From the beginning strains of ‘Lovely Lovlie’ I was hooked. ZOMG! Can I write that? ZOMG!! I was like, “Duuuuuuuuuuuuude, awwww yeah!” So yes, I really dug it and I was only a minute twenty-two in. So what, humble reader, am I gushing about? Black Space Riders’ Amoretum Vol. 1 (Black Space). This is the must have album of the year and it is still January. There is something primal about the sound of Amoretum Vol. 1. It’s an Earthy, natural sound that resonates in your bones. 

Take the second track ‘Another Sort of Homecoming’. It is part new waver rock from the Eighties and part Seventies arena Prog Rock psychedelia. The construction of the music keeps you moving forward while the lead vocals are, dare I say, manly on a musky level. Just listening to the track you can feel wind in your hair. You can see the landscape whiz by you as you open up your Aston Martin, top down, going 110 down a deserted Oceanside road. ‘Soul Shelter (Inside of Me)’ is a true Fields of the Nephilim-esq tribal Maori dance around the flames at midnight type of track. There is a deep sexuality to this piece. I mean that in a very good way. It’s robust, resonant, and full of life. C. Rip, the drummer extraordinaire delivers some serious sweat and tears on this track. It’s like going into a zen whirling dervish sort of trance.

There are eight songs and forty-five minutes of soul-wrenching bliss on Amoretum Vol 1. ‘’Movements’ gives us the dank coffee bar at midnight full of the stench of cigarettes and broken dreams. This song is the soundtrack for the lost and forgotten, for the unwanted, for those that yearn for a spark of a life, long dead and decomposed.

One of my writing mentors recently wrote this: “Make your criticisms constructive. Make your observations based on listening properly… Most important of all when reviewing a new album or song? It should primarily be about honestly reviewing the music. Always.” – SC. I really had to listen to the album again and again (a hardship, n’est-ce pas?). I want to be constructive, to listen properly, to be honest in my review. I have to overcome my bias towards really, really liking this. It’s hard. This album tracks like ‘Come and Follow’, the production; they all just punch me in the gut making me want it even more. Everything is lovingly crafted. There is no wasted space. It’s the most perfect album I’ve heard in a long time. I want, no NEED, people to hear this – to really be sat down and listen to the wonder that is Black Space Riders Amoretum Vol. 1.

9.0/10

VICTORIA ANDERSON