Black Moth arrived just as the appreciation of proper old-school rock was beginning to swell. Now, with the likes of Royal Blood breaking the mainstream, rock is properly back (it never went away of course, but was severely sidelined). Fighting fit and now recovered from the damage 80s hair rock did to the genre, no-messing, big-riffing rock that references Black Sabbath and the first wave of genuine hard rock is where it’s at. And on their second album, Black Moth have grown bigger, ballsier, heavier.
Riff crashes in after riff, from the thumping ‘Tumbleweave’ to the title track, there isn’t a dud – or a weak – song amongst the 11 tracks on the album.
‘Looner’ finds Harriet Bevan step sultry through the chugging verses before the blitzkrieg assaults of the choruses and the megalithic middle section. ‘The Undead King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is slow and heavy and hits like a battering ram. ‘The Last Maze’ perfectly balances anthemic with bruising weight and monster riffage, and if it looks like I’m just going to bang on about riffs, then that’s because what ‘Condemned to Hope’ throws down like boulders in an avalanche. There are solos, too, and it’s all held together with a tight, throbbing rhythm section.
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Their 2011 debut ‘The Killing Jar’ was good, but ‘Condemned to Hope’ is absolutely mega. Sounding more confident, more angry, more solid in every way, they’ve delivered an album that has to be one of the best rock albums you’ll find this year.
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