The Birmingham quartet return in ghoulishly great form on their debut album!
I love a bit of Hammer Horror and the debut album ‘Hex Rentals’ from Birmingham’s Midnight Feature is full of gloriously tongue in cheek late night double feature gory goodness.Consisting of Joshua (lead vocals/guitar), Rich (lead guitar), Neary (bass) and Rob (drums/vocals) and influenced by a combined love of horror movies, b-movie monsters and Anne Rice, the band have produced their own brand of gothic horror punk.
Opening track ‘Final Girl’ wouldn’t sound out of place on the seminal soundtrack to ‘The Return of the Living Dead’. ‘Vampires and Other Creatures’ is full of fast fuzz drenched guitars augmented by Joshua’s melodramatic vocal. The fantastic ‘Night of the Demon’ could be a spiritual descendent of the Ramones ‘Pet Cemetery’.
The pace changes for ‘Death Walks in High Heels’ with a very welcome Stray Cat strut entering the fray. ‘Hell-a-vision’ and its ‘Evil Dead’ inspired video is a full-blown thrash fest reminding me a little of the epic Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster.
‘Saturday Night Fever Dream’s unrelenting bass line is more than matched by the pounding drums as the guttural vocals drag you to the pits of hell. The police sirens throughout ‘His And Hearse’ had me checking my window more than once to see what was happening outside before realising my foolish error. ‘Satans Night Out’ is set to be a live favourite with its football terrace chant.
‘Lets All Do The Frankenstein’ with its bubbling liquids, pensive bassline and spectral guitars is an enjoyable romp building up to its eminently singalong chorus. ‘Damned if You Do’ is back in Ramones territory, including a cool doo wop break mid song. Debut single ‘From The Grave’ from 2024 was a suitably fast and invigorating introduction to the band’s gothic horror and is a more than welcome inclusion on the album.
‘Rite Here’ is one of my high points on the album with a riff that could come straight from a bastardised version of the Munsters/Addams Family theme tunes. Closing song ‘Hex Rentals’ has a nice subdued feel with its spooky organ and acoustic guitar backing Joshua’s haunting voice. It’s a reassuring coda to the madness that has preceded it.
A wondrous collection of trashy rock n roll tinged with gothic and punk sensibilities. Midnight Feature are definitely a band to keep an eye on for the future.
‘Hex Rentals’ is out now – check it out via the links below.
- Final Girl
- Vampires And Other Creatures
- Night Of The Demon
- Death Walks In High Heels
- Hellavision
- Saturday Night Fever Dream
- His And Hearse
- Satan’s Night Out
- Let’s All Do The Frankenstein
- Damned If You Do
- From The Grave
- Rite Here
- Hex Rentals
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My first gig was The Damned at Hull City Hall a few days after my 16th birthday way back in the mid-eighties. 800 gigs and 1,700 bands later, my love of live music remains undiminished – the thrill of discovering a new band is still one of life’s greatest experiences. My musical tastes cover a wide spectrum, but punk and goth still dominate my listening habits.
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