Black Helium formed in 2016 for a special one-off Halloween gig they have to date released three albums of blissed out psych shot through with Heavy riffing and dirty rock noise. Their fourth album “The Animals are coming” continues in the same direction 6 songs that pull together all those elements.
Opening song “Return the Curse” sees Vocalist/Guitarist Stuart Grey’s lysergic drenched vocals draw the listener in to a mellow mood until the riff kicks in and Bassist Beck Harvey and drummer Diogo Gomes do their best to pulverise your eardrums. Stretching to nearly twelve minutes the song moves around a lot of musical territory, falling down a rabbit hole of jamming that feels authentically introspective rather than jamming for the sake of it. Its noisy and heavy in the best way. And features a ripping solo. “Up on the Hill” leans into the rock and is a grinder that moves between the quiet/noise aesthetic. There is echoes of the stone roses in the quieter parts and when it opens up it feels epic. “Horror Mask” almost instrumental ten minutes pushes the psychedelic elements, but this is more the soundtrack of an Italian Grind house film than flowers in your hair and lava lamps version of psychedelic. It detonates into a wall of riffing and feedback that sounds better the louder you play it.
The album plays to Black Helium’s strength. They are capable of taking their influences from 60’s psych, experimental noise experiments, and indie sounds and moulding their own sound. Grey’s seemingly effortless vocals are in contrast to the noise that is cooked up in the nosier moments here. The rhythm section knows their job and nails it to the ground so the guitar can weave in and out of the songs. Is there a song here as iconic as their all time stomper “Hippie on a slab” the shirt answer is no but the opening track “Return the Curse” and the closing track “Horror Mask” will find their place in the live set and grow to even more monstrous length, dive deeper in to a psychedelic whirl pool of noise and strip flesh. Overall Black Helium expand on their chosen sonic path and deliver another slice of top-drawer neo-psych. Equal parts transcendent, dark, and riffing. this isn’t the summer of love, and the animals are coming.
-Bobo Coen
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