Mind Control

Europe's putting in heavy work on the retro metal front at the moment, with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats following Kadavar, the Devil's Blood, Graveyard, and more. They take the core guitar sound of Pentagram ca. 1970 and meld it to the foreboding gloom of their 1980s work.

Mt. Abraxis, the cinematic opener from Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats' second full-length, starts out with sorrowful guitar licks and steadily paced cymbal crashes before turning into an upbeat jam session at its mid-point. Strangely, it works, even when the tempo slows to a trudge in its closing minutes. There's a constant desire on the band's part to keep moving on to different ideas whilst maintaining their aesthetics, and it hardly ever fails them.

For most hard rock and metal fans, the release of UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS' "Mind Control" will feel like joining a long-running horror movie franchise - be it "Evil Dead", "Friday the 13th", whatever - midway through, or more precisely, episode three. The pertinent question being: did they mi...

A review of Mind Control by Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, available now in Europe and on May 14th in North America via Metal Blade Records.