Eagle Twin's The Unkindness of Crows, recently out on Southern Lord, features the latest exploits of one Gentry Densley who previously put out the fantastic Ascend. The band is him on a fuzzed out, gain maxed out and heavily feeding back baritone guitar and Tyler Smith, a hard hitting, groovy drummer to perfectly complement him. This might all sound gimmicky as another two piece sludge/drone/doom band, and like many other releases their label and others have been putting out, but you may want to trust me when I say rather arrogantly that it isn’t so. Because this a) has turned out fucking great, and b) always has that extra layer of the guitar or the bass to really be considered a two piece (at least in the studio, I really don’t know if they tour as a two piece.)

At first glance, a lot of this sounds typical of the early Melvins. It’s unmistakeable, because Gentry is clearly channeling Buzz whenever he’s not busy doing those quirky Tom Waitseque growls, not to mention the music itself. But their mix creates a truly bleak atmosphere, the slowed down brutal bluesy dirges, some faster paced parts only to be followed by their frequent forays into the chanty drone territory, overall offering a fantastic combined vibe.

Gentry does show off some kick ass fret work and some sweet layered guitars that’s harmonically rich and tastefully executed. But as good as he is, Tyler’s drumming is what sealed the deal for me with this band. He dictates when the band is going to be what pretty much. There’s wild tribal beating up of the hapless kit and the occasional near-blast and d-beats, then there’s this absolute slowed down and cold, simple beat, and everything in between that he pulls out to suit. He’s relentless and very much in control.

The album is fucking lengthy and sprawling, and they are in no mood to write short songs at all either. It doesn’t matter, because when their bag of tricks includes a song as epic as Carry On, King of Carrion and the album closer And it Came to Pass that, you won’t see me complaining. Highly recommended for fans of Buried at Sea, Aldebaran, Melvins, Grey and various projects of the Sunn guys.

Label: Southern Lord

Year of Release: 2009