Album Review: The Black Angels - Indigo Meadow

Psych-rocking Texans The Black Angels are taking their fans back a few decades once again with their latest release, Indigo Meadow. True to form, the drone and fuzz are king and Alex Maas' nasal drawl crawls under your skin and stays there throughout. No stranger to experimentation, the group have tightened their set; the tracks are shorter and sharper but fans will be pleased to hear that there's no drop in atmosphere.

Opener and title track, Indigo Meadow, sets the tone; the beat is inescapable and renders the listener powerless against the drone-induced stupor that inevitably follows on later tracks Evil Things and Don't Play With Guns. These tracks are a celebration of repetition, fuzz and distorted guitars; there's just so much sound you can practically feel it reverberating inside your skull.

Love Me Forever delves into the garage/grunge sound a little more; they play with loud and soft to great effect, and the chorus really pops as a result. There are also a few tracks on here that see these rockers turn zealots. War On Holiday, Broken Soldier (and the formerly mentioned Don't Play With Guns) have an activist vein to them, and Broken Soldier's chilling lyrics illustrate pretty clearly that some of their messages are much more thinly veiled than others: “It's hard to kill when you don't know what side you're on/Will you be the same when this is over?/You'll never be the same once this is over”.

Indigo Meadow manages to sound more like a homage to great psych-rock bands of decades past rather than a covers album. It's 45 minutes of reverie and it's easy to become completely enthralled. A real trip.