With lavish cinematic noir orchestral arrangements, a sweeping metal backdrop and some operatic rock vocals The Murder Of My Sweet's latest album Beth Out of Hell has been 3 years in the making. The 70 minute opus tells the a story of lust, forbidden love and good versus evil, as Satan's daughter falls in love with the Archangel Michael. This is a relationship that clearly was never going to work out, much like most of the relationships from the film noir genre. But then again a band who's name is a play on the 1944 film, relish in the darkly tragic and the seductive!
With spoken interludes between tracks and a more dramatic orchestration than their 2012 album Bye Bye Lullaby, Beth Out Of Hell is essentially a Rock Opera. The set up for what was to come also featured in the last three tracks from the last album, which are also referenced throughout BOOH. As with many operas there's musical themes that run through the album which are worth listening out for too.
The Awakening, Always A Fugitive and Humble Servant are real symphonic Gothic anthems.Requiem For A Ghost, the second longest song on the album, starts as a romantically scored ballad before breaking our into a nightmarish track with some great string arrangements. Euthanasiaparticularly stands out as one of the tracks which should garnish some serious airplay for the band. Vocalist Veronica Rylin has more charm and manipulation than a Hitchcock blond as she attempts to beguile and seduce our hero and the listener. She is of course more than successful as we are drawn into her world. Veronica really gets a chance to showcase her talent in this album and is one of the best female rock vocalists to come out of the Scandinavian Goth rock genre. Daniel Flores not only acts as producer, keyboard player and drummer for the album but lends his vocal talents to Michael. He adds weight and muscle to the album as Heavens winged Avenger who comes back to stop Beth destroying the Earth. Daniel and Veronica's vocals blend perfectly on their duets with Bitter Love particularly standing out. The final eleven minute battle to save humanity, Means To An Endis one of the most exciting tracks on the album. As you would expect from a band influenced by the cinematic, it's a satisfying climax to a dense musical noir.