The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

What a concept: five Americans stuck in the 60s and here to lead you through a weird psychedelic journey fraught with evil and mystery. “Zoinks Scoob!” is the phrase that leaps to mind quicker than a grown man leaping into the arms of a six foot hound.

Jokes aside, hailing from Austin, Texas gives The Black Angels a head start and the ghosts sought by these drone n rollers are a damn sight less tangible than Old Man Metcalfe, the amusement park owner, and considerably more dangerous. These are the ghosts that hide in the fabric of time, the unseen evils, the snakes in the grass; memories of the past failings of mankind, the paradox of religion as catalyst for war, the potential of human savagery. These eleven snarling, bass-laden incantations aim to invoke those ghosts and draw them into the sphere of human consciousness.

Influences are starkly evident from the first rumbling chords of ‘You On The Run’. The cavernous drums and occasional screech of feedback pay homage to the squalling sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Velvet Underground. Granted, most of the songs are crawling brooders, the pace constantly hypnotic and malevolent, until a sitar is introduced on ‘Deer-Ree-Shee’, adding an even more transcendent element. It’s easy to groan at this token addition to the band’s sound, but it’s undeniable that it creates an appropriate atmosphere of mysticism.

But these 60s allusions run deeper than music. The lyrics of ‘Never/Ever’ hints at the band’s politics and conjures memories of a counter-culture so hell-bent on taking a chemical path to peace and enlightenment that it lost touch with the real world, “Scar, you know that’s what you are / You say The Beatles stopped the war / They might’ve helped to find a cure / But it’s still not over.”

Understatement of the century, of course, and no-one’s suggesting that it will be over any time soon, but even at a time when global condemnation of war is so important, The Black Angels are conscious of expressing their twisted view of the world not as a self-indulgent fire-and-brimstone sermon, but as a horror show complete with its grotesque cast of characters. In ‘The Return’, we are not told, but shown a glimpse of this horror: “The rocks were screaming, and / The sand it was breathing / I’ve been here before / When I was killed in the war.”

Ironically, it is the absence of propaganda in favour of gritty realism that makes ‘Directions To See A Ghost’ such a powerful record. Though musically it may seem monotonous, it creeps along commandingly, painting terrifying depictions of a world that is slowly destroying itself, and if it has taught you anything, you’ll notice that the ghosts The Black Angels had in mind were always there, you just weren’t looking in the right places.