Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats—The Night Creeper

The Night Creeper is drenched with 1970s acid rock sweat.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
The Night Creeper
Rise Above Records

Links: Official Site | Rise Above Records

Everything about this album screams metal gold. From the name of the band to the iconic album title to the album graphics and especially the music, it’s just an incredible album to listen to. The Night Creeper immediately sounds like Black Sabbath; however, dig deeper and you will think that this is what it felt like to listen to Black Sabbath when their 1970 album came out. You may not get the feeling of pure insanity, but Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats presents a sonic sound that jives around a universe of its own.

The layered guitars, the organic drum crawls, the rhythm dancing around these gravestones; you will find all of that right here in the opener “Waiting For Blood.” The first song immediately dredges up sensory and sloppy metal that traverses dimensions. It’s a mindset that trapses away from reality and into a scenario that feels very real but is far from it. They know how to capture the essence of delusion very well.

“Murder Nights” makes your spine curl up and the claws come out. The mystery of shadows and the howl of the wind become very appealing. And that jean jacket never smelled more like rock and roll success than being embedded in this song.

Half of the album will go by and you will realize that the pulse of this album is very much the same Nosferatu crawl. “Yellow Moon” mellows things out like an interlude to a ‘70s horror film. It’s that somber serenade to the night where the mysteries emerge.

You have a post-six minute bonfire in the title track where the torches burn, but the real estrangement is the post-nine minute “Slow Death,” a somber tune with psychedelic tendencies. It’s that point in the night where you let your mind fade away from reality. The band plays something that grows on itself and turns into a metal mind bender like a space vacuum.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats is the Neal Adams of rock if Adams drew the storyline to Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack the Ripper. A band like this becomes mythos in the metal continuum and their persona is as mystical as legend.