Evil Dr. Smith: So you think My Dying Bride is depressive? Let me tell you this: compared with this Woven Hand My Dying Bride's light-tuned happy misery make me laugh. Nothing wrong about these guys from West-Yorkshire, in fact I really do like their latest work from earlier this year and I'm a fan of them from the early beginnings, but when you hear Woven Hand's soul-tearing and utter sad melancholy, the doom of My Dying Bride almost sounds artificial.

All right, this comparison is a bit forced – and was only done to keep you interested – because Woven Hand has nothing to do with doom metal, not even metal at all! Still they sound more intense, bloody, dark and terrifying than ninety percent of all metal bands. And I bloody well mean this! If you need a moment to cry out loud – really to cry your eyes out so hard that it almost make you happy – without electric guitars and bashing bass drums pushing your tears behind your ears, than Woven Hand is your ideal musical therapist. Take a seat, or better, lie down, switch off all the lights, play this album and let your deepest emotions flow through the air. And hide away all your razors as well. Just in case…

Woven Hand is the side-project of David Eugene Edwards. He's also the man behind 16 Horsepower, a band that might be better known among the more broadminded metalheads. This third album of Woven Hand is less experimental than its predecessor 'Blush Music' (which was written for a ballet) and is more in the vein of the music we know from 16 Horsepower. The deeply religious possessed and blood-boiling vocals of Edward are diving on the edges of the spectrum of alternative rock, added with for him typical instruments like bandoneon, piano, mandolin, bodhran and banjo. The mostly acoustical played music you can describe as something like alternative gothic-country, but mind you: it's not a pitch-black apocalypse. Davids' 'enlightened' lyrics will bring a gleam of hope in the dark, dark music. Only these lyrics are so overgrown with passionate tragic and heartbreaking drama that you're too blinded by tears to see any light.

More than ever this is Edwards' own creation. Despite one traditional ('Down In Yon Forest') he wrote all the songs himself and except for three songs he played all the instruments as well. The reason why he's keeping two bands at the moment becomes not very logical anymore - Woven Hand is very much similar with 16 HP - but as long as he's giving me thrilling shivers down my spine, I'm the last one on Earth who complains about this. These are psalms sung in the church where Hank Williams, Nick Drake and Joy Division giving each other the whiskey bottle, shortly followed by a strangle-cord. Forgiving is a sin.

These are expensive times for our fellow depressive citizens with the recent albums from Mark Lanegan, Tom Waits and Nick Cave. Nevertheless is the blackest pearl without doubt this album by Woven Hand. And not unimportant as well: this music is very popular among the female species. So if you're into a musical trip of endless misery and at the same time in for some pleasant romantic company on your lap: Woven Hand is your man! So shiver and shake of joy!