Song(s) of the Day # 3,433 Blood Ceremony

 

When I was seventeen I was invited round to an all night Dungeons & Dragons session around the corner from where I lived in Teddington, hosted by Tom a lanky, geeky schoolfriend of mine. It was by turns one of the most preposterous and bewildering experiences of my life. Still. Almost forty years on.

Multi sided die. Much discussion and dispute about what superpowers elves had. A hen clucking outside the kitchen window. Tom's mother kept hens. The whole experience was ludicrous and certainly ensured that I would not be a games player for the rest of my life. My own mother told me later that the idea of her dear son heading off into the night to play Dungeons & Dragons inspired no little dread in her heart. She need not have worried. From its opening moments it was not for me. I was many things. But I did not believe in elves.

Meanwhile my fledgling record collection was beginning to flourish and grow, fueled by a mind-numbingly boring Saturday job in the  High Street's Home & Ware department. Most of the money I earned there went on records. By the likes of The Doors, Neil Young and Aztec Camera.

Certainly not on records like this. The Old Ways Remain, the latest album from Toronto's Psych Monsters Blood Ceremony. Blood Ceremony, it appears immediately, were reared on or possibly by elves and 1972 remains their holy grain. The point of origin of their own record collections and obsessions. I imagine bongs feature somewhere.

So you get labyrinthine guitar and organ solos . Thundering drums. Lots and lots and lots of flute, possibly played by a pixie standing on one foot. A female siren, schooled on Grace Slick, Mariska Veres and Annisette Koppel, (look them up). Nonsense really. I quite enjoyed the record but that doesn't mean I'm off to buy a Jethro Tull album or investigate the possibility of joining an online Dungeons & Dragons group any time soon. Your mind is pretty much set at 17.