By Jim Rowland

Artwork for Death Songs And Lullabies by Evil BlizzardFamed for having multiple bass players (at one point eight of them) and an array of rubber masks that give both children and adults nightmares, Preston’s Evil Blizzard are now onto their fifth studio album ‘Death Songs and Lullabies’, the follow up to 2023‘s outstanding ‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’.

‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’ turned out to be one of my albums of the year in 2023, a delicious, dark and creepy mish-mash of post-punk, space rock and other flavours that really hit the spot.

‘Death Songs and Lullabies’ pretty much picks up from where that album left off, kicking off with the potent fusion of electronica and swirling, twisted guitar of ‘Off With Their Heads’.

The superb and lengthy ‘Black Square’ and ‘Questions // Answers’ combine dark, brooding atmospherics with epic sounding heavy psychedelic space rock in finest Hawkwind traditions, ‘Wake The Dead In Bedlam’ (featuring Discharge singer JJ) and ‘Hater Creator’ provide Killing Joke-inspired crunching, menacing heaviness, whilst ‘Down Down Down’ and ‘Warpaint’ are just plain heavy, dark and disturbing, with a hint of the PIL influence that shone through on the last album.

The short, sharp thrash-punk interlude of ‘Four Letter Words’ is thrown into the mix for good measure too.

For me, ‘Death Songs and Lullabies’ is slightly less diverse, and consequently more focused and cohesive than ‘Rotting In The Belly Of The Whale’, but every bit as scintillatingly brilliant from start to finish, further cementing Evil Blizzard’s place as one of the most unique and thrilling bands out there.