Two years on from the mesmeric Nell’ Ora Blu, their synth-laden soundtrack for an imaginary Giallo movie, orphic Cambridge heavies UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS return with their seventh full-length, Shapes Of Midnight. To celebrate the announcement, the band have unveiled the title track from the album.
Listen and purchase from Bandcamp here and watch the artwork video here.
A brilliantly macabre concept album partly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Masque Of The Red Death and the too-real nightmares of our modern age, Shapes Of Midnight refines the group’s ‘Evil Beatles’ sound: a thrilling, expertly composed fusion of eerie harmonies, pop hooks, Thin Lizzy-esque twin-guitar brilliance and the kind of fleet-footed heaviness that’s become their trademark.
Shapes Of Midnight was tracked at Abbey Road Studios – live to analogue tape, natch – in a blessed three-day blitz in the company of storied engineer Chris Bolster, whose previous clients include Phil Spector, Ozzy Osbourne and Paul McCartney. The band employed era-appropriate tech, from antique Neumann mics once breathed upon by the Fabs and the Floyd, to consoles and compressors from the peak era of recorded sound. The mastering, meanwhile, was completed by Grammy-nominated engineer Noel Summerville (The White Stripes, The Clash, My Bloody Valentine).
The album marks a return to the guitar-forward attack of their earlier records, but also an evolution. Their blessed invocation of proto-metal heaviness is gilded by blasts of uncanny melancholic pop, bruising NWOBHM gallop, jazzy textures and complexities, and Krautrock-y cro-magnon synth damage. It’s a deliciously dark listen, for sure; as songwriter Kevin Starrs says, “our albums exist in an alternate universe to our own. They’re all stories that could happen here, but everything’s just a bit ‘off’.”
UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS spent their summer laying waste to festivals such as Sweden Rock, Hellfest and Graspop and will tour North America, the UK and Australia/New Zealand later this year. Further dates across Europe for next year to be announced soon. Find more information here.
UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS
2026 UK TOUR DATES
19/11 – KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton
20/11 – New Century Hall, Manchester
21/11 – The Garage, Glasgow
22/11 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
24/11 – Trinity, Bristol
25/11 – Engine Rooms, Southampton
27/11 – Concorde 2, Brighton
28/11 – The Adrian Flux Waterfront, Norwich
29/11 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
ABOUT UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS:
The brainchild of Kevin Starrs, UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS have been making extraordinary music since 2009. Always too bold and idiosyncratic to be easily pigeonholed, they emerged from an obscure corner of the labyrinthine British underground as shadowy purveyors of a new and overwhelmingly psychedelic take on the gritty rudiments of hard rock and downer blues. Steeped in both the wayward melodies, vocal harmonies and mischievous arrangements of psychedelic pop and the dissonant thunder and macabre imagery of proto-metal, Starrs’ greatest feat has been to create an entirely fresh sonic world from these most familiar of ingredients.
UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS’ reputation was swiftly built on towering, riff-driven milestones like 2011’s breakthrough opus Blood Lust and its warped and wicked follow-up, Mind Control (2013); both released through Rise Above Records and subsequently showered with critical acclaim. The band established themselves as an exciting live act in 2013 with a string of high-profile festival appearances, culminating in a tour as sole support to Black Sabbath. By the time The Night Creeper was released in 2015, their mutation into heavy music’s most unmistakable eccentrics was complete, as they cranked up the melodic weirdness, rendering monstrous ideas into something approaching three-dimensional Technicolor.
Firmly established as cult heroes, UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS consolidated The Night Creeper’s triumph by touring the world extensively, including a string of sold out shows in the U.S., U.K., Europe and Australia. The dystopian soaked Wasteland followed, cementing their reputation, before releasing the bizarro “audio film” concept album Nell‘ora Blu, which challenged their audience with its exploration of new sounds.
While most musicians seem content to chase their own (or other people’s tails), UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS remain resolute individualists. Masterfully echoing the magical atmospheres of heavy music’s turbulent past while sounding entirely unlike anything else available to human ears. Having set up their own label Killer Candy Records, with new album Shapes of Midnight set for release later this year, UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS continues to be the deadliest show in town.
TRACKLISTING
1. House by the Grave
2. Shapes of Midnight
3. When Evil Wakes
4. Don’t Let It Control You
5. Psycho On The Loose
6. I Won’t Sleep (’til You’re Gone)
7. The Other Side of the Sky
8. Sleep No More
BAND MEMBERS
Kevin Starrs – vocals, lead guitar
George Hudson – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Jus Smith – bass
Jon Rice – drums
Rachel Burnett – keys, vocals
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