By DAN SOUTHALL
WAYFARER have been on my ‘must listen one-day’ list for some time. On paper they seem well worth a listen, offering a currently unique blend of American styled black metal and Americana with a few other bits and bobs thrown around.
American Gothic opens cinematically with acoustic picked Western themed guitars, sounding more like the opening to a modern Western film before the back end falls out and double kick and tremolo picking come racing out the gate. It doesn’t feel forced or rushed – it just is. This same formula works in reverse for follow up track “The Cattle Thief” as it plays out into the vastness of the high plains of the musical landscapes Wayfarer are building.
The band experiment with their sound on “To Enter My House Justified”, settling into a more mid-paced tempo that flows throughout, with a rough post-metal feel constantly creeping towards the edge and holding there without forcing you over the precipice. This almost balladesque take gets stretched to its full extent on the mournful “A High Plains Eulogy”.
From this point the album gathers steam again towards the powerful closer “False Constellation”, where everything that preceded it flows through, finishing the musical adventure on a cinematic scale.
American Gothic isn’t always the easiest listen because of the way it can change direction in a riff, but if you are willing to put the effort in, the rewards are grand in scale.
Buy American Gothic on CD or vinyl
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