This Toulouse quintet have been pretty busy for a doom band. A Nocturnal Crossing is their second full length release since inception in 2016.  

What they offer is fuzz laden psyche/doom rock with a touch of desert stoner and Radiohead.  Lauren Gaynor’s vocals dip and soar around the riffs and keys reminiscent of Jex Thoth and Alunah slathering each track with melancholy and pathos. This is not depressing by any means but don’t go into this expecting to be jollied along. This is candles and misty windows not lava lamps and joss sticks.  

The opener “The Stronghold and the Archer” starts with a bouncing ball of a bassline that takes me immediately back to Grinding Halt from The Cure’s 1978 debut. That musical sphere is crushed by a baby wah laden fuzz and a vocal melody straight out of Street Spirit (fade out). The spiky guitar stabs that permeate this track are more often heard in bands like Husker Du and Gang of Four than more recent psyche doom folk.  “Devoured on the Peak” that follows opens like a dark clad cowboy wearily climbing off a horse and shuffling into a saloon.  The dark country blues ambience is made even more sombre by the lyrical lament. The pace picks up and this turns into a dark foot tapper to knock the dust off the spittoon – dunno why I get such Western vibes from this. Gaynor’s vocals hit a more emotive pitch during the chorus and I can imagine swinging the fringes of a battered suede jacket to this. (seriously Matt sort it out). The fact that “The Ladder” starts with a whistled intro does nothing to pull me out of my Clint Eastwood fantasy (let’s face it I am more Eli Wallach). This is a longy at nearly 9 minutes so Deathbell have plenty of open plain to explore. The organs are given chance to rise up from the guitars and give everything a Southern Gothic air before things relax with a gentle twang and the sound of a babbling brook.  Looking at the press release that accompanied this album it appears that the band were hoping to go down the well-trodden witches and black magic path of many other occult rock bands. My suggestion is to drop the pentagrams and hemlock and get some long duster coats and square toed boots. Everything about this band screams wide open space, hot desolate sands and death and hope around every bend and bravery forcing the protagonists to see which it is.  The guitar solo towards the end of the song could accompany Gaynor dying from a rattler bite as easily as her reaching the safety of a forest.  

“Silent She Comes” is a heart-breaking romance. Soft satin sheets defiled by the blood of a dead lover. Gaynor’s voice becomes a mix of ethereal seraphim and moaned pain. Didn’t Elton John once say “sad songs say so much”? Cheers Reggie.  

“Shifting Sands” has a touch of swagger to it. Again, I am getting a kinda vampish western vibe – like what Volbeat tried to pull off in the past but, in my eyes failed.  There are big sweeping sections here with layered vocals and tremulous Hammond organs that create a cinematic vibe. Then the guitars and bass take it to the rock side of town – lil bit Death Cult. Yeahyah!  

So here I stand at the edge of town. The title track before me. The organ pulsing like the soundtrack to a Hammer Horror classic. Looking for vampires I am shocked when a bloody great fuzzed out stoner riff bludgeons me. The guitars appear to open things up , I’m not sure if this is the rapture or whether I am being taken up for some anal probing on an intergalactic space cruiser. Let’s hope for the latter! This album is filled with space – this final track takes it to the final frontier.  

Deathbell have taken me on a Westworld style trip – I’ve loved it. Now I’m going looking for the man that shot my pa!  

(8/10 Matt Mason)  

https://www.facebook.com/DeathbellDoom

https://deathbelldoom.bandcamp.com/album/a-nocturnal-crossing-4