Like all nations of the world, the USA has its indigenous folk-esque genres such as country and americana. I’m quite pleased to say Wayfarer from Colorado picked the latter of those two because americana does not have the same sketchy history as a lot of country music scenes have. And by combining a genre of emerging popularity in my native UK with atmospheric blackened folk, they’ve come up with album number five: American Gothic.
Initially the title reminded me of the infamous painting of the same name by Grant Wood and looking into its lyrics, the people portrayed in said painting would not have looked out of place in the stories told by these blokes from Denver as they symbolize the American Frontier as a metaphysical plain that details the many hardships and horrors their homeland has experienced both today and in history.
Musically, Wayfarer have taken the most morose of acoustic guitars, a ghoulish Hammond organ and adjacent instruments to give their unique blend of black metal and americana the edge that an album like this needs. Each track feels like a dark tale of everyday life on the plains or people seeking solace in the most morbid of times, which I think would give John Steinbeck a run for his money.
If you’re someone who digs tales of survival and history from any of the world’s most notorious nations with the metallic weight added, then this is something you should hear. American Gothic is not an album for those who dig trad-goth or its adjacent genres but if gothic literature is your forte then give it a shot.
Wayfarer stand out as somewhat unique in the USBM scene as they’ve taken some of their nation’s harshest indigenous music and given us eight tracks of blackened tales of isolation, hardship, survival and loneliness that will make the spine tingle.
(7.5/10 Demitri Levantis)
Leave a Reply