“I appreciate a good concept album. Sometimes an album concept merely offers a quirky angle to music which is already enjoyable. Sometimes it is central to the album’s enjoyment itself. In the case of Ireland’s The Risen Dread and their debut record entitled Night Hag, there is a theme worthy of greater exploration and artistic endeavor: mental illness. Important though this subject no doubt is, concept albums that fail forget that substance trumps style, and similarly music trumps message.” Hag time.
