Kill The Wolf - 10th Anniversary Edition (2LP) - Red Blood Splatter Vinyl

Matt Berry’s Kill The Wolf arrived in 2013 on Acid Jazz Records, and it still feels like one of those rare modern records that taps a deep well of British folk mystique without turning into pastiche. The 10th Anniversary Edition gives it another spin around the maypole, and it’s a welcome chance to revisit an album that sits at a curious crossroads in Berry’s catalog, wedged between the pastoral glow of Witchazel and the synthy insomnia experiment that followed. If you know him first from The IT Crowd or Toast of London, this is where the musical world he’d been sketching bloomed into something darker and more ceremonial, full of ritual rhythms, Mellotron fog, and a choirboy’s sense of awe and dread.

What jumps out now is how complete the world-building is. Berry wrote and produced the album, and you can hear the control in every layer. Guitars knit into organ drones, flutes and recorders peal like village fare, and the rhythm section moves with the solemn push of processional drums. He loves texture, so the arrangements feel alive, like they’re breathing along with the weather. There’s a strong pagan-folk pulse running through it, but the palette leans prog and psych as well. Think pastoral Canterbury dreams, then tint it with horror film twilight.

October Sun remains the gateway. It has that slow-bloom quality Berry does so well, his voice unspooling over chiming guitars until the chorus widens the sky. You can hear why it became a fan favorite, and why it later sat comfortably on his Gather Up anthology. Solstice is the flip side, a multi-part piece that spirals from liturgical hush to wild-eyed ritual, all toms and choral harmonies. The thing feels like a short film in sound. He’s always had a knack for stitching movements together so the whole flows like a story rather than a set of songs, and Kill The Wolf is where that approach crystallized.

The production rewards close listening. Berry’s keyboards are everywhere, from thick Mellotron pads to keening church organ, and they pair beautifully with the acoustic instruments. He’s a generous arranger too, leaving space for voices to stack and fall. The choruses feel handmade, the kind you imagine being sung in a stone nave. It’s a record that makes you want to read the liner notes, which is part of why the 10th Anniversary Edition is such a satisfying object. The cover image, all antlered menace and woodland shadow, hits harder at 12 inches. If you’ve been hunting for Matt Berry vinyl, this is the one that begs to live on the shelf face-out.

Ten years on, the songs have gained a kind of seasonal permanence. They sound right in autumn, sure, but they also carry a spring greenness and a winter hush. That quality is why Berry has built such a loyal audience beyond the screen. He’s not just dabbling in retro colors. He’s writing melodies that stick and arranging them with a collector’s ear, which makes Kill The Wolf vinyl a smart pickup whether you’re deep into Acid Jazz’s roster or you came in through British comedy. Spin it next to your Fairport Convention, your Broadcast, your early Genesis, and it holds its own.

As a reissue, it lands at the perfect time for anyone who discovered Berry through later releases like Phantom Birds or The Blue Elephant and wants to trace the lineage back. It also makes the case for his records as tactile objects. There’s a warmth to these mixes that blooms on a turntable, and the sequencing feels built for Side A and Side B. You do not need a thousand-dollar rig to hear that. Even on a modest setup, those choral stacks lift, the toms thump, and the organ gets that satisfying, slightly spooky glow.

If you’re crate digging in a Melbourne record store, or scrolling late at night to buy Matt Berry records online, keep an eye out for this pressing. Matt Berry albums on vinyl tend to vanish quickly, and this one has the kind of cult energy that only grows. And if you’re in the habit of sending friends links to vinyl records Australia shops, send them this title with a nudge. Kill The Wolf 10th Anniversary Edition doesn’t just mark a date on the calendar. It reminds you how fully Berry built a world here, one you can walk into, needle down, and feel the leaves crunch underfoot.