Uncle Acid & the deadbeats – Shapes Of Midnight
Release Date: 18th September 2026
Label: Killer Candy Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Proto Metal, Hard Rock, Psych.
FFO: Green Lung, Ghost, Kadavar, Graveyard, All Them Witches.
Review By: Magnus Rotås
Two years after the immense synth-laden giallo-soundtrack triumph of Nell’ ora blu, Uncle Acid & the deadbeats return, but this time with more of a Roger Corman and Hammer horror aesthetic compared to their dip into Italian horror on their last record. Shapes Of Midnight is a macabre concept album partly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death.
Shapes Of Midnight just sounds immaculate; let’s just get that out of the way. The album was tracked at Abbey Road Studios – live to analogue tape using era-appropriate tech, from antique Neumann mics to consoles and compressors from the peak era of recorded sound.
From familiar ingredients of British proto-metal and psychedelic acid rock, brainchild Kevin Starrs managed to create a sound that is uniquely Uncle Acid. This album marks a return to the guitar-forward attack of their earlier records. Their blessed invocation of proto-metal heaviness is gilded by blasts of uncanny melancholic pop, bruising NWOBHM gallop, jazzy textures and complexities, and Krautrock-y cro-magnon synth damage.
This album is just a complete slaughter of bangers, great riffs and absolutely tasty bass licks. The first half of this album sees some of the best material the band has ever made. The infectious opener, House of the Grave, is the perfect start to the album. The songwriting here is just phenomenal, and the song feels like it’s constantly moving and changing; it’s borderline proggy, but in the least self-indulgent way possible.
The next two tracks, Shapes of Midnight and When Evil Wakes, are both instantly memorable. The band is absolutely playing their ass off, with drumming that injects so much energy and vitality into the songs and bass riffs so good that they never make for a dull moment.
Don’t Let it Control You and Psycho on the Loose are two more straightforward, catchy tracks that wouldn’t be out of place on Ghost’s Opus Eponymous.
I Won’t Sleep (‘Til You’re Gone) is the album’s most bluesy track, with some smooth saxophone added to the mix, which makes this another stand out moment on the album.
Perhaps the only song I’m not very keen on is the last song on the album Sleep No More, as the main riff sounds way too much like the background music in a rowdy American pub, where truckers come to drink in a scene out of Twin Peaks or something. Despite the vocals and synths efforts in trying to make the song feel more eerie, it doesn’t really manage to stand up to the other great songs on the album.
Apart from a slightly lacklustre finale to the album, this album is peak Uncle Acid. Shapes Of Midnight refines the group’s “Evil Beatles” sound. It’s a thrilling, expertly composed fusion of eerie harmonies, Thin Lizzy-esque twin-guitar brilliance and the kind of fleet-footed heaviness that’s become their trademark at this point.
(4.5 / 5)
