Evil Blizzard – Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale

Evil Blizzard are not punk in the normal generic form, they are punk in its glorious diverse state, bands like this pop up all the time, not all of them get the credit they deserve from the punk music community, thankfully there are many like myself who see this genre as so much more than driven by music that mimics the Ramones, Sex Pistols or The Clash, I grew up listening to John Peel and going to gigs that gave a place for anything and everything, yes I still love the old school, but new and fresh is also still gives a rush of excitement.

So having been sent this latest album from Evil Blizzard with the wickedly brilliant title Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale which immediately gives a sense of world decay with no way of affecting anything because of external forces, it was a chance to say what it makes just one person feel.

Firstly I have to own up to something that really wrangles at me, I have never witnessed this band live yet, is this meant to be, or is it forces I have no control over, all working to keep me safe, I like the idea of the latter, but then I’m not scared to put myself in danger for the sake of music.  Anyway I sat alone in my car in the rain the first time I hit play on this new album, and I can confidently say it was a moment that will stay with me as one of the best ways to hear new music, especially when its as damn crazy as the signature Evil Blizzard bass sound coming from ‘All Pigs With Snouts In The Trough’ a vocal that airs on the side of serial killer set loose and the notable depth of despair that hangs over every note.

This is an album and a band that have either set out to confound or stumbled upon a way of confusing the best off us, as to what exactly they are all about, but what matter the most is it works and its fucking entirely different, yes you can pick out moments of influence maybe, ‘Bad People’ feels as if it taken all the bad bits from a Killing Joke song and sucked to even further depths of depravity, ‘Pro Driver’ has a John Lydon esque PIL vocal that sits in a song that somehow feels like its describing a driver who actually a professional killer with a need for justification, ‘Clouds Like Ghosts’ could even be described as a Joy Division meets The Fall in time weird evolution, anyway you get the gist of it, what actually is the truth, is that this band never really fit in anywhere other than within their own sick minds.

If you sat down and listened to this album/band for the very first time and had no background, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a collection of nine tracks that just meld into one and maybe become a little repetitive, but unlike a band I personally tried and couldn’t get away with Theatre Of Hate (so many cult fan might be upset here), the repetitiveness is broken and fractured by some sublime pieces of guitars like in ‘Lullaby’, the nastily disgusting vocal that slides around the title track ‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’, or then there’s ‘Darkness’ with its eleven minutes of what feels like delving into Bowie’s Blackstar album with its sense of an imminent ending.

I’m not totally sure I would say that this album has taken everything from the past 8 or 9 years and come up with something totally new and innovative, but yet it still sounds fresh (rottenly fresh) and just as dark as ever this band can be.  More than one or tow listens is definitely the order of events needed to get the best of of it, but it is worth it.

Out via Evil Blizzard‘s own label Crackedankles on Nov 4th

Connect via FACEBOOK WEBSITE