WOVEN HAND

In a hiatus between 16 Horsepower releases, their singer and song writer Dave Eugene Edwards released the first album of his side-project Wovenhand. A project sitting somewhere inbetween 16 Horsepower's previous magnum opus Secret South and their swan song Folklore.

Wovenhand brings emotive country and folk music that is covered with a thick and brooding Gothic flavour. Edwards is not only a huge fan of Bob Dylan but also of Joy Division, and while you won't hear musical references to that band the similarity in mood and intensity is very striking indeed. It's like Joy Division played with only mandolins, banjo and other acoustic string instruments, so I'm sure this band could appeal much to fans of Antimatter and Anathema's acoustic moments.

Wovenhand is a great band but never reached the heights of 16 Horsepower for me. Their albums are a bit too samey generally. 16 Horsepower usually balanced their dark atmospheres with more energetic and rocking songs. Wovenhand is more of a one-dimensional ore one-trick band in a way. The songs on the debut are very strong though and would almost push it to 4 stars. 3.5 it is.

PS. Did anyone else hear an echo of the The Musical Box (the point where it gets into the first heavy section) in the strummed opening chords of Arrowhead? A coincidence probably.