Albatwitch - Only Dead Birds Sing Over the Graves of Fallen Kings (2013)

Being used to receive very weird and unique releases, we can’t say that we ever expected to come across an album as unique and puzzling as Albatwitch’s “Only Dead Birds Sing Over the Graves of Fallen Kings”. Mixing Folk with Americana, Drone, Sludge, d-beat, crust, Black Metal and a slew of other influences, this is one hell of a rollercoaster ride that is better left to fully unravel rather than try to understand it.

The album opens with a Folk track that brings back memories of the banjos in the movie “Deliverance”, but it quickly transforms into punishing Noise with hellish vocals. And this is just in the first 3 minutes of music. Sludgy Black Metal quickly follows in “Beneath The Flood”, just before we jump into Burzum-esque territory (his instrumental stuff) and then back into more lush Neo-Folk/Folk with very melancholic vocals and the album’s title track.

If you haven’t been weirded out yet, the album keep getting stranger and stranger. The album keeps producing more Massona/Merbow-esque Noise, Sunn O))) infused Drone, and even crazier and un-classifiable stuff like on “The Gods and the Apes”. The transitions into Folk are just totally bizarre but complete awesome after you stop trying to make sense out of things. Our favorite song has to be the completely contrasting “Rise!”, featuring punishing riffs, punk-ish drumming, and…. clean Folk singing accompanied by a banjo. A very WTF combination that actually works wonders.

Closing on a darker vibe with Noise/Sludge elements in “Hammer and Nail” and “Goat”, the band has truly wandered through almost the whole music spectrum and managed to retrieve bits and pieces of many genres and slapped them together. If you are not creeped out yet, wait until you listen to “Frack-ture”, a socially conscious disturbing song.

With the list of instruments used ranging from banjo, stick dulcimer, celtic harp to a mysterious instrument called “magickal musical thing”, this band blows any other ‘weird’ and unique band out of the water and makes them sound like boy bands from the 2000’s. Albatwitch has a very unique mixture of styles that will surely make them a cult underground two-man band. If you like pushing the limits of what you are comfortable with, look no further and get yourself a nice cardboard physical copy of “Only Dead Birds Sing Over the Graves of Fallen Kings”.

Label: Lost Grave

Release: 2013

Genre: Drone / Noise / Sludge / Folk

Country: USA