Maybe life today is a bit too complicated, with everything that has happened these past few years where do you find balance? This may be exactly what Vandal Moon, the California-based post-punk duo comprised by Blake Voss and Jeremy Einsiedler were trying to figure out as they worked on their latest album — Queen of the Night a 12-track journey that pits our daily despair alongside an exciting array of dark synths and vocals.
Trying to understand what sparked the music, Vandal Moon shared this,
“The hippies had it halfway right, drop some acid and put flowers in your hair. Same thing with the punks. Find a shitty leather jacket and off you go. But really, truly loving one another, and creating community is an act of rebellion. Music has a history of revolt behind it. We’ve lost touch with that. Remember carving “this machine kills fascists” into your guitar? It’s no longer even tolerated. Try it and see. Society will crush you. This record is about all that, but from an emotional place… living in a world where love is against the law. The real question is what are the kids gonna do about it?” – Blake Voss
“We started writing this album right at the beginning of COVID. Things were weird… there were fires everywhere in California. It felt very dystopian… Blake and I got together as often as we could to write demos in my tiny apartment. I think we scared my neighbors. We drank a lot of pink vodka drinks.” – Jeremy Einsiedler
Indeed, there are a wide range of feelings displayed in this album that illustrate not only gloom but a promise of something better. We move along to the rich and lush title-track and the absolute brilliance of “Sunlight” while we get pulled away to the soothing “Easy to Dream” featuring Dlina Volny. The groove and excitement builds with a Johnny Dynamite collaboration on “Too High to Cry” and the pulsating tracks “Kiss Me Goodbye” and “War.”
Clearly as with Vandal Moon’s 2020 Black Kiss album, Queen of the Night is a solid progression of work that exhibits a fresh take on the post-punk and synthwave vibe and takes us on a musical journey not to be missed.
Queen of the Night is available today via Bandcamp in vinyl, cassette, and digital.
TRACK LIST
1 Young. Deadly. Beautiful.
2 Queen Of The Night
3 Sweet Disaster
4 Chemical Love
5 Sunlight
6 Laughing Like A Clown
7 Easy To Dream (feat. DLINA VOLNY)
8 Too High To Cry (feat. Johnny Dynamite)
9 War
10 Kiss Me Goodbye
11 Diamonds & Pearls (feat. Vangie Lee)
12 The Way You Cry
CREDITS
All songs written, recorded and produced by Blake Voss. © Vandal Moon 2022
‘Chemical Love’ written by Blake Voss & Jeremy Einsiedler
All songs mixed and mastered by Maurizio Baggio
Bass Guitar on ‘Chemical Love’ by Kate Hummel
Additional Synthesizers on ‘Young. Deadly. Beautiful.’ & ‘Queen Of The Night’ by Shawn Ward (FM Attack).
Album Art by Neil Scrivin
Photography by Flor D’Angelo