Release Date: Mar 4, 2008
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Vagrant
Music Critic Score
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Murder by Death address a number of themes on Red of Tooth and Claw, none of them particularly uplifting -- consuming passion, dark romance, longing, revenge, death, and destruction. It may sound at first like the makings of a mediocre goth album, but the band's combination of a taut, tense, elegant delivery and poetic lyrics breathes life into each of Red of Tooth and Claw's songs. Like 16 Horsepower, Murder by Death explore a darker side of country-rock, and there are two important influences in evidence here -- vocalist Adam Turla owes much of his sound to Johnny Cash and Nick Cave, but doesn't cross the line into mimicry.