Bursting at the seams with ferocious indie rock music, New Zealand’s Voodoo Bloo has released his debut album.
The Wellington-based songwriter and musician Rory McDonald aka Voodoo Bloo is using music to heal and grow as a human and you can’t help but feel like you are following him on this journey.
His nin-track debut album titled Jacobus [released December 4th, 2020] twists and turns through the motions like an out of control rollercoaster with powerful riffs and snarling vocals.
Featuring singles ‘Ha Ha Ok Ok’ and ‘MMA’, the album is relentless in its fusion of percussion and heavy guitars, while vocals soar throughout leaving little to no room for breath. The meaning behind the Jacobus is also an emotional one for Rory which deals with grief and mourning of a very close friend who took his own life whilst he was overseas.
Rory said: “Last July [2019], a close friend of mine for many years, took his own life while I was away overseas.
“This was obviously a massive shock to myself and the people around me, but being isolated from my friends while in a different country led me to writing a lot of lyrics during one of the strangest and scariest points in my life.
“The writing of ‘JACOBUS’ was a very cathartic process at a time when I didn’t have many people around me to talk to.”
Jacobus has its moments of intimacy and nuance, with tracks like ‘Homebody’ and ‘9th Of July, 2019’ providing moments of reflection and memorialising on Voodoo Bloo’s part.
They act as great contrast to the punishing sounds of ‘Her Name Was Human’ and ‘Lost Connection’, two album highlights that are demonstrative of Voodoo Bloo’s great musicality and instrumentation.
While the listener becomes introduced to this young artist with his heart on his sleeve, Jacobus is a way for Voodoo Bloo to confront and move on from a very painful time in his life.
Rory went on to add: “New Zealand currently has one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world.
“No matter where my music ends up, I think this could be a very relatable record for any person going through depression or who has experienced an event similar to this, and hope that in that relatability they can use this as their own cathartic tool too.”
Rory’s powerful indie rock project is influenced by harder hitting acts such as Marilyn Manson and System of a Down, as well as some singer-songwriter artists such as Car Seat Headrest and Neutral Milk Hotel.
Under his previous project Lucifer Gunne, which was formed in 2017, Voodoo Bloo was able to use his knowledge from his previous band to kick-start his new music career in spectacular style, and this album does just that.
Listen to Jacobus in full here.
