Shapes Of Midnight

Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats — 2026

“Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats keep one foot in a midnight horror flick while Shapes Of Midnight stretches their psychedelic hard rock across several decades.”

Cambridge, England’s Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats have always sounded like they could be soundtracking a midnight horror flick, but Shapes Of Midnight expands that world without losing what makes the band so much fun. The classic hard rock riffs, Kevin Starrs’ eerie falsetto harmonies, and spooky energy are all here, only now horns and analog synths creep further into the mix. I like how the record moves through different eras without locking into one of them. “House By The Grave” alone moves from a thick fuzz groove into a massive doom riff before organ and guitar push the song into a faster finish. You can hear flashes of ’70s Thin Lizzy-style guitar muscle, ’80s hard rock swagger, and ’90s grit, all pushed through Uncle Acid’s psychedelic blur. Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death, the album makes that sinister influence clear when Starrs sings that “the fog deceives your eyes” on the title track. Best of all, the big choruses keep cutting through the thick guitars. It is heavy, melodic, strange, and just unpredictable enough.