REVIEW: BLACK MOTH [CONDEMNED TO HOPE]

★★★

REVIEW:

BLACK MOTH

CONDEMNED TO HOPE

NEW HEAVY SOUNDS

BY ERIK SUGG

The world of heavy music has seen no recent shortage of good bands with female singers, often ranging from the pagan witches, to the thrift shop hippies, to the hypersexual, and even the masculine, “tougher than men”-types. Every style has the perfect fit regardless of the varying degrees of womanliness, and it’s clear that the heavy music world not only embraces women singers, but women in general. This constantly challenges that ages-old misconception that metal and heavy rock are for “dudes only.” Blood Ceremony, Witch Mountain, Kylesa, Royal Thunder, Jex Thoth, The Devil’s Blood... The list goes on and on. Black Moth, from Leeds, England, is one of the latest groups to feature a front lady whose vocal prowess could send most men whining back to their pub seat. Their follow-up to 2012’s “The Killing Jar” will drop in September of this year. If the response from their recent European tour with Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats is any indication, all signs are pointing to the upcoming “Condemned to Hope” as a record that will be cranked up and rocked out on both sides of the Atlantic.

BLACK MOTH REVEAL ARTWORK AND NEW VIDEO FOR UPCOMING ALBUM CONDEMNED TO HOPE

Britain's young new heavy rock heroes Black Moth reveal album artwork today by legendary 70s artist Roger Dean, whose iconic fantasy inspired paintings for Yes, Budgie, Uriah Heep and many more had nearly come to define the era's sleeve art. For Black Moth's forthcoming new album Condemned To Hope, Dean drew upon vocalist Harriet Bevan's dark lyrics for inspiration on the gatefold sleeve's apocalyptic, bleak landscape.

Black Moth's haunting, heaving first single from Condemned To Hope, "Room 13" gets a fittingly dark treatment in the video clip shot in recently unlocked servants quarters of a 200 year old haunted mansion.



Condemned To Hope was produced by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman drummer Jim