When Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats crawled out of Cambridge with the outrageously excellent Blood Lust album, it was to the apparent surprise of everybody, not only because Cambridge is a well-known dead zone, but because the whole thing was just so damn good.
Combining doom, proto-metal, garage rock and psychedelia with a passion for cult horror movies and all manner of retro-cheese, it was an astonishing achievement for what was essentially a one-man band without a plan. Both popularity and record prices subsequently skyrocketed in a situation reminiscent of Ghost’s meteoric rise.
A great deal, therefore, is riding on this hotly anticipated follow-up; was Blood Lust a fluke or the flowering of a major new talent? On this evidence, it’s very much the latter. Far from resting on their laurels, the group have delivered an album which, although less immediate, is every bit as accomplished and atmospheric as its predecessor.
From catchy and uptempo (Mind Crawler, Evil Love) to reverential Sabbath-worship (Mt. Abraxas), hypnotic and hazy (Death Valley Blues) and pure shamanistic sludge (Devil’s Work), Mind Control simply oozes primordial power.
