WEIRD OMEN: France's Premier Psych-Garage Trio Serve Up Deliciously Dark Third LP, "Surrealistic Feast"

France’s darkest psych-garage trio Weird Omen return for their third album, a ten-track descent into their inner madness.

“You say that everything is fine, you say that everything is fine.” The couplet that’s repeated over and over on Earworm, the buzzsaw raucous early highlight on Weird Omen’s new album, but the paranoia is rising and the band are harnessing a hellish energy to send the listener through a swirling nightmarish journey of gothic psych garage rock.

Right from opener A Place I Want To Know, the baritone saxophone takes hold with a deep pulsing energy that grabs you from within the song and drags you into the dripping guitar and menacing drum beat. It broods in an almost Jesus And Mary Chain way, taking the drive from within rather than pushing it out and into the face of the listener like most other garage bands. In that way Weird Omen are quite a unique prospect in the burgeoning French garage scene. Theirs is an internal succubus put on show for all to see. A fuzz neo-garage psych blast.

Whether they’re spinning in an almost Cramps like groove (Wild Honey, The Goat), pulling at hypnotic chants over a fuzzed out guitar that rises and falls ( Surrealistic Feast), or sailing a Cthulhu threatened sea shanty (Collection of Regrets), the band are always at one with each other to push the songs in unison. There is no sudden jerk, no need for one to fly off in another direction, no solo that rises above the collective, and that serves to add to the density of the demonic drive of the band. But at the blackened heart of it all is the spirit of garage and rock ‘n’ roll. No matter how dark the sound gets, there is still a drive that grabs you inside to shake you up to your feet. It explodes more in songs like Out Of My Brian, which kicks up a raucous rhythm, an energy that threatens to explode throughout the record finally let loose. After all the chaos, they sign off with I Will Write You Poetry, a final swinging lament that meanders along in a fuzzy daze. Like being spat out of their own hell, we’re left to contemplate our return. And return we should.

On their third album, Weird Omen have created a sound that is at the same time impenetrable as it is spellbinding. Surrealistic Feast is a wonderful psych-garage record that, instead of looking to the sun and summer breezes, fixates on the temptation and draw of nefarious nights. Definitely one for the imps and ghouls of the garage world.

Watch the video for A Place I Want To Know below

All words by Nathan Whittle. Find his Louder Than War archive here.

The Dirty Water Club started in October 1996 in the Tufnell Park neighbourhood of north London, at a venue called The Boston. The club's name is derived from The Standells' 1966 hit 'Dirty Water' which glorifies the US city of Boston, Massachusetts.

Past performers have included The White Stripes (voted by Q Magazine as one of the top 10 gigs of all time, Mojo one of the top 30 and Kerrang one of the top 100!), The Gories, Country Teasers, Black Lips, NOBUNNY, Kid Congo Powers, The Fleshtones, Billy Childish, Radio Birdman, The Dirtbombs, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, The 5.6.7.8's, The Horrors and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to name just a few. The club has also seen some original '60s performers, such as The Monks, ? and the Mysterians, Kim Fowley, Sky Saxon, GONN, Michael Davis of the MC5 and more grace its stage.

Their in-house record label, Dirty Water Records, is one of the leading garage/beat/(real) R&B labels in the world.