie driven, straight-in-your-face heavy rock that will force die-hard rock fans either to bang their head in the air or their foot on the floor (“Crystal Spiders”), there are occasions where this heavy rock gets as bluesy and nostalgic as it can get, leading in psychedelic and wonderful solo guitar or keyboard driven jams that could go on forever ( “Lonely and Strange”). Furthermore, the band lets its occult rock to be alloyed with the cool glam/hippie/rock n’ roll baby boomers used to get their heads and bodies off with, during mid-‘60s to mid-70s. Songs like “Dead Eyes of London”, “Vampire Circus” or the magnificent album closer “Wind up Toys” are in line with the aforementioned respect, as the rock n’ roll fun and groove is blended superbly with the bleak aura of occult/vintage heavy rock. A crucial contributing factor in all the aforementioned musical perspectives lies in Uncle Acid’s inherently psychedelic and smooth vocals, which complement every song perfectly.
Should your music fix include late-‘60s-to-mid-‘70s vintage rock, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats debut album is a long lost friend from the past, stopping by to say hello and catch up to what has been, what is and what will be. Uncle Acid and his mates manage to evolve wisely within the relatively constrained spectrum of ‘60s/‘70s rock and give something that does not resemble to anything relevant to the 21st century occult/vintage rock revival. Those who know their vintage rock, will have a really hard time figuring whether this album came in 2010 or 40 years ago, as its constituent ingredients are shuffled to the brink of perfection.
