Label: Relapse Records
Review by Warren Mayocchi
With a thick fuzzy drone “Avvolgere” sounds like the latest album from True Widow. They are a stonegaze rock band comprised of Dan Phillips, Nicole Estill and Timothy Starks. The tempo is relaxed, the bass creates a wall of distorted noise, the rhythm guitar soothes with jangling chords, and dreamy vocals are shared by Nicole and Dan. Though the band do celebrate their psychedelic genre, they also have part of their soul in blues rock in the style of the White Stripes. While their repetitive musical style allows the album to become somewhat hypnotic, the music rarely stays still. It is melodic, the two vocalists create several combinations, occasionally the guitarist performs a little solo, and there is also an acoustic track – “To All That He Elong”. All of these elements mean the album retains attention at the same time it lulls the listener into a groove. It takes talent to do this type of music well and True Widow show us how. There is no particular song to pick as a favourite, though “Theurgist” and “FWTS: LTM” have music videos; the album is best heard in total. “Avvolgere” is an excursion into the void with the steady heartbeat of a relatively simple soundtrack. From somewhere comes the vocal and it is a reassuring to realise you are in professional hands on this journey.
Rating – 80/100
Tracklist
- Back Shredder
- Theurgist
- F. W. T. S. L. T. M.
- The trapper and the trapped
- O. O. T. P. V.
- Entheogen
- To All That He Elong
- Sante
- Grey Erasure
- What Finds Me
Line Up
- D.H. Phillips – Guitar, steel guitar, vocals
- Nicole Estill – Bass, acoustic guitar, vocals
- Slim TX – Drums, piano