For details of how Matt Howden's music first came into my life, see the entry for his Intimate and Obstinate album, which I bought for him the same day as I got this.
This album is a very different animal from the other one. Frankly, I don't like it. It's made up mostly of songs rather than instrumentals. As the title suggest, the songs are all bleakly gothic pieces going about "the Hell of other people" ('allo Jean-Paul), "the dark unpainted night", "in the end with darkness won", "there must be more than this / there must be a better end". They exist in the space between Current 93 and Miranda Sex Garden (though, thankfully, better than the latter).
He seemed such a pleasant, cheerful chap when I met him. I'm glad I hadn't heard this then; I might have thought twice about saying anything.
The album comes across like a concept piece that was commissioned to soundtrack a bleak piece of contemporary theatre or dance. But if it was then there's no mention of that in the notes.
Accompanying dance was how I first came across Matt's music and I see from his live page that he's playing with Vincent Dance Theatre on their next tour. As I mentioned once, I've enjoyed Charlotte Vincent's work before, so I might even make the effort to go and see that.
Order direct from Matt's website (Hellfires is reduced to £8 at the time of writing)
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