I See a Darkness

I See A Darkness is more horror movie than hoedown. It’s a bad time overall, steeped in English and American folk music and played so quiet it makes your ears ring when the big notes jump up. It’s country in the classical sense; longing and death loom over even lighter songs like “A Minor Place,” which itself feels like the theme for this record; an ode to isolation, a reminder to others that if “I am gone and leave no trace” you know where to find the narrator. The two note dirge stomp of “Death To Everyone” feels like doom metal with the distortion pedals off, and the slo-mo avalanche of “Today I Was An Evil One” reveal a patient, dour record with a heart that bleeds black. Save for the title track. “I See A Darkness” will live on long after Will Oldham and the cockroaches die. A song of a man revealing the pit of despair in his stomach to a friend at a bar is less call for help and more a call for acknowledgement. That you see it too. That you understand. And then maybe we can face it together. Eerie and heartbreaking, a modern classic.