Review Summary: We used to write here "Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull" but that's not valid anymore.
This last week in Japan we enjoyed our yearly sabbatical reckoning, known by the locals as the Golden Week. It's also the week where the entire country decides that the best way to spend the holidays is either stray at the airport, canned in a traffic jam, or getting groped in the same train that you take to commute every day, but in a different city. But not me. Oh hell no. I was lucky enough my wife and daughter were gone to see the in-laws, which left me no other option but to hole-up at my den to play videogames and jam new music until my brain melted. During one of these meltdowns, and after several days of getting frustrated at this or that final boss and throwing a couple of cushions that almost killed the cat, I decided that it was time for a break, and so I prepared to do the same thing I was doing at home, but outside.
It was a mild weather afternoon; a warm spring breeze blew through the trees and the sunset had started to paint its colors on the horizon while a timid full moon was beginning to shine through the quickly vanishing clouds. Really, it was quite the pretty picture. I chose Blood Ceremony's latest release,
The Old Ways Remain, to accompany me on my adventurous stroll around the neighborhood, first listen by the way, and it turned out to be the perfect soundtrack. The band led by that magnificent human being that is Alia O'Brien are already on their fifth full length with this one, and as I prepared for the imminent Black Sabbath meets Jethro Tull festival of goodies that the band is well known for, I was pleasantly surprised to hear, as the album dropped one sweet tune after the other, how the band from Toronto have shaken things up for this one.
It's almost safe to say that most of the heaviness on their first two releases has been severely regulated in
The Old Ways Remain. Sean Kennedy is not allowed anymore to go around rampant firing Tony Iommi's riffs like no other guitar player ever existed. Instead, O'Brien and co. have found other fountains to drink from, resulting in little trifles with the Canterbury scene, country rock, progressive rock, blues, pop and psychedelia, all while maintaining the core elements that made Blood Ceremony a force to be reckoned with way before it was cool to sound like your ancestors.
So yes, expect Alia to bewitch you once again like a flute whistling succubus on a summer night banquet in the woods, bud do also expect much, much more. It's been seven years since
Lords of Misrule and it seems the band has used well the time to research ways to expand on their sound. The old ways remain, yes, but songs like the extremely catchy "Ipsissimus", or the brief and smooth "Hecate" show a side of Blood Ceremony we hadn't seen until now. Alia’s singing has improved immensely in my opinion, not that she was ever a bad singer anyway, but the way she performs some of the vocals on this album really stood out for me as soon as they met my brain cells. Fret not though, the band still sounds as wicked and alluringly evil as ever in songs like "Lolly Willows", the opening track "The Hellfire Club" (big fans of Eddie Munson I guess), or "The Bonfires of Belloc Coombe", which remains my favorite cut of the album after it got me in such a deep trance during my afternoon walk that I almost got rolled over by a frenzy bycicle driving
oba-chan that wasn't ruled by traffic lights or any other laws of men.
The Old Ways Remain is structured and balanced perfectly, clocking a couple of minutes short of three quarters and produced in a way that allows every instrument to take the spotlight as needed without overshadowing what's happening in the background. There's quite a lot of new instrumentation on this album, namely a couple of fiddles played by Finch Griffin and veteran Canadian violinist Laura Bates, as well as a saxophone going wild in the wonderfully paced "Eugenie", played by The War on Drugs collaborator, Joseph Sabason. Alia O'Brien also provides her usual magic on organ and synths and Michael Carrillo does so with congas and percussion elements in addition to his usual swift and substantially rich drumming.
The final package results in a very varied album, way more vibrant and diverse than any of their past recordings, but it also culls a good chunk of the old heavy, a trade that won't be down to everyone's liking, especially to fans of their first two releases. Nevertheless, and considering how saturated is the witch stoner doom scene this decade (I wrote "saturated" but I do embrace anything with such descriptors with pleasure and little to no reserves), it's refreshing to see pioneers of the genre still finding new ground to cover and new ways to perform their rituals.
The Old Ways Remain is an absolute delight of an album, brimming with memorable choruses and mesmerizing melodies, rounded up with dazzling musicianship and a fitting vintage production job carried over by the band themselves with the help of Paul Kehayas. Blood Ceremony is touring Europe this month, so if you are lucky enough to be around don't miss the chance to see these songs live in the flesh!
