Red of Tooth & Claw

Murder by Death | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vagrant Records
• ASIN: B0012IWIOU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,702 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

With eight years of refining their sound and vision, Murder By Death rolled out of the gates fully realized in 2000, playing a blend of rocking Americana noir and dramatic Post-Punk that erased old style and audience boundaries. With their fourth CD, Red of Tooth and Claw, the Bloomington, Indiana, quartet are emerging as true artists in the zero-boundary sense: cinematic storytellers whose albums come together in an essential whole, and players whose jaw-dropping performances on record make you yearn for the chance to experience their energy up close and in person. Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Trina Shoemaker (Queens Of The Stone Age, Emmylou Harris, Iggy Pop) at Dark Horse studios in Tennessee, the Vagrant debut captures the drama and nuance of MBD's sound without compromising a lick of the band's energy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Instant Classic, February 16, 2009

By 

johnnyk (Utah, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red of Tooth & Claw (Audio CD)

I absolutely LOVE this band. This is easily, in my humble opinion, the best album of the year, possibly the last 20 years. Hyperbole? Judge for yourself. The music is completely stunning, each song unique and brilliant. True hard rock at its best. Whom do they remind me of? The closest I can think of, just as a point of reference, would be Golden Earring on "Radar Love." Sadly, that band was pretty much a one hit wonder, whereas Murder By Death, just on Red of Tooth and Claw, has produced 10 such classics. A very tight band and an album amazingly well produced. Sarah Balliet's fiddle-like cello playing is simply awe-inspiring. I'm almost 60 and I have to say that I have never been more blown away. Buy this album now and play it LOUD.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Fire and Fury, July 2, 2008

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Red of Tooth & Claw (Audio CD)

My first brush with Murder By Death came with In Bocca Al Lupo, a dark and gritty album that made me an instant convert. Now here comes more fire and fury with Red of Tooth and Claw. On this album, MBD brings us another round of wonderfully dark and sinister tales, brought to life by the booming vocals of Adam Turla and the relentless, merciless attack of his band.
There is so much to like here its hard to pick favorites, but I think that Comin' Home, Ball & Chain, Rum Brave, Steal Away, Ash, '52 Ford and the sordid closer Spring Break 1899 are the best cuts.
If you have not heard Murder By Death before, the best way to describe them is that I hear shades of Nick Cave, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Jim Morrison and yes, even Johnny Cash in the music. If you like any of those, then chances are you will like MBD.
The CD is housed in a standard jewel box and comes with a fold-out cover insert that contains the all-important lyrics. Red of Tooth and Claw unfortunately is quite brief, clocking in at just under 40 minutes of music. But not a minute is wasted in any schlock. This is a winner, so check it out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder by Death's magnum opus, February 25, 2011

By 

J. Leard (Waterloo, IA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Red of Tooth and Claw (MP3 Download)

Murder by Death hails from Bloomington, Indiana, but they may as well come from another time and place altogether. Their music fuses country, rockabilly, rock, punk, folk, and Western film scores into a cohesive sound that sets them apart from the rest of the music world. On Red of Tooth and Claw, the band takes everything they've learned, and earned, and puts it down on record. The end result is a haunted wild western-themed hellride through the sepia-tone lens of American mythology and classical tragic poetry. As lead vocalist Adam Turla describes the album, it's like "Homer's Odyssey of revenge, only without the honorable character at the center."

The album starts with the rumbling, stomping, "Coming Home", the story of a man who is recently released from prison but sounds more vengeful than happy to come home to his lover. What follows over the next 11 tracks is a twisting, turning tale that finds our antihero thinking back on his love with both nostalgia and unbridled passion, always with an undercurrent of hatred running beneath it. He takes on odd jobs to make ends meet as he closes in on his target of obsession.

Concept albums are nothing new, neither to the music world nor Murder by Death, who have previously told tales of the devil declaring revenge on a small Mexican town to a collection of short stories inspired by Dante and Poe. The challenge in a concept album is to keep the theme running strong while also making a great album, and Murder by Death accomplishes that. From the rollicking energy of the fiery "Rum Brave" to the sweeping landscape strings of "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)" to the heart-wrenching paean of "Spring Break 1899", the listener is taken along for the ride, witnessing every dark deed and seeing every twist in the road. It is not difficult to imagine this as the literal soundtrack to a film with no other dialogue than the Johnny Cash-like rumble of Adam Turla's vocals, cellist Sarah Balliet's cello perfectly complimenting or casting against a rhythm section that sounds more like a rolling thunderstorm than a bassist and drummer.

Murder by Death is a rare treasure, a band that hits hard with sublime, effortless melodies while also crafting compelling tales. Red of Tooth and claw is their magnum opus, a towering work that defines a career. I don't usually boil a review down to a list or ranking, but this much I will say: it is one of the five greatest albums I have ever heard, and I cannot recommend it heartily enough.