Black Moth, a stoner rock outfit from Leeds, England, sound like a lot of things. You could fill a review with comparisons: they sound like Black Sabbath with Grace Slick singing for them, they sound like Acid King with a punk rock impatience, they sound like Alice in Chains imagined by Donita Sparks. The list could be much longer, and all of it would be fairly accurate, but all of them would miss the mark a bit. Black Moth reach throughout rock history for their influences, but in the end, the brew they concoct is their own.
The Killing Jar is built on a stoner rock template, but you only have to listen to the opening track, "The Articulate Dead," to hear just how much punk rock has made its way into Black Moth's sound. In fact, the ratio of Black Sabbath sludge to Misfits punk makes this album somewhat reminiscent of the Melvins and the heavier grunge acts of the past. The sound is low and filthy, a perfectly distorted bass-heavy grind for Harriet Bevan's bold vocals to soar over.
A clear highlight of the album is "Blackbirds Fall," a midtempo display of all of Black Moth's best tendencies. A full-on stoner outfit would take riffs as good as these and build an eight minute opus out of them, getting as much mileage out of the elements as they could, but "Blackbirds Fall" is a testament to Black Moth's punk brevity, as it only clocks in at four minutes. It tells you exactly what it needs to and departs without overstaying its welcome. This is true of the whole album really, with ten songs at under forty minutes, the album is surprisingly tight for a stoner/sludge effort. There is plenty of memorable lead guitar work, but very few flashy solos (another example of their punk/grunge influence). The production by Bad Seeds drummer Jim Sclavunos is spot on, the combination of the thick, dirty guitars with Bevan's clear, powerful voice is practically addictive.
The Killing Jar is an album refreshingly free of attempted superlatives. It's not trying to be the heaviest, fastest, slowest, or trippiest. It's a release that simply contains ten heavy, catchy, fun songs, which is a lesson that more heavy bands could take to heart. Other heavy albums will no doubt receive more attention this year, but I'm betting I won't play many of them as often as this one.
