Shadows in the United States: Five American Gothic Albums
America, when you look too closely (or, for that matter, look at everything) is a dark place. It stands to reason that a place where the land is so ancient and the history is relatively young would have a certain darkness. Whether it’s a story steeped in acts of inhumanity and injustice or the strange patchwork of urban legends and horror stories both real and imagined, this strangeness and darkness s extend from border to border and from coast to coast. So it’s only natural that American music reflects that, especially the darker, heavier, weirder art the country has to offer. Many bands have drawn their influence from America’s dark and downright weird vibe, from genre-breaking metal bands to instrumental artists and everything in between. Hopefully this list will be enough for you to get a taste for the sound and fuel your own explorations.
—Sam Reader
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Earth—hexagon ; Or print in the infernal method
(Lord of the South, 2005)
With titles taken from the text of Cormac McCarthy’s infamous Gothic blood meridian and a vibe best described as “what happens when a Western movie soundtrack takes a long laudanum trip”, hexagon ; Or print in the infernal method finds the characteristic slow, heavy sound of Earth married perfectly with distorted country guitars, acoustic instruments, howling winds, occasional wind chimes and other familiar western sounds. He paints images of desolate badlands, abandoned towns and vast unexplored expanses. There’s a sense of space and range to the album, the kind of slow journeys across the vast American plains, with the thunderous low register and sparse melodies adding an eerie, full weight to the subdued feel of a storm about to strike. It is a reminder that even in the desolate beauty and glorious vistas of the West, there is always a lingering, hidden note of evil.
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Traveler—A violent romance
(Deep Lore, 2020)
Exploring the West through a marriage of heavy metal and Old West-style dark country/Americana, A violent romance is a bloody revisionist western set to music. Hailing from Denver, Colorado, home to a mix of American, punk and gothic rock known as “Denver Sound”, Wayfarer is stepping into even heavier territory. A violent romance complements its country and gothic passages and more sparse atmospheric sights with thundering drums, intricate riff-heavy guitar passages and deep-throated growls, all perfectly suited to tales of heroic outlaw lyrics hanging from the gallows , demonic trains announcing the exploitation of the West, and other Western personalities who find themselves at the end of their time.
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Bambara—Wander
(2019, Wharf Cat Records)
Shadow over everythingthe piledriver of an album by Brooklyn trio Bambara excelled at sketching an image of oppressed Americans stuck in a decaying suburban hellhole. Wander is no less propulsive or less narratively rich, though its Southern Gothic landscape finds the group telling shorter, focused, and more controlled stories. Centered around a grotesque, obese vision wielding a machete of death with a sweet tooth, Wander details his interactions with a series of lowlifes, downtrodden people trapped in bad situations, and the occasional arsonist. Like most Southern Gothic works, it does not end well for those caught up in the machinations of death, but there is an unusual beauty in images like Death crushing lightning in his hands or the fires of nocturnal joys of the pyromaniac character Serafina.
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primitive well—Speaking in tongues with mountain spirits
(2021, Moonlit Cypress Archetypes)
Beginning with field recordings of the mountain woods and a passage of acoustic guitar before dissolving into an oppressive chatter of voices, Tennessee Southern Gothic Black Metal band Primeval Well guides the listener into the mountains for a dissonant and disorienting. Speaking in tongues with mountain spirits works hard to earn her goth American credibility, too. The album blends the old stories of Appalachian mountain gods, the dark woods found in so many American folk stories and legends, strange religious imagery, more traditional acoustic instruments and Southern ballads. ironclad around a scorching, screaming core of black metal before dropping you once again among the peaceful sounds of the forest with the same acoustic passage. It’s disorienting at times, but it also perfectly captures the feeling of having a bad, hallucinogenic trip to the mountain forests, where the old gods live.
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City Haint—Old Hatchie Haint
(2021, Cypress by Moonlight Archives)
A Southern Gothic Black Metal project from the members of Primeval Well, Vile Haint draws its name from Southern colloquialism and its lyrical content from dark legends and local Tennessee folklore. While the music itself doesn’t betray its roots all that much, between the lyrics about the dark spirits of the Hatchie River and the album’s raw, unnerving and downright haunted atmosphere, it definitely manages to carry the theme. Vile Haint somehow manages to make the album feel both claustrophobic and wildly atmospheric, like a journey through dark, devilish woods where you can barely see the night sky and a gruesome ritual takes place just within earshot.
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