Holy Sons
Decline of the West
( Awful
Bliss | Pamlico
) 2006
  oly
Sons want to get under your skin. The intimacy on
Decline of the West seeps existential dread like an oily terror-sweat.
Often classified as lo-fi, this music may be at first deceptively minimal
- plucked guitar, hushed organ, drum machine - but upon repeated listens
one notices the intricacy and elaborateness of the arrangements, and
every track is different enough to warrant praise for the album's diversity.
The songs have only the instrumentation needed to convey their message,
with the aforementioned accompanied by banjo, found recordings, double-tracked
vocals, eerie drones and subtle distortion.
The
common thread is a foreboding like nothing short of armageddon that
is more present in tone than words or instruments. Imagine A
Silver Mt. Zion doing a coffeehouse open mic night where somewhere
in the background a radio is tuned to ominous newscasts of global unrest...
or maybe it's just that the world always seems on the verge of collapse
when the politics of the heart are clashing. Then realize that in reality
there's only one Holy Son - Emil Amos, also a member
of Portland, Oregons Grails,
among others - responsible for every instrument and every word, save
for a couple of choice covers ("Level Anything" from Eric
Gaffney of Sebadoh, and "Nothing Left" from the collaboration
between Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair).
The
hushed atmosphere and subdued vocals belie the immediacy and necessity
of the words:
 His mind is not a
microscope / Illusion is good, the same as hope
- or -
Don't ya know they
need ya / 'Cause someone has to lose
- or -
Evil falling down
from the sky / Clouds parting, fingers pointing down.
Holy
Sons website
describes this album
thusly: "Decline of the West is named after and conceptually
began with Oswald Spengler's pessimistic assessment signs of a societies'
decay and end." - which would justify the paranoiac impression
left on this listener. That and the title of the final track: "Things
You Do While Waiting for the Apocalypse."
B(dub)
:: [April
End]
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