THE MIRROR EXPLODES

Two years after the disappointing "Heavy deavy skull lover", The Warlocks went through the usual line up changes before returning to the studio to record this, their latest album at time of writing. Back into the fray comes guitarist John Christian Rees, the number of guitarist being restored to three with the arrival of Ryan McBride.

The album is surprisingly brief, its 8 tracks running to around 5 minutes a piece. As usual, all the songs are written by band leader Bobby Hecksher. While he does not seek to take the band back to their most commercial period, there is a significant tightening up all round here, when compare with the previous album.

The opening "Red camera" is a heavy riff driven number with dreamy psychedelic vocals, the overall mood being rather Doors like. Lyrically, the song is morose, the wailing feedback on the lead guitars emphasising the depression. "The Midnight Sun" maintains the ponderous pace but the vocals here are buried in a cacophony of fuzz and feedback. The triple lead guitar orchestra creates a wall of sound which gradually engulfs the song all together; in its own way though it is rather effective.

"Slowly disappearing" offers no respite from the gloom, but here the guitars take on even more of a drone style, the simple four note riff which prevails throughout (sometimes in reverse) emphasising the monotone. While "There is a formula to your despair" is to all intents in the same mould, I found it to be refreshingly lighter and more melodic. At times the song feels like "Albatross" (Fleetwood Mac) with vocals, with a similar basic drum pattern.

"Standing Between The Lovers Of Hell" picks things up by a notch or so, the slight raising of the pace making the track seem positively frantic. The lead guitar here is more interesting, at times verging on a solo. "You Make Me Wait" seems to borrow riffs from Neil Young's grunge period, and this combined with the echoed vocals offers something pleasingly atmospheric. "Frequency Meltdown" is the only completely instrumental track here, and by far the best. Here, the doom is lifted in favour of a pulsating romp, with genuine lead guitar playing a fine melody, driven on by enthusiastic drumming. The album closes with "Static Eyes", a lighter semi-acoustic number with a decent melody which builds to a final crescendo.

Overall, a more satisfying album than "Heavy deavy..", but one which falls short of the band's best albums. The songs are essentially straightforward, distinguished primarily by extent to which they feature repetition, drone, feedback, etc. There is an overall feeling of quality to the album which the previous release lacked, but there is an overall lack of diversity here which is really only addressed towards the end of the album.