UNTO ASHES Grave Blessings CD 2005

Grave Blessings, the fourth full-length album from Unto Ashes is easily their most powerful and emotional work to date. It is a virtual essay in “blood-lit” music, exquisitely created, performed, and recorded. Once again, Unto Ashes reveals their signature combination of sublime vocal harmonies and characteristically unorthodox instrumentation: hurdy-gurdy, dulcimers, cello, French horn, acoustic and electric guitars, and vast drums and percussion. Grave Blessings presents fifteen “offerings” to the living and the dead, to those who are loved, and to those who are lost. “In Memory of D’Drennan” – written in response to the suicide of the beloved Regent of New York’s Vampire court – is so seductive, so infectious, that it seems destined to become THE unintentional hit on the dance floors of goth clubs from Gotham to Leipzig. Three highly unlikely covers, including The Cure’s venerable “The Drowning Man” (here performed on acoustic instruments), an Apocalyptic folk version of “The Way of the World” (written by the influential, now-defunct Punk band Flipper), and finally a spectacular version of QNTAL’s “Frühling” in which instruments from three continents (Appalachian dulcimer, church organ, and dumbec) are impossibly employed; and yet the effect is unmistakably victorious.