The Black Heart Procession - The Spell

San Diego’s The Black Heart Procession achieve a bleak and brooding sound through unconventional means. While they employ distorted guitars, aching vocals and ominous rhythms as similar bands do, the group incorporate violin, piano, organ, lap steel and an assortment of other instruments making their music as diverse as it as melancholy. “Tangled” opens The Spell with an eerie duet between piano and violin, which gives way to gradually expressive guitars and vocalist Pall Jenkins’ tortured rendering of the lyric “I’m tangled in your web.” Organ swells and frenetic drumbeats lead seamlessly from “Tangled” into the album’s title track. Jenkins doubles his melody with a resonant, lower harmony enhancing the hypnotic effect the band seeks and underscoring the words “So please forgive me for this spell I am under.” Though most tracks on The Spell could be classified “alternative” or “rock”, the band shines on several cuts with deep roots in Americana/country music. “Not Just Words”, “Places” and “To Bring You Back” appear modern descendants to the most mysterious, maudlin ballads of early country/western, evoking images of dark shadows and even darker characters. While The Spell is quite varied in instrumentation and arrangement, its only major flaw is its lack of diversity in tempo and tone. No song travels far from the pace or landscape established by the song before it, leading to a murky feeling by album’s close. The album’s tone is almost too consistent for its own good. Despite this, it proves to be an album worth hearing if for no other reason than to witness how The Black Heart Procession far exceed the limited creativity employed by bands seeking to create a similar musical atmosphere. [www.blackheartprocession.com]