The Filthy Tongues – Back to Hell – album review

The Filthy Tongues
Martin Metcalfe is a multi-faceted and very busy man.

Playing live in various guises, recording, painting and organising art shows/books and on top of his own workload, writing for other bands.

The Fornicators in Glasgow Part 2

In recent weeks I picked up the second CD (Part 2) of a gig recorded in Glasgow’s Audio last year. Playing under one of his many guises, Martin Metcalfe and the Fornicators, the gig was an acoustic affair. The band played a selection of tracks from the various bands Martin has been involved with over the years, along with some of the songs they have covered and have been an influence on him/the bands he has played in.

Martin Metcalfe and the FornicatorsPart 2 of the live CD contains 9 tracks of live acoustic brilliance and are the songs that will be familiar to fans of the band(s) Metcalfe has been in as they are songs they have covered in the past or had an influence on the band. So we get their fantastic takes on Bowie’s Amsterdam & Heroes, alongside classics from the Velvet Underground and Stooges and Cave’s Knockin’ on Joe. Finishing off with In the Ghetto and an exquisite Black Valentine. Seek it out.

Background

He is also a talented artist and has recently been painting, performing and releasing a collaboration with long-time collaborator poet/writer and some-time band-mate Paul Hullah in Scenes.

Along with bandmates & long-term collaborators, Fin Wilson and Derek Kelly, Metcalfe has been in several bands over the years from the outstanding Goodbye Mr MacKenzie & Angelfish (which helped launch Shirley Manson’s meteoric rise to fame with Garbage), through Isa & the Filthy Tongues with Stacey Chavis initially picking up vocal duties and now as The Filthy Tongues with Martin back as lead singer. Oh, and The Fornicators as mentioned. Phew.

Metcalfe’s song writing skills have also been in demand recently, providing writing for four of the tracks on the Skids recent album Burning Cities.

And so to the follow up to the darkly magnificent Jacob’s Ladder from 2016. This is their second album as a 3 piece following the departure of “Isa” (Stacey Chavis) after two tremendous albums. Jacob’s Ladder was a triumph and most definitely in my end of year list for the best and most listened to album of that year. As such it was going to be difficult to follow.

Thankfully, Back to Hell is more than a worthy companion to Jacob’s Ladder and picks up the baton from where that album left off.

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob's LadderThe name of the first album was two-fold. Firstly it linked to the band’s Edinburgh background with Jacob’s Ladder being a famous Edinburgh landmark carved into Calton Hill (a subject of a song by Goodbye Mr MacKenzie). It also related to the theme of the album, the hope of salvation this time with Jacob’s Ladder being a biblical metaphor for the way into Heaven. While the album was brooding and dark, you knew there was salvation available with an element of hope, both in the music & lyrics.

Back to Hell

This sinister threatening theme continues in the music of Back to Hell, the metaphor of Jacob’s Ladder being the way to heaven being turned around and see’s things heading back in the opposite direction. The album musically and lyrically tells a story of a rocky journey the antagonist is making through life. But is he the antagonist, is he really the bad guy?

There is a signature sound that has run through all the bands from Goodbye Mr MacKenzie through to The Filthy Tongues that sets them apart from your run of the mill bands and gives them an element of uniqueness. Perhaps it is Metcalfe’s distinctive baritone, or the nucleus of Metcalfe/Kelly/Wilson’s inimitable playing, but whatever it is, the sound is here and the album is undeniably the Filthy Tongues. There are some ever-present influences that come to the fore. Bowie, Reed, Pop (see some of the tracks on The Fornicators second live CD) and, particularly on some Filthy Tongues tracks, Nick Cave/The Bad Seeds.

My name is Alexander…

Come Home opens the album and sets the scene with its menacing intro melding into slow-bluesy piano with the opening couplet of “My name is Alexander, I like what I see, You think I’ve gone to the devil but don’t you worry ‘bout me”. The music builds with rhythmic drumming and squally guitar to a compelling climax. The writing is on the wall, he is heading back to hell.

Ominous strings are used to great effect too on this record. The Ghost of Rab McVie starts with a slow shadowy ceilidh-like feel, with the fiddle omnipresent while the multifarious layered instrumentation sound-tracking the shrewd lyric lamenting of the death of Rab, within a backdrop of an ever changing Edinburgh.

I fell from grace

Strings also work well on the album’s title track Back to Hell in particular, with the intro being reminiscent of the Velvet Underground and The Black Angel’s Death Song. The first line in title track cements things “I fell from grace” the antagonist mourns, he isn’t going to be ascending Jacob’s Ladder, he is “going back to hell”.

The blackness in much of Jacob’s Ladder is obviously still here and similar to the previous album, the shades of Nick Cave are present (Mother’s Got a Knife & Carlos the Jackal in particular) not only in the music but in bleakness of the subject matter of the songs. “Mothers got a knife, fathers lying on the floor, the dog is in the whorehouse. Licking up the bathroom floor…”

Metcalfe is an artist in the literal sense, but the lyrics of the Filthy Tongues also paint vivid pictures, often of diabolical scenes, but the intense imagery is all there in the words. Close your eyes and you are part of it. Having been a fan of Peaky Blinders since the start and heard how the music of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey has been used to great effect, I could easily imagine this music as a backdrop to the heinous antics of Shelby & Co.

Leper Town could have been a Goodbye Mr MacKenzie song and confirms to me that unique sound these three talented musicians create across the bands. The song is more upbeat and perhaps signals that all is not lost in the story of the albums main player. “The sun comes up over Leper Town”.

Penultimate track “Who Are You” starts in a thundery rain storm and sees our storyteller questioning those who judge him. Is he really the bad guy?

This is my love, Take it

Hope springs eternal though and love prevails. There are more signs of redemption at the end of the album. The atmospheric beauty of the last song on the album “Take It” is tinged with pathos abetted by the strings, piano and brushed drums. But there are also signs hope here in the music & lyrics and in the metaphors he uses for his love. “This is my love take it, it’s all I’ve got.” A hopeful end to the album. Maybe, just maybe, he’s not heading for hell after all?

Listening to this album is an emotionally engaging and exhilarating experience. It ensnares you from those first words “My name is Alexander…” seducing you with the lyrical imagery and accomplished musicianship. It is only April, but I’m convinced this striking album will unquestionably be featuring in my end of year lists.

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Martin Metcalfe website