When a new release appears from the man behind 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand, a rare double review becomes mandatory. Allow Cherd and Carcharodon to explain why David Eugene Edwards is a big fookin’ deal on both sides of the pond and everywhere else.
Country
Dee Calhoun – Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia Review
“Of all the not-metal-but-metal-adjacent things we cover on this site, my favorites are easily dark folk/country or Gothic Americana releases. I’m always scanning the promo sump for those occasional gems like Henry Derek Elis or Lord Buffalo or Wailin’ Storms so I can snap them up before my mouth-breathing colleagues have a chance to whine “Hey! This am country! No like twang! Make riffs go ‘brrrrr!'” I won’t belabor the point, but if you want a window into my tastes, you can read the intro to my review of Tohu Wa Bohu. All this to say, the moment I saw the title of Dee Calhoun’s fourth solo record in the pit, Old Scratch Comes to Appalachia, I was on it like a fly on a cow pie.” Dip, dirt, country doom.
Lathe – Tongue of Silver Review
“Tongue of Silver represents two landscapes. It beats down upon the dead soil of the barren American West, empty and lonely winds plastering sun-bleached hills. But it pulses with the beating heart of its folklore, as legendary as it is flesh and blood. It’s a tall tale of the mundane, paying homage to not only Americana, but to the crushing weight of drone metal. The story it tells is not of speedy gunslingers or soul-searching troubadours but found in the negative spaces “somewhere between sand and rust:” a living, breathing, and uniquely American commentary on expansion and decay.” American threads.
Stump Tail Dolly – Soundtrack to the Second Civil War Review
“To paraphrase Jurassic Park’s Ian Malcolm, we were so preoccupied with whether or not we could, we never stopped to think if we should. Yet here it is: a Nashville quartet who bill themselves as a fusion of country and metal, complete with twangy guitars, honkytonk fiddle, rudimentary attempts at extreme metal, and shit-kicking rhythms pulled straight from the Bumfuck County square dance.” Wrong Turn: the Musical.
