When the opening strains of "Resurrection Charm" pummeled my ears with the same majestic brooding that evokes every folk-horror movie you've ever seen about the continuation of life beyond life and all its incumbent sacrifices (Read: Wakewood, The Wicker Man, and Robin Redbreast), I knew I needed more. Blood and Sun (aka Luke Tromiczak and a bevy of temporary musicians) are not, however, horrific. I used the term "majestic brooding" and I think that's fairly accurate. There are emotional highs and lows throughout, with wistfulness, longing, and triumph melted together like the stench of whiskey and pipe smoke in a far-off pub. This is heady stuff, at times beautiful, at times bruising, but always buoyed up from below by Tromiczak's outstanding baritone. If you're a fan of Nick Cave (as I am) or Johnny Cash (also a fan), you will find a warm, dry, dark place in these vocals. But if I were to describe the attitude, I would not say this was "folksy," but, rather, "metal" or even "punk". Not because of any iconoclastic fist-shaking toward society, but because of it's decidedly individualistic stance, feet firmly planted, fists on hips, assured, but with a core of vulnerability that will be shared with those who are considered worthy of it, and only those fellow-souls who have weathered the maelstrom of life's vicissitudes. It's the ground held between law and chaos, a firm neutrality proteced by a storm-cloud of experience.
Besides the firm attitude, resonant vocals, and musical adeptness, one must reverence the near-sacred poetics of the work. The plaintive, yet (hopelessy?) hopeful lyrics of "By What Road," evokes an inner story that many of us, myself included, have felt deeply but been unable to express. The sense of loss and adventure in "Madrone" fill one with wanderlust, even if (or especially because?) the path is one that is forced upon oneself. There's a sense of being carried aloft atop a storm that reveals an incredible sunset in one direction and a simultaneous sunrise in another.
My mention of Nick Cave earlier is not an accident. Imagine Nick Cave, but instead of wearing a tailored suit on a metropolitan stage, imagine him dressed in worn tin-cloth clothing hiking through a brambles in the Carpathian mountains, and you'll get a taste of the Blood and Sun ethos.
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