ninehertz

Twenty four months on since Bloody Head gave us the first great album of its year, here they are again repeating the trick for the brand new 2026, recorded by James Atkinson and released on Wrong Speed Records.

There are only four tracks yet it manages to find a whole novel’s worth of narrative lines within and the start is exceptional – Children of the Dusk opening with a chaotic headswirl of noise rock, bathed in a kaleidoscope’s worth of psychedelic rays. The sum is one of wild noises jumping out from all angles, the underpinning rhythm of the track keeping it driving forward. It is a great beginning. The title track gives the impression of a band shuffling into place in real time, an energy building as instruments and vocals click into place, and by its end the shambolic collection of each individual’s noises has coalesced into a mighty noise-rock force.

The flip side is more obtuse in its approach, even for Bloody Head. Vibratory Infinity has what at first you believe to be a long, considered build before eventually realising it is leading nowhere different. It has a vaguely Neurosis style mystical air generated. Time, As Veiled Eternity feels like the antidote, aggro from the beginning as if woken from their own daze. The first half of its thirteen minutes is consumed by squealing guitars, spiky vocals and clanging drums, mellowing in its middle into a slight discordance and what I can only describe, unusually, as a noise-rock jam.

The beginning is phenomenal and then, as is Bloody Head’s way, they diverge and reinvent themselves, subtly but defiantly, track to track so it feels like you’re looking at the same piece of art from a different angle and seeing a whole new picture. It is uncaringly awkward and boldly unique, a challenging but rewardingly excellent listen end to end.