From the brutal to the sludgy to the experimental to the symphonic, we raise our horns in welcome and warning to the coming week: we are here to ROCK.
The Darkness confounds the light. As long as it makes for a good song, right? On Easter Is Cancelled, there’s quite a bit of confounding going on, but quite a lot of good songs, too. “Heavy Metal Lover” stands out as a sonic smorgasbord, a veritable heap of metal tropes packed tight (like leather pants) and tasty.
Leaning hard into the more comedic side of what they do, The Darkness consult their handy checklist of tropes and amplify for maximum effect.
The colour black? Check. “Even your pajamas are black”
Death? Check. “Listen to a little obituary”
War/Violence? Check. “You look so happy when you’re carving meat”
Strained analogies for metal? Check. “You’re so metal/I’m afraid you’ll rust”
Satanic imagery? Check. “You fear nothing/ In Satan you trust”
Most of the payoff lines double as references to bands/albums/songs enjoyed by the titular lover, so that’s fun. But the best fun is fun we can all share, and “Heavy Metal Lover” invites us all to sing along. From Sunset sleaze to Angus-esque riffing and on through power balladry, thrash, and melodic death metal—hell, Dan Hawkins even cops a bit of that gorgeous black metal clean guitar tone—this is a wink and a nod but performed with aplomb. Here’s to more of the heavier side of classic rock from its self-professed saviours: they’ve clearly got the balls (to the wall) to do it.