Customer Reviews

Prayer of Death

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Been listening to this record for awhile and while it may be easy to call it retro psycho blues rock on initial listenings(not a bad thing by the way)it is much more accomplished than that.The liner notes say it was recorded 16 track onto one inch tape and it sounds tremendous,close attention reveals real depth and richness with marvelous instrumentation and arrangements.Unfair really to label it retro because it doesn't sound like anything that has gone before but it certainly evokes a different musical era than the one we currently find ourselves in.

The guitar in "Grim Reaper Blues" grabs you right away, Son House bottleneck cranked out through a Butthole Surfers filter, and over it, Guy Blakeslee wailing like he's bound to a rack in the pit of hell and either just got there or kind of digs the whole experience -- maybe Grimmy just signed his slambook. But it's the second song, "Silence on a Crowded Train," the constant sawing of the violin channeling a sense of urgency, which drives the stake home that this IS a celebration of the void, a giddy shake of death's rattle. "Requiem for Sandy Bull" is particularly otherworldly, a restless congregation of bells and bongos laced with mouth-puckering sitar. And "Pretty Baby" is obviously in reference to a girl who's now nothing more than a deflated ghost, gown tendrils like whips, a soundless scream stark as a hole in the ground, blurry with worms. Lazarus humping Antigone when the stone rolls away.

"Prayer of Death" is neo-psychedelic folk -- for those still keeping score based on genre preference -- with a dash of electro-Krishna a la Final Fantasy, Akron/Family ... and Emerson Lake and Palmer when they ate their Wheaties. There is a sense of the occult, serious facial hair and body odor to the whole mix. This is incense-burning music; it's the soundtrack for viewing a landscape of meth zits discovered in the glow of your dead aunt's makeup mirror. The songs burn slow and mesmerize in the manner of Sigur Ros, but coated in greasy backwoods batter and panting like a cur. It would be safe to say that with "Prayer of Death," Entrance has fashioned party music suitable for a barbecue held in the intensive care unit. And, really, like posing the question to your mangy mutt, "What's that stuff I peel off the tree?" there's no more reliable way to have your prayers answered than to wish for the onslaught of nothingness. Or, at the very least, to run blindly back toward the Dark Ages (which we are ...).

This album reminds me of that band the Make Up. Its a lot blusier than anything I've heard from that band, however. There's a lot of wah-wah pedalling going on, and tons of reverb all over anything. Much more of a rock album than the other Entrance album I own, Wandering Stranger. The theme of the album, as you might guess, is death. Most of the songs seem like pretty simple blues songs, but vamped up and fuzzed out. I like it.

WOW!Entrance. Do not forget this name. The band has been around for a few years, but the bottom half of their catalogue is primarily "white boys cover delta blues" type stuff. Mainly acoustic. Some of that stuff is good, but not always in my cup of tea. I have a hard time finding white boy blues interesting, unless its got some skin cutting rock and roll chords in it. You can leave that old blues to be performed by the old black guys that died fifty years ago.
On this album though, they cut the skin, and then some. Taking their previous albums as mere warm ups for this psychedelic metal-blues ace masterpeice. This is some wild stuff. Some of the best recorded music in years. Acid Metal is back! And its better than ever before.
I can't say enough good stuff about this. From opener GRIM REAPER to the close just Loud, raw, twangy, razor sharp chords, some strings, lots of trippy often dark lyrics, and sixties psyche pop mentality. Some try and compare it to White Stripes, but don't follow that explanation. I like the Stripes too, but these guys here have got their own thing going. I have seen the future... PRAYER OF DEATH.

Having discovered Tee Pee Records' website last year, I was already aware of the fatalistic, yet incredibly infectious blues-psychedelia that is Entrance's third full-length album when I finally bought the album a few days ago. Right from "Grim Reaper Blues," with it's white noise-esque intro and death-obsessed groove, I got sucked right into the nightmare, right down to the pit so to speak, and didn't emerge until the funeral-procession stomp of "Never Be Afraid" had died down. I came out sobered, taken back by the almost-tangible pervasion of death and dying, yet somehow also filled with that special kind of hope that one oftentimes gets out of blues music: a re-affirmation of life after being confronted with the quiet fate of death.

Musically, Entrance manages to conjur up a veritable passion play of life and all it's endings, experimenting both with 'down home' roots music and sun-stained psychedelia. On the first track, he cozies up to death personified, shouting "Twenty-four years old now, baby/And I don't mind dyin'" like a true-to-the-bone bluesman, and laying down some delicious guitar chords that might've been stolen from the ghost of Jack White.

The next song, "Silence of a Crowded Train", is anything but quiet. Erupting right away with more virtuoso guitar work, this time of the 'angry crunch' variety, Entrance takes us into and out of a myriad of nihlistic scenarios, with an absolutely mesmerizing violin keeping time behind him. Next, we're wisked off to the Orient with the instrumental "Requiem for Sandy Bull (R.I.P)" and it's lollicking sitar, only to re-awake to the violin strains of "Valium Blues".

Finally, the album hits its peak, both in tone and form, with "Pretty Baby"'s 'love lost' hints of necrophelia and "Prayer of Death"'s Kingdom-Come joy. Finally, we slide back to life with the epic "Lost in the Dark" and the aforementioned death-chants of "Never Be Afraid."

All in all, Entrance suceeds in more or less crafting a concept album about death, material that hearkens back to the Delta era of Charley Patton or Blind Lemon Jefferson without coming off as merely an homage. He manages to mould well-worn blues subject matter (death, lost love, fate) to suit his own creatic vision, simultaneously re-establishing their place in music and injecting them with new life.

Somewhere between psychedelic rock, delta blues and old-timey folk lies the Entrance Band. Mr. Entrance has managed to do something virtually unheard of for a musician - come up with something totally, unbelievably original. The music can barely be described. Three beyond talented musicians mix elements of classic genres and throw in a little bit of what makes them young, strong, and cool.
Prayer of Death is ridiculous. It is captivating, inspiring, and touching. You can't understand until you listen to it . . . so do yourself a favor and BUY THIS ALBUM!

I saw the music video for Grim Reaper Blues, and thought it was the most unique blues based song I'd ever heard. I got the album, and it's simply a great album. Kinda lo-fi, which adds to the creepy effect of the songs coupled with the subject matter of the lyrics. Remeniscent of 60's music, deffinitely, but not a rip off at all. Love this album.

Grim Reaper Blues and Prayer of Death are awesome songs, but the rest of the album is just o.k., while two of the songs sounded unfinished to my ears. I know it's Indie and all, but it could use a little spit shine.