When a record starts with a long-winding guitar line and a choral performance as uplifting as any Gregorian chant, then one should open the ears - Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin are at it again and this time, this is not a collaboration. Find out why Vol. II is different from its predecessor and even better, unexpectedly!
Them Crooked Vultures, the Highwaymen, Mad Season, Cream, Audioslave - supergroups. Or rather Probot, Annihilus or Author & Punisher - super one-man-groups with a lot of guest stars. What makes a super group or a supergroup. From those above one can take many examples where a supergroup and be a super group, When listening to Stygian Bough‘s Vol. I one might have the impression of listening to a super group like, yes, Audioslave. With Vol. II it’s more like Mad Season. What is the difference you ask? It’s basically easy – Mad Season was a much more of a band than a project, was much more wholesome and nurturing than Audioslave. I do not want to reduce the latter to “the hits”, the records worked – and the first Stygian Bough record works even better – but it was not a full-fledged band and Jesse and Dylan from Bell Witch (see our video below!) are content with the comparison, when saying that now Stygian Bough is not a collaboration where each side brings in its own flavors and favorites. Nowadays this is A BAND with three members, each bringing his own ideas to the table. Even though these songs might not have been written and composed together, but every single note, every single timbre reeks the wonderful smell of something far beyond anything that we call a supergroup; Stygian Bough is a super group. In that sense they’re Mad Season, because what Layne and the guys did there transcended everything! That should now have been settled.
On this release we get four tracks combined for nearly an hour with the longest clocking in close to 20 minutes and the shortest ending after only eleven minutes. But the miracle happening here is the sound – imagine the ghosts of Laurel Canyon got together for a festive gathering with candles all around and the amplifiers only in use for the instruments. We have three people whose ideas cling onto each other, add and build on each other and yet – no element seems to wish to outshine the other. This is what the architects of several of the ancient wonders of the world must have felt or foreseen. Each stone is important for the glorious final result – none is more important than the others. One couldn’t have built the Colossus of Rhodes with the important feet of the god Helios. The top of the Pyramid of Cheops wouldn’t have lasted centuries if the foundations below hadn’t supported the final weight. Stygian Bough’s songs are big, sometimes loud - take the intro to the longest and final track ”The Told and the Leadened” which somehow seems to have converted the regular “let’s build towards the peak” idea and features some of the loudest parts in its middle. But even this track would not be as impressive had the third track, ”From Dominion” not started with a much gentler side then growing into a pretty intense Funeral Prog track – all flows into each other in a way with this band.
When Erik sings melodies that many American Folk bards would die for he is not the leader of men, but one of three stepping into the candlelight, performing their songs in front of those who want to hear them give us what. The way that Erik’s vocals are seemingly expanding into sheer universal size and often running into a slow, soft guitar fade is as amazing as the way that Jesse seems to have found a different form of drumming for this record. His versatility shines even more on these four tracks than before, sometimes a little more groovy than on Bell Witch parts, sometimes even less perceivable and taken a few steps back. The way that Dylan partakes in these tracks and seems to be everywhere as if he was the glue holding it all together is undeniable even though some might wonder where his contribution becomes “most” audible. To those seeking an answer for that let me say – you are wrong in looking for that. This is not about one person. This is not about one side. Not about a collaboration or about one band only. About Stygian Bough. And I for myself cannot wait to see them live and to hear more and more from them!
Here you can watch our video with two of the guys:
