You have to feel a little for Oklahoma’s Patrick Harnish, a man born out of time if ever there was one. Y’see, I’m almost certain that had this album, Blood Kiss,  been released twenty-odd years ago, when Marilyn Manson, Glenn Danzig, Trent Reznor, Peter Steele and Keith Caputo strode the earth as variously-heighted colossi, Harnish would have joined them on the Goth rock pantheon to reign in black-shrouded splendour for evermore… As it is, here he is in 2020 with his fourth self-released album of blood-flecked American Gothic – by far his best work yet, by the way – a misanthropic cottage industry when he really should be a full-blown, Satanic multi-national conglomerate…

Still, thems the breaks, and you should not let the unjust nature of the world stop you from enjoying this glorious, gorgeous smorgasbord of lascivious misery. In his interview with Sentinel Daily head honcho Scott Adams a few weeks back, Harnish said that many of the songs on Blood Kiss were from his ‘B’ arsenal, but seriously you’d never guess, such is the venomous intent of the delivery from our hero and his ragged bunch of associates… Move Inside is a bona fide late nineties dancefloor filler, whilst the cover versions here – Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Black Snake Moan, Danzig’s Deep, Dio’s Jesus, Mary and the Holy Ghost and Ricky Nelson’s Lonesome Town all cede nothing to the originals in terms of execution.

Kiss the Ghost is probably the best of the originals on offer, although if I write this piece tomorrow that particular gong might be handed out elsewhere; suffice to say it’s a superb, sparse investigation into love, loss and regret that breaks down misery into it’s very essence, in the process achieving more in three minutes and ten seconds than many more lauded songwriters manage over an entire album. I’m not exaggerating when I report that Harnish really is operating in nosebleed heights of excellence on Blood Kiss.

He’s a veteran for sure, but there’s something about Harnish’s performances all over Blood Kiss that suggest he really is ready to make the jump up in class right here, right now. The steely eyed conviction with which he delivers the creepy, psycho-sexually charged libido fest that is The Night Hag is a joy to behold; this is a man truly in command of all the weapons he currently has at his disposal. He deserves the biggest possible stage on which to display this. There’s a dirty black summer approaching – and this album will provide the perfect soundtrack…

 

Blood Kiss is out on May 15th.