House Of All: Inklings – Album Review

ALBUM OF THE WEEK!

Post-Fall giants House Of All return with their fourth album in four years. Inklings builds on the band’s singular mythology while delivering some gripping music. Robert Plummer follows the valiant heart.

House Of All are not the first outfit formed of ex-Fall members, but with four studio albums and other side releases under their belts, they are certainly the longest-lived. Inklings is their most ambitious project yet, with forays into space-rock, downer-rock and other sub-genres. So is this when Martin Bramah and his trusty colleagues start to escape Mark E Smith’s immense gravitational pull and emerge as a band in their own right?

Well, there’s one immense spanner in the works there: track eight is entitled Ours Is The Fall, to which one can only reply that the clue is in the name. Clearly the band are not ready to cut the umbilical cord to the mothership just yet. Even so, it’s their entrance, their own creation, and every successive release takes them further on their chosen path.

Talking of entrances, the first words you hear on the first track, Spirit Salient, are “Tarry a little/I would lose all/Every man be master of his time.” There’s a slew of Shakespearean references there, a reminder that Bramah’s enigmatic lyrics are rooted in an old, weird England that lurks at the back of our minds. Musically, it’s the most low-key start to a House Of All album so far, a mid-paced opening gambit from a band with plenty of firepower in reserve.

Battle is properly joined with Rebel Duke, a deep, dark, earth-shaking glam racket with a singalong chorus that sets the body swaying. After that, a dose of punk rifferama with a difference: Wrecked finds Bramah professing to be “as good a gentleman as the Devil is”, while the thunderous double drums beat out a deliberately off-kilter tattoo. “Magic verses have contrived our end/The oracle is fulfilled,” he intones further.

The band’s patent magic sound is strong in Valiant Heart, a tune that turns medieval pilgrimage into a travelling rock festival. “You speak like an ancient,” says Bramah at one point: presumably he is talking to himself. Do we hear the faint, distant echo of the swords of a thousand men? If we do, it’s no disgrace.

Prince Of This World is a slow churning groove that channels Black Sabbath by way of The Fall’s Elves. Again we are told that “the Prince of Darkness is a gentle man”. More classic rock, repurposed for our age, follows with Time Is Out Of Joint, wherein the band stir up a thoroughly Hawkwindian brainstorm: “a very palpable hit,” as Bramah puts it.

Steve Hanley’s inimitable bass takes centre stage on My Throbbing Heart Shall Rock Thee, a crawling king snake of a song that sidewinds its way onward. That’s followed by the aforementioned Ours Is The Fall, a relentless stomper with Bramah in apocalyptic mode, invoking “war, death and sickness” while shouting to be heard above the sonic turbulence.

Sweet Remembrancer opens with a descending guitar riff that recalls Pink Floyd’s Lucifer Sam before slowing to a transcendent trance. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” cries Bramah, conjuring the shade of Shakespeare for the umpteenth time. “Life’s but a walking shadow,” he adds, just to intensify the Macbeth connection.

I Am Thine closes the album, its serene vibe enhanced by some delicate acoustic guitar finger-picking. Yet the lyrics hint at darker themes. “Death and destruction dog thee at the heels,” sings Bramah, lamenting that “dishonour hath laid me on the ground”.

As time marches on, House Of All have become a hydra-headed beast. Latest publicity photos show seven musicians, including drummers Paul Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft and Karl Burns, plus guitarists Peter Greenway and Phil Lewis, as well as bassist Steve Hanley. That’s two more members than they had at the start, but their sound is as lean and hungry (see, those Shakespeare quotations are catching) as ever.

No mithering here – at this stage in the game, the experimental may have become conventional, but The Fall’s old hit-and-miss highs and lows have been replaced with a diamond-hard consistency. In place of that band’s famously scrappy-looking album art, the series of derelict buildings featured on House of All’s record covers provide a coherent visual identity. And whereas The Fall could often be utterly shambolic live, House Of All’s “solid work ethic” guarantees a great night out every time.

Still, sinister thrills are always just around the corner: there’s always the hint of an otherworldly realm where modern indie musicians strike pacts with age-old supernatural forces, Robert Johnson-style. After all, “tarry a little” isn’t just a line in The Merchant of Venice. It’s also a phrase used by Goethe, part of the contract signed by Faust when he is selling his soul to Mephistopheles.

So is this the best House Of All album so far? It’s certainly their best album since the last one, with the bonus of a covers EP, Foundlings, for early Bandcamp buyers. This is a band occupying a hallowed place in the musical firmament that no-one else has a chance of attaining. And if you haven’t started listening to them yet, it’s high time you caught up.

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You can find House Of All on Facebook here, on Bandcamp here, on X here and on Instagram here. Their Linktree here has tour dates and links to buy tickets.

All words by Robert Plummer. More writing by Robert can be found at his author’s archive. He is also on X as @robertp926.