The Black Heart Procession - The Spell

The Black Heart Procession's first three records were fantastic little journeys into the dark areas of the human mind. Passionate, romantic, bleak, mourning, awkward, all the attributes needed to create almost gothic pieces of endearing gloom. They clearly took strong influence from the 80s goth movements more slowed down and grim moments yet with the grainy production and less-is-more attitude to instrumentation they sounded as close to unique as any band has managed in quite a while. Then with album number four, they surprised everyone with a record that was upbeat in comparison with the first three. It didn't impress the bands fan base and didn't really bring in many new recruits and some people had started to write the band off as having lost their edge and sense of purpose.

Well it's new album time and the question all the old fans want the answer to is if The Black Heart Procession managed to tap back in to that well of romantic despair that made them such an interesting prospect in the first place? Personally I'm in two minds about the answer. On one hand "The Spell" is far more dark than the band's last release and fairly close to being on a par with the ever adored first three records. However due to much more fluid and warm production, the band have done away with their sailing quiet and cold sound for what sounds a fair bit like a straight up 80s goth record. Whether this is the band's desire to go for a much more full sound or the producer's desire to make the band far more easily palatable is not something I'm in any position to speculate on. But if we discard any memory of what The Black Heart Procession were and take "The Spell" for the dripping heartfelt record that it is, then we do have an interesting and enjoyable chunk of audio misery.

The Black Heart Procession - Not Just Words

Songs posted changed due to the request of Touch & Go records

Buy The Spell from Insound.