A new single and slideshow video heralds the final album by BRIAN JAMES, due out next month.
'In The Blood' is the opening track from Kicks And Diabolik Licks, which The Damned founder and punk pioneer was preparing for release before he tragically passed away in March last year. The album is now being released through Easy Action Records on 20 February, the week of his birthday and the 49th Anniversary anniversary of the release of the first Damned album.
A lifelong fan of horror and crime films, James found inspiration for the album in Italian Giallo (yellow) cinema of the 60s and 70s, the precursor to the 80s US 'slasher' genre.
"These were exploitation films, with a predominant crime theme and the occasional supernatural element and characterised with violent and bloody set pieces... often with attention to grandiose set design and lurid lighting," says James' longtime friend, film poster artist, Graham Humphreys, who also designed two Lords Of The New Church album sleeves, as well as The Damned's A Night Of A Thousand Vampires album.
Humpreys continues, "Following on from the Italian ‘giallo’ pulp genre, a successful Italian comic series called Diabolik inspired the 1968 film Danger: Diabolik, with other adaptations and media following. Brian told me he had noticed a proliferation of the comics whilst on holiday in Italy, thus inspiring his album title."
Produced by James with longtime engineer Austen Gayton, the album features special guests Alan Clayton from Dirty Strangers and The Mo-Dettes Ramona Wilkins Carlier who sings on a new version of the Lords' 'Dance With Me'.
Kicks And Diabolik Licks is available to pre-order on vinyl here and CD here.