Black Moth - Anatomical Venus album reviewed

Yorkshire grit meets goth-metal glamour

By Stephen Dalton
( Classic Rock )
published
Black Moth - Anatomical Venus

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Black Moth - Anatomical Venus

Black Moth - Anatomical Venus

Istra
Moonbow
Sisters Of The Stone
Buried Hoards
Severed Grace
A Lovers Hate
Screen Queen
Tourmaline
A Thousand Arrows
Pig Man

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Formed in Leeds, turbo-goth garage-sleaze sludge-metallers Black Moth previously enlisted longtime Bad Seeds percussionist Jim Sclavunos to produce their first two albums, which drew comparisons to Black Sabbath and L7, among others. Now divided between Leeds and London, they have a new label, a new producer and an expanded sonic canvas, adding extra glam-metal polish to their doom-grunge sound and more melodic lustre to singer Harriet Hyde’s imperious voice. 

Hyde sounds particularly majestic on the churning power waltz Moonbow, the prowling loud-quiet beast Istra, and Pig Man, with its sinister, semi-rapped incantations, which features a cacophony of guitars that howl and scrape like rusty hinges on the gates of Hell. 

Despite a handful of more generic tracks, including the gnarly psych-metal chugger Severed Grace and the prosaic indie-rock riff-slammer Screen Queen, West Yorkshire’s earthly conduits for diabolical decadence make great strides on this confident third album.

Stephen Dalton
Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.