Larry Rogers | Feburary 12, 2015

many bands forget to maintain in an effort to compile enough tracks to make an LP. Developing this record as a concept album likely helped this aspect, much like how Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime remained an awesome musical experience from beginning to end.

 

Vocalist and guitarist Kimberly Freeman teamed up with Junior Sewell on drums to create a sound as full and luscious as anything created by most rock and metal acts with four or more members. Hell, they’re actually more interesting and musically invested than 85% of Kiss tunes. This musical assault is not, however, accomplished through some sort of sonic trickery. According to past interviews, Sewell says that he plays bass, synths, and other assorted instruments on the record, so “being a two-piece isn’t really our big statement for uniqueness that some people try to play up about us.” So, musically skilled multitrack recording - I can’t wait to see how they pull this off in concert.

 

As for the lyrics, Freeman has said that “many of the lyrics are direct quotes from the original handwritten court documents. The songs explore different personal accounts from real people and touches on theories about why it happened. It’s meant to be listened to in one sitting, like a movie.” This may be the first the first album I’ve ever hoped comes with footnotes.

 

On that note, the opening track, “Ember,” contains a few prelude seconds of a bell chime mixed with some ambient sounds, before tearing the fabric of space-time with their sonic assault. Composing this collection as a conceptual whole led the duo to places that otherwise may have been visited musically: the opening shrieks to the driving, rhythmic “Black in the Rye;” to the more mournful, tuneful, and soulful “A Rope for Mary;” through the mandolin instrumental “Remember;” and finally, the banjo opening of “Stillness.”

 

The story elements will be be familiar to anyone who had to read The Crucible in high school. The opening tracks are more from the accused’s point of view, from “Prayer,” to the aggressive “Black in the Rye,” to the melancholy “A Rope for Mary.” Later, songs move to the trial phase of the witch hunts; “More Weight” describes the trial by ordeal of pressing, a method designed to punish the accused, elicit confessions, and inform the community that witch-like behavior would not be tolerated. “Witch Hunt” moves to the pursuit of evermore witches, while “Stillness” seems to be from the point of view of an accused witch experiencing her execution. “Afflicted” returns to the trials, retelling someone’s testimony on how an accused witch afflicted her with witchcrafts and curses. Clocking in at less than a minute, “Sorrow” returns lyrically and thematically to “A Rope for Mary,” but in a slow, contemplative vein. Before the closer “The Ghosts of Gallows Hill” fades away in the style of a movie’s end credits, a gentle bit of strings and synth sum up the experiences of the townspeople. As befits of a modern metal act, digital elements sprinkled throughout the record are a nice touch to allow the predominant elements stand out.

 

This is absolutely an album for anyone who loves hard rock and heavy metal. It’s especially enjoyable for those who miss Evanescence at its most rocking, heavy best. Amy Lee may be a slightly better, more pure singer, but Kimberly Freeman has serious guitar chops and an emotional vocal range I never heard out of Lee.