Tag: folk
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Ben Miller Band – Choke Cherry Tree LP
The catch, when any band attempts to infuse a time-honored sound and style with new energy and fresh inspiration, is that they often lose sight of all the reasons why and how that form worked in the first place. While the heart and hopes might be sound enough, the results often feel as though someone…
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Hamell On Trial – Tackle Box LP
It might sound a little ridiculous, but the truth is that some musicians need to have something which genuinely pisses them off before them – something they find truly abhorrent – in order to produce their best work. Take Ed Hamell, for example: Hamell has been a politically-minded songwriter since he first appeared in 1996…
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Justin Townes Earle – Kids On The Street LP
After being toasted first and then either critically maligned or flat out ignored for a little while thereafter, Justin Townes Earle has made a sound on his seventh album (first for New West Records) that any critic worth his sand simply cannot ignore. After all the hard luck, Earle had some addiction issues and he…
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Na Cruithne – Gairm An Fhiantais
Hailing from the mighty land of Galway in Ireland, Na Cruithne meld traditional Irish music with heavy metal, showing a skill and love for this music seldom seen. Often in folk metal, one element overwhelms the other, but not so here. Na Cruithne’s music is a new beast, one extremely pleasing to the ear and,…
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Downcast Twilight – Under the Wings of the Aquila
Hailing from Russia, but with lyrics in English, Downcast Twilight are most accomplished musicians and could compete on any international stage. Their song-writing is strong, the tracks all cover various periods in history, and clearly a lot of work has gone into their production. It is death metal with folk influences, but really it has…
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Volur – Ancestors
The sophomore album from Toronto folk-doomsters Volur is nothing if not an ambitious effort. Though it only contains four tracks, it clocks in at over 53 minutes, with some songs stretching over 15. And while the lyrics are not clearly discernible, I do detect a theme here—each song title begins with “Breaker.” We start off…
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Mirrors for Psychic Warfare – self-titled
Both Scott Kelly and Sanford Parker are pretty much pioneers of post-sludge. Kelly needs no introduction from his time with Neurosis, while Parker has really established himself as a producer when not playing in Neurosis-inspired outfit Minsk. But their previous collaboration in Corrections House was far from the sludgy stuff… and so’s this one, for…
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No Simple Highway – A Cultural History of The Grateful Dead
I would never have considered myself the ideal critic to review Peter Richardson’s No Simple Highway – or any book about The Grateful Dead, for that matter. Growing up, it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t interested in The Dead (I listened to lots of different kinds of music), it’s just that the band wasn’t…
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AGALLOCH US/CANADIAN tour announced
New album The Serpent & The Sphere out from Profound Lore May 13th: http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/agalloch-complete-work-on-new-album/ New track “Celestial Effigy” streaming link: http://agalloch.bandcamp.com/album/the-serpent-the-sphere Soaring and epically beautiful, what longtime fans know as the standard from Portland, Oregon’s AGALLOCH. From 1999’s Pale Folklore their sound has often invoked the atmosphere of a dark forest; this track follows that path…
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The Lion’s Daughter & Indian Blanket – A Black Sea
By Gruesome Greg Holy Nine Band Members, Batman! I’m not sure if there’s a classical term for a nine-piece band (novtet?), but that’s how many faces appear in the band photo on this album, a collaborative effort between St. Louis sludge squad The Lion’s Daughter and folksy Americana outfit Indian Blanket. No, this is not a split—it’s…