Review For “Gothic Americana Supergroup” Album

From the Drive In Radio Substack Review For “Gothic Americana Supergroup” Album : It’s a good time to be a fan of the near-impossible to categorize Gothic Americana supergroup, Heathen Apostles. The L.A. quartet’s been in circulation since 2013, and has quite the pedigree:

• Vocalist Mather Louth, late of Radio Noir
• Guitarist (and multi-instrumentalist) Chopper Franklin, formerly of The Cramps, and a handful of other punk bands (notably the Mau-Maus)
• Upright bassist Thomas Lorioux, of The Kings of Nuthin’
• Classical and jazz violinist Luis Mascaro

They’ve released six albums since their formation. The In Between is their seventh, releasing on July 5 of this year. Not the only drop from the members this year, though — Franklin released the fabulous Spaghetti Western Dub Vol. 1 in January — fusing deep dub reggae with the arid Ennio Morricone vibes of the spaghetti western genre.

The band’s collective talents are up front on The In Between, seamlessly fusing jazz, reggae-by-way-of-Long Beach syncopation, thick double bass backbeats, masterful fiddle playing by Mascaro, and absolutely pugnacious, brassy vocals from Louth.

It’s an album that’s hard to categorize, but all the disparate elements fuse so well to form their signature sound that’s only becoming more refined with each album.

If Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath were rebooted into a slasher throwback film by Rob Zombie, you’d have an idea of how the music feels, but the soul of the sound is closer to the heart of the murder ballad outlaw country of Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzell. The interplay between the Southern Gothic Dust Bowl imagery and a throwback as much to bluegrass and the Bakersfield sound (well, if Hunter S. Thompson had played it), is tremendous. It’s one of the reasons I came to love this band myself.

The Heathen Apostles.

Listening Party

The In Between features nine originals, with a cover of Mark Lanegan’s “The Gravedigger’s Song,” bringing the total to an even 10 tracks. Let’s get to it.

1. The In Between
   1. The title track kicks off the album, leading in with a foot-tapping double bass line from Lorioux. Franklin’s mandolin and Mascaro’s fiddle bring in some depth and darkness — stellar start enough, but then Louth joins, and the tone’s set for the album. If there’s ever been any doubt (and there damn well shouldn’t have been) Louth would’ve made a killer golden-age country vocalist — that’s removed. There’s some of Franklin’s overdriven guitar work to this track, but not much. Lorioux’s bass and Louth’s vocals carry the track, with Mascaro’s fiddle singing just as well.
2. Capital T
   1. Mascaro shines here, with an devilish intro that would make Charlie Daniels proud. Ms. Louth line, “don’t tell me that it’s wine and roses…what rose smells like that” punctuates a wickedly good chorus, continually snarling the chorus with each progression. Her jazz background shows here — using her voice with the kind of expressiveness that’s incredibly rare in modern country.
3. The Gods Of Men
   1. One of my favorites from this album. The thumping backbeat so far is switched up for a march beat and tempo, with a side of acoustic guitar. You get an aural peek at Mascaro’s classical background — the violin adds depth and texture here. Banjo, mandolin, and Louth’s fallen-angel voice rounds out this cutting track with some fabulous lyrical work.
4. Coffin For The Nail
   1. That classic, mournful country feel without going into dragging dirge territory that so many “gothic,” bands fall victim to. Banjo and mando on this track, with Chopper and Mather joining with filtered, distorted vocals. The effect something between a dusty, warped record and the baying of hellhounds on a cattle drive. Louth evokes Choirgirl Hotel Tori Amos by way of Steve Albini, for me. The fiddle draws out through the tune, climaxing in an utterly filthy solo before the bridge.
5. Deama
   1. Change of pace — at first, anyway. The Apostles know how to put together an album. Works perfectly following “Coffin.” Starts off slow, gentle, almost coy, and builds with Louth’s voice into a scorned-banshee roar that wraps in mandolin and fiddle for the climax. The literal and figurative midpoint of this record, and perfectly placed.
6. Easy Come, Easy Go
   1. A moody, dark track, with the feeling of sweltering summer heat. Something of an outlaw ballad told from the outlaw’s point of view. The lyrics carry this track. Instrumentation worms its way around, and it finishes strong. Not the strongest track, but not the worst.
7. In The Blood
   1. The weakest track of the album — if only because of the inconsistency in tempo. Some songs are better for varying back and forth. Some end up feeling like being attached to an oscillating fan. The slow verse into fast chorus and back, has the latter feel with “In the Blood.” The band gets close, and is otherwise on point. But the pacing of this song just…needs something. A little extra pre-chorus could’ve gone a long way for sonic foreplay in this track.
8. The Gravedigger’s Song
   1. The original “Gravedigger’s Song,” from Mark Lanegan is notoriously aggressive. The band could’ve easily managed to pull off a straighter cover — but chose to slow it down instead. And it’s an exceptional cover for it. Rather than focusing on the sheer force of Lanegan’s original cut, the track focuses instead on the composition and lyricism of the original. That’s further demonstrated with Louth’s vocal work here, coupled with whispered, ethereal contrapuntal French vocals.
9. Love Letter
   1. The most complex song on this record to my ear. Louth and Mascaro do the detail work. Violin and vocals swirl into and around each other. Excellent interplay of drum and bass. Beautiful track, but not the best here. It’s a workhorse of a track — not the prettiest thing, not the fastest, but it works hard all day.
10. He Stood Tall
    1. Greg Kuehn (formerly of T.S.O.L. and X — the L.A. punks, not the platform-formerly-known-as-Twitter) makes a guest appearance. Kuehn’s honky tonk piano jazz joins a walking bassline from Lorioux, and works wonderfully here to finish out the record.

Just six months in from the powerful impact of Chopper Franklin’s “Spaghetti Western Dub Vol. 1,” an album I’ve listened to heavily all year, I have to admit that I was already pining for more. The grit-drenched vibe was exactly what I had been ready for and in Mather Louth, I had discovered a vocalist who had jumped to the front of the queue of my favorites. The brassy, defiant timbre she brought to that album had me wanting more, and as if on cue, here is the follow up. This time it’s from the Heathen Apostles mothership from whence the Spaghetti Western Dub project launched. The band is fascinated by probing the very darkest Country music in a time when the genre is content to replicate the horror of The Eagles…with gated drums… and vague nods of a token slide guitar or a nasal-voiced singer as vestigial callbacks to actual Country music [Monk spits in dust]. That dreck is a far cry from what The Heathen Apostles serve up on their “lucky” seventh full length album, “The In Between.”

The Verdict

The strangest part of albums like these is knowing where to file it.

Is it country? Is it goth-rock? Is it Americana? Yes.

But is it good? Also yes.

4 out of 5.

Excellent intro to the band themselves, and some of their best work to date.

The Merch

What would a new album be without swag?

One piece is extra-special — a hand-signed and numbered archival print of the album art, by Sean Cheetham, is up on the artists’ site.

And there’s shirts, albums, and string ties available from the band