Black Salvation bequeaths to the world their newest opus Uncertainty Is Bliss (Relapse) and black light owners, black eyeliner wearers, and foppish goths rejoice. It’s a heady mixture of Siouxsie and the Banshees, X, and Echo and the Bunnymen. Uncertainty is Bliss is loud and bombastic and is meant to be played on 11.

The seven-minute opening track ‘In A Casket’s Ride’ sets the ambiance. It’s an eighties Dracula type thing happening. The song ebbs and flows like fog on the moors. ‘Floating Torpid’ is heavy in a sludgy molasses punk type way. Paul Schlesier’s vocals are distorted and Birger Schwidop’s bass is chunky. It’s a sixties underground psychedelic rave happening. ‘Breathing Hands’ is a track you get lost in. It’s a wall of sound that totally envelops your senses.

You know an album is going to be good when after only three songs you are planning to reorganize your iPod to fit in the new album. You know it’s good when you are anticipating what new fresh aural perdition is coming next. Black Salvation delivers with ‘Leair’ – a creepy, Svengali, German expressionism in film circa 1920s feel of a song.

 

Black Salvation then launches into a nine-minute composition of disquieting proportions entitled ‘A Direction is Futile’. Schleisier’s guitar takes on an evil Dick Dale motif; he’s toying with us before he slays us. Three minutes in it evokes haunting strains of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ part 2. ‘A Direction is Futile’ is like ‘Tannhauser’ in that it has layers; it’s seductive and complex. ‘Grey River’ is a straight ahead punk tome. Heavy. Loud. Fast. Uncertainty is Bliss ends with the very Nick Cave ‘Getting Slowly Lost’. From the rambling guitars to the heavenly verbose lyrics, ‘Getting Slowly Lost’ feels exactly that – getting slowly lost in the song.

Black Salvation’s Uncertainty is Bliss is an amazing collection of songs that will be enjoyed over

and over again for a very long time.

8.5/10

VICTORIA ANDERSON