Premiere: Primeval Well
"Tales Carved in Stone on a
Forbidden Road"
10/13/21 | J.R.
It's true that simultaneous genre fusion, especially the disparate ends of bluegrass/Americana and black metal, is a difficult feat – and yet Nashville-based quartet Primeval Well approach their second album seamlessly merging these largely unrelated styles of music. Vocalist and songwriter Ryan Clackner, also of other Moonlight Cypress Archetypes label acts Vile Haint, StumpTail, and Arcane Marrow (among others) sets forth on an unblazed trail he calls "Southern Gothic Black Metal.”
On Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits, Primeval Well's sophomore effort, Clackner and company's grasp on quintessentially "American'' folk music styles under the guise of avant-garde black metal comes to a new head, surpassing the band's groundbreaking eponymous 2019 album. Manifested in melody, rhythm, and the occasional banjo, "Tales Carved in Stone on a Forbidden Road," which can be streamed ahead of Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits’ October 20th release, casts these bluegrass-and-country-isms in blistering black metal darkness, often playing on each genre's darkness and light to cast shadows in which the band finds their sound nestled.
Primeval Well's distinctly ‘American’ take on black metal and Americana fusion is unprecedented, especially when presented in such a powerful and cohesive way, and Talkin’ in Tongues with Mountain Spirits shows the band becoming deeper entrenched in both halves of their sound.
