Album Review: Byronic Sex & Exile - Unrepentant Thunder

 With his Byronic Sex & Exile project, over the past five years Joel Heyes has established himself at the forefront of the UK goth scene, a position enhanced by the growing profile of the Goth City annual festival and associated charity compilation albums which he curates, and his growing international reputation is sure to be further enhanced by this week’s release of the new Byronic Sex & Exile album, Unrepentant Thunder.

Of all of the EPs and albums released under the BS&E moniker so far, Unrepentant Thunder is not only the most accomplished but also the most appropriate, dealing as it does with the life and death of the legendary romantic poet (Lord Byron) during his Greek sojourn. The dictionary defines the adjective “Byronic” as “alluringly dark, mysterious and moody”, and this is a perfectly apt description not only of the BS&E sound but also of Heyes himself, not a man to shy away from the long hair, frilly white shirt, black strides and boots look, although on this occasion he has pulled out all the stops by wearing something with an authentically Hellenic vibe for the promo photos (as can be seen on the video stills below), much in the way the likes of scene legends like Gary Numan and Peter Murphy are wont to do.

The serious, quasi-academic theme should come as little surprise, as the Goth City festival has always been about the wider culture as much as the music, and recent BS&E releases have tended to have a scholarly single theme, whether dark Yorkshire ghost tales or the Carpathian culture behind the Dracula story. BSE’s live work, whether al fresco on a dramatic windswept moor, candle-lit and performed from the musician own’s cosy boudoir during lockdown, or in the dimly lit velvet confines of a small cabaret club, have equally always been as much about theatrical performance art as much as the music, and Unrepentant Thunder will clearly translate well to the stage for the forthcoming UK tour, which will culminate in a Halloween weekend performance in Whitby at the Tomorrow's Ghosts festival.

A whirling dervish of creative ideas, Heyes has increasingly learned to edit his own work more critically, meaning that the sixteen tracks on the new album maintain the same high level of musical quality whilst exhibiting a refreshing variety of styles, from the solo poetry recital (I speak, Missolonghi) to the almost Lucretia-style bombastic goth rock (complete with infectious chorus) of Destiny, which follows the album’s overture, prophetically entitled To Die For Greece.

The album’s upliftingly sombre tone is set early on, with third track Until Freedom Dies building slowly, in the style of FOTN’s Psychonaut before opening out to feature a slightly dislocated Joy Division-esque guitar solo. Deicide Is Painless also builds significantly from a somewhat disconcerting beginning, a horror film two-note piano motif with strings effects growing into a genuinely epic slow-burning lament, one of the early highlights of the album as a whole.

With the first political poetical interlude (I speak) preceded by the more upbeat Death or Joy!, which has an almost sea shanty feel after an archetypal BS&E two chord organ intro, and 114 having an almost soft rock “lighters in the air” ambiance, the dramatic tension is somewhat lowered for a while, particularly on the somewhat incongruous Ecstasy (Lovers Make Better Goths), which not only lightens the tone lyrically, but also introduces a hard handbag dancefloor element which although highly effective, sits somewhat uneasily with the overall feel of the album.

The pace slows down again for Last Letter To Mao, featuring a piano introduction of the style currently made popular by the rapper Dave, and the second poem (from the pen of Lord Byron himself) Missolonghi, preparing the way for the brace of songs which are the undoubted high point of the album, A Boy Called Jihad, and the title track. The former begins with atmospheric thunder and features another spooky four-note sequence this time over a mesmerising drone, building to a crescendo with dramatic shouts of “War!” over an epic multi-layered backing worthy of 90’s goth legends London After Midnight. Unrepentant Thunder itself has a similarly bombastic if more uplifting feel, over a chord sequence more akin to Pachelbel’s Canon.

As befits a concept album about the death (from fever) of Byron after the siege of Missolonghi in the Greek War of Independence, the tone turns gradually more mellow on the following trio of tracks: Sweet Prince and its accompanying guitar solo has the spacey, dreamy feel of Pink Floyd, Hercules is another primarily synth-led and suitably epic ballad, whilst Requiem begins with a suitably sombre piano sequence before Heyes intones a funereal dirge which will appeal to fans of Dead Can Dance. The artist remains at the piano stool for the closing Castle In My Mind, which although based on a dark chord sequence, adds a final note of hope for gothic dreamers everywhere. Byron himself would surely have approved.

As with all Byronic Sex & Exile releases, purchasers (and there should be many) of Unrepentant Thunder are not only obtaining a first-rate album stuffed with great tunes, excellent musicianship and a range of moods, but witnessing an educational examination (by one the current scene's most committed and campaigning performers) of the wider purpose and influence of gothic culture and thought, through the story of one of the first true romantic heroes.

 The new album, along with other Byronic Sex & Exile releases, is available from the Goth City Bandcamp page.