PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Its been nearly 40 years since Black Widow released a record, and founder member Clive Jones has urged those intrigued enough to purchase Sleeping With Demons to listen to it with the lights down and the volume up. So I did.
If Black Sabbath were very serious in their songs about the occult, then BlackWidow are very much the opposite, playing it more for laughs than any real serious story telling.
So is this a great comeback album for BlackWidow ?,
The problem i have with it, is that it’s all rather silly, sure there are a few great tracks, and they even manage to play some metal on ‘Evil Clock’, but I can’t help but feel its all rather contrived.
I love the opening track though “Hail Satan” featuring Tony Martin on vocals. It is a touch of genius getting the ex Black Sabbath singer to sing on this track, so i had high hopes for the rest of this release, but sadly, it all gets a bit lost in its own quirkiness.
‘Even The Devil Gets The Blues’ is a funny little number, a harmonica-driven track that is nearly as good as “Hail Satan”, but then the song ‘Run For Your Life’ border’s on the ridiculous, and nearly has you reaching for the off button.
The trouble with this records is the gimmicks employed, there’s some appallingly cheesy horror film narrative, the heavy synths used on “Partytime for Demons’ misses the mark totally, and as for the heavy metal pan pipes, well the least said about them the better.
Or was that the point ?, as this whole record is rather tongue-in-cheek.
This could be the soundtrack to a really bad Hammer house of horror film.
Im sorry, but I just don’t get it.
4/10
01. Hail Satan 
02 That’s When Evil Touched Me
03 Partytime For Demons
04 Even The Devil Gets The Blues
05 Artefact
06 Eastward
07 The Portal To Hell
08 Prelude To The Nightmare
09 Sleeping With Demons
10 Taken
11 Radio Hades
12 Run For Your Life
13 Into The Light
14 The Birth
15 Evil clock
About David Farrell
