SPIRES THAT IN THE SUNSET RISE

Spires That In the Sunset Rise is very hard to put any genre. In wiki sites it has described as experimental and psychedelic folk. I think it´s more closer to neofolk than folk prog just because band got influences also from punk music. Neofolk term was started to use in the middle of eighties from bands like Death In June, Sol Invictus & Current 93. But those bands got influenced by some sixties/seventies artists like Leonard Cohen, Comus & Nico. I believe all these have influenced to Spires, but their wikisites mention too postpunk bands the Raincoats & the Ex. Anyway band members were from small town Decatur, Illinois and they knew each others from the early age. When they moved to Chicago they formed this band. At first there were three members Kathleen Baird, Georgia Vallas and Taralie Peterson.

Right away in"I Am Sewn" the album shows it´s nature. It feels as if you have become in the middle of some pagan ritual. Song ends into some really weird music box sound. Next "Birds Of Paradise" starts with bird voices, cello & harmonium. Then Kathleen starts very preaching style vocals. You have feeling to be much more in the dark forest in autumn than in paradise. In "Crooked Spine" Taralie really sounds like she has the one. "Rattlesnake" starts with a sad melody played by spike fiddle, but this also changes soon to very paganic ritual song when Georgia Vallas starts to sing in her very dramatic, Yoko Ono-style. In "Leader Of Change and Leader Of Within" both Vallas & Peterson create very bewitched feeling, when music also totally support them!

"Tampico" is little bit softer piece with melodic vocals from Kathleen, but it´s also really dark. "No Fate" brings change into album sound, there seems to be some very odd echo that makes the whole song sound quite dry. "I Follow You Follow Me" has some sick hit potential, at least it continues to play in my head all the time after this album listening. "Moonhouse" has again some melodic vocals from Kathleen. In this piece you can hear seeds of what will become in the later albums. "Bells Don´t Ting at Night" ends album in a very scary way. Taralie sounds again very witchy.

This was first album I heard from Spires. It woke my interest towards band, but it was their third album "This Is Fire" when I become their fan. I think in many bands their first album is the one, where band members let all that frustrations of childhood and youth show. This really is that kind of album, which I made a conclusion Decatur hasn ´t been very cheerful place to grown up at least in the nineties. This album has grown to me in many listens from three stars album to four. It´s the scariest and darkest album of theirs. I am glad they mature their music in their next albums. I am not recommending this to be a starter of Spires albums unless you´re a fan of hysteric and very dark music.