HMLTD has a past of revisiting the past – pilfering the legacies of others or a means to prove oneself no matter the circumstances? The London group initially made waves – new or dark – with 2018’s Hate Music Last Time Delete; a bombastic reintroduction of ‘80s new romanticism/new wave, like Dead or Alive at their most medieval and bestial. Debut LP West of Eden employed most prefixes and suffixes one may attach to ‘punk’ – glam, art, dance, post, synth, blues, etc. – before The Worm brought back the rock opera.
The band has always been at least a little bit goth. Even at its least goth, there has been a hint of goth. When its visual aesthetic hasn’t been textbook ‘80s weird glam, it’s been gloom. HMLTD’s gothic underbelly subverts framework on Fangs. The band’s third album is the real deal and I have no reason to believe it isn’t the real deal. It may feel a fad to some, but never has goth been confined to an era like the moods of previous HMLTD albums.
If the album’s gothdom is a goth gimmick, it is a grounded goth gimmick – authentically smitten with a range of subcultures associated with goth, whether raving or industrial – that only becomes super gimmicky on Chateau Vamp Freestyle, which at least opens the album up to a world of humour whilst defying Dresden Dolls-esque theatre kiddery. The song is cabaret, featuring a bombastically fragmented arrangement most composers for musical theatre would surely applaud. In its humour, it displays the quirkier side of theatre, as opposed to the near-operatic Sorry for Laughing.
I find myself wrestling only with predictable correlation of style and themes. Fangs is a concept album that relates the obsessions of the 2020s to vampirism. Going this goth on an album about vampires is so predictable one may assume the vibe an act, a bit of costume, utilised because it feels like the only option, but not only does it match with the band’s past, it launches a snappy, approachable piece of synth-rock, new wave whimsy on the feelgood-sounding Shudder; the album’s most vampiric.
The only fixture that screams ‘poseur’ is Henry Spychalski’s screaming on Grab the Crucifix; more claymation gremlin than skilled black metal singer. The moment ignores the strength of his cleaner vocals, and how well they match the album’s aesthetics; darkly ‘80s pop singer on Dancing on Your Grave, romancing with Kraftwerk synths, a common OMD practice; snotty-nosed on Close to You’s classic goth rock bassline-surfing, fitting the part amid its poetic mismatch of Byronism and dark visuals.
The band is committed to its Satanic connection, but primarily to the hypersexual, Europeanly hedonistic side, potential alleviation of an existential wormhole combined with semi-inspirational responses to life’s low points. Spychalski knows how to write about raunch, knows how to capture raunch. What the Hell pounds the way any good gay steelworks would, communicating a message of life’s craziness, how we should respond by making it crazy in our own, sexy way, with techno-leaning industrial synths and “vicious edging, pulses throbbing”.
Henry parodies Marie Antoinette by announcing “let them eat cock” on I Used to Ride in Limousines; a delightfully out-of-control electro-industrial piece with blown-out synth explosions frantically sung over like Henry is hysterically presenting himself to Satan. Umami is Satan’s all-gothic Eurovision; sleazy electroclash, dark and danceable, both an approval and criticism of club culture that searches for the biggest, scariest high possible, until the drug-taker is a pile of sweat dressed as a person.
The hyperactive depravity of Blitzkrieg is straight Rammstein worship – “I love the way she slips me / she hits me like a Blitzkrieg / I’m crucified in top speed / I wonder how we’d fuck”. It is a hardstyle club hit with an enchantingly sorrowful piano outro, like the bleakest post-orgasm loneliness, following all that bonkers, German fun-boy S&M.
I’m not into any of what HMLTD is looking to portray – and I’m not just saying that to appear innocent or dignified; that’s just me; scared and near-virginial. But I still find Fangs to be listenable, engaging, and honestly, a party. Very rarely does the album sound as though it isn’t being true to HMLTD’s ethos of character or music. It is committed to its beautiful, humanistic goth crap.
Best tracks – Umami – Close to You – Shudder.
Rating – 7 out of 10
