God's Word is propagated; David Eugene Edwards adds a new chapter to his meanwhile voluminous Book of Revelations, sinners beware!

Shortly after the Woven Hand project the promised new Sixteen Horsepower album is released. Woven Hand did not break with the Sixteen Horsepower sound, but added more intensity by exorcising devils slower and more modest. Folklore follows that path. Only ten tracks (only four band-compositions) are given shape to sparingly with primarily acoustic instruments that often only float in an ominous sky in which Edwards' voice recites spellbindingly.

Sixteen Horsepower has grown: every time the songs work towards a climax but the bands just manages to restrain themselves by which means the tension becomes stronger and stronger and more and more palpable. Until it seizes you by the throat. Only in the Carter Family cover Single Girl and the Cajun traditional La Robe A Parasol do we get a breather, even though Edwards and the others know how to keep the atmosphere heavy-laden. The other traditionals are songs from Hungary, Tuva and their own legacy. Together with Hank Williams' Alone And Forsaken they form an extension to their own work, which digs even deeper into tradition with these very old songs.

Perhaps the number of Sixteen Horsepower fans will become smaller because of this rather difficult album, but those who remain are hooked for life.

4 stars (out of 5)