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The logo of this project express the feeling that the music contained must be of the abrasive kind. The logo looks like the style that could've been used by an extreme metal or harsh noise band. The first minute does sound like something evil will occur with its rumbling noises wriggling along the dark sounds of church bells and field recordings of creaking doors, but shortly after the melancholic sounds of a violin closes down the first chapter "Chanting bells call shadows". From this moment forward the music turns acoustic and it works well! Splinterskin comes from Ohio and his musical approach belongs to the experimental folk scene with dark and momentarily sinister atmospheres saturating this debut titled "Wayward souls". The music is primarily built on acoustic guitar spiced with some interesting vocals. What makes this album such an alluring experience is the artist's obvious compositional skills combined with a dark and dramatic take on the neo-folk-scene and not least: The vocal variations spanning from gently mild to downright evil and creepy on a piece like "Broken down hearse". The pieces of the album carried by the talented acoustic guitar strums sometimes added other acoustic instruments such as violin and hand drums has a dramatic touch making the listener suspect something creepy to happen in the next second. But at the end of the day, Splinterskin let's the listener float into seventeen beautiful pieces of contemporary folk music. Excellent debut album that can be enjoyed be anyone generally interested in melodic beauty - this being folk music or else! |
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