Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The image of Eden is one that, regardless of a person’s religious beliefs or knowledge, is one that resonates, that is deep in the psyche of the individual and that of society as a whole. The significance of the moment where humanity left the security of its embryo, the land of plenty, its connection with a thought of higher power, has placed itself though art into the hearts and minds of all who seek some sort of redemption and the reasons, however tenuous, to their own lack of positive influence upon the world.
The Devil is in the detail, and for London based five-piece HMLTD, their eagerly awaited debut album West Of Eden signifies art’s continued addressing of the nature of the fall, of decadence, and of repercussions of insecurity and incitement of the repressive gene.
West Of Eden, a place where thought provoking genius stands shoulder to shoulder with finding the truth of alienation and uncivilised collapse, is one that creates unrepenting fascination and couple that with a fantastic groove, becomes a furious, and angry response to the way in which the West, under the demands of the carpel tunnel grip of Capitalism, has allowed the world to become a location in which disease and dread are more than ethereal, they have taken on corporeal substance.
It is a treasured delight which makes you appreciate the detail, and smile at the Devil that offered the moment to you, when you can feel the energy of artistic vision as it decimates and savages the way we have lived to an excess that cannot, and must not, be allowed to linger.
Across such moments that pivot between genius and maximum velocity in the tracks Satan, Luella & I, Joanna, Where’s Joanna, MMXX A.D., War Is Looming and The Ballad Of Calamity James, HMLTD place pressure on a tourniquet of self-inflicted wounds of our own mindless battles with nature and the insanity to which we remain in dogged pursuit of spoiling it all for the sake of suggesting that blood spilled is good for the ground we walk upon.
An album of endurance, of spirit, and hope in the hands of those willing to go above and beyond; West Of Eden is an offering of renewal, as well as scolding rebuke.Â
HMLTD will be at Liverpool’s Arts Club on February 13th.
HMLTD release West Of Eden via Lucky Number on February 7th.
Ian D. Hall