Among The Black Trees is the third album from Mercury's Antennae the multi-national trio who are currently based in Geneva Switzerland and Portland Oregon, they are Dru Allen, Cindy Coulter and Eric R. Scheid who have previously been in among other bands, The Palace Of Tears, This Ascension and Faith And the Muse. They are signed to William Faith's Sett Records.
The album opens with the ethereal ambient intro to A Sunless Winter Night that slowly builds, bass drum starts to thump and finger bells ring out, eventually crystalline vocals waft through the midwinter darkness and despair, observing nature hibernating and curling up in bunkers, strings feel like an icy wind blowing through.
The Moon Viewing Garden is slow sepulchral sounds for gazing at the moon and stars on a freezing cold night, wrapped in blankets of slow spectrally evolving guitars, with deep bass emanations. I'm not sure if this is an updated version the song they originally released as a single from the band's debut album 7 years ago.
Whispered Among Flowers is deep dark autumnal goth for the leaves slowly falling to the ground, like another relationship floundering into the abyss, no matter how much you spill your emotions it will never be enough, on a song they wrote in collaboration with Neil McKay who also adds extra guitar to the song.
Language Of The Stars is slow thoughtful words trying to find the correct astrological match that will bring love everlasting, rather than the fleeting liaisons that have left her feeling so bereft, that All About Eve seem completely upbeat.
The Reflecting Skin has a translucent effect, gauzy vocals and atmospheric synths for all that they bring towards trying to find more love than hate in a desperate cold world. I love the spoken word parts that echo Nico on the Desertshore.
Permian is screeds of guitars and interference, almost like you've buried microphones beneath the Permafrost, to record the ambient soundscape, fuzzy and opaque a dark backdrop to bleak midwinter.
As I Lay Hidden (Deer Island) has an ethereal choral intro, imbued with the patience of the hunter camouflaged, hiding and waiting for the prey to appear before them, will they shoot the prey with a gun or a camera, either way they are begging to be touched deep within, hoping you will stay cossetted in their arms all winter long.
The Veil Opaque could easily be in praise of Ofra Haza as much as the goth spirit she embodied, this has slow sylphlike qualities, you glide effortlessly behind that veil in time for all sorts of gothic love triangles to unfold.
The album closes with Among The Black Trees Part II the wind howls through the branches, a storm is brewing, destroying all the sanctity and peace they were hoping for. Is anything still capable of sparking joy in them, or will they just sink further into the morass.
Find out more at https://mercurysantennae.bandcamp.com/album/among-the-black-trees https://www.facebook.com/mercurysantennae/
