Eagle Twin
The Feather Tipped the Serpent’s Scale
Southern Lord
Street: 08.28
Eagle Twin = Yat-Kha + Dale Crover + Enemymine
In 2009, SLC’s Eagle Twin released their debut album, The Unkindness of Crows. The work was exquisite, and immediately demanded the attention of international doom and sludge audiophiles. The fable of the crow continues in this year’s release, The Feather Tipped the Serpent’s Scale. Guitarist and vocalist Gentry Densely is a master storyteller, guiding listeners through his dark, mythical narrative with low, throaty vocals. On some tracks, he sings the part of the narrator (“Horn, Snake, Horn”), while in others, he sings in first person (“Ballad of Job Cain Pt. 1,” “Ballad of Job Cain Pt. 2”), detailing Crow’s battle against the sun and Crow’s metamorphosis into a snake. Lengthy instrumentals drone with heavy, down-tuned guitar riffs, providing a perfect musical landscape for listeners to digest the intense thoughtfulness that the album’s lyrics provoke. “Paradise was always made from snakes, this thing that cannot die, bleeds through history and molts a million faces of agony,” Densley utters in “Snake Hymn,” my favorite (and the longest) song on the record. Densley’s musical darkness builds, breaks and slithers over the steady pounding of Tyler Smith’s perfectly tracked drums. Smith’s unbridled yet consistent, heavy hitting proves his talent and why he remains one of my favorite drummers. The double-vinyl version includes a bonus track on Side D: “Ghosts of Eden,” recorded live in Hamburg, Germany in 2010. The LP version also boasts an uncropped version of the cover art designed locally by Brian Taylor of Copper Palate Press. Gatefold art includes the work of Densley and his brother, Tyler Densley. The final track, “Epilogue, Crow’s Theology,” states, “Crow realized there were two gods/One of them much bigger than the other/Loving his enemies and/Having all the weapons …” I hope that there are more chapters in this already epic tale and that Eagle Twin will reveal them soon.