David Eugene Edwards continues his steady travel on the fringes of music where we have seen and heard him before. The heavens are grey and threatening, the ground he travels reeks of brimstone. Traditional American music, together with some of the darkest notes there are in God's great songbook, creates atmospheres that would cause the hardest death metal fan and the most misanthropic goth fetishist to wet themselves in horror. All because of banjo, glockenspiel, guitar and piano and percussion. And a madman.

"Crow eye come see
The Lord will not be mocked
Not by you or me"

He is a thunderstorm of music that testifies with frenzy. Speaks in tongues. Is difficult to understand but cannot be misunderstood. From the nylon stringed tones in the intro to the fateful ending hum, this is a grave serious journey through the shadow of death where the guide creates the most animated creed you will ever find in a record shop. Unbelievers are to understand and get imprisoned by these songs as well.

No fake. Not even on the sly.

The weight of "Oil On Panel". The shivers that "Chest Of Drawers" evokes. The hard beats he shares in "The Speaking Hands". The breathers are few. The grip is stone hard to the end of the record, even though some songs are beyond the border of disturbing mania. David Eugene Edwards is still Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in one person - drunk on Slavonic liquor and obsessed by both angels and demons.

"Yeshua
Yeshua
Where you go take me with thee"

Predictable but damn good. This is for real. Religion - humdrum and boring? Hell no!

9 (out of 10)

Translated by N.W. Clerk