On Dark Horses

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Since emerging in 2008 with the dark psych-folk project Nocturnes, Emma Ruth Rundle has kept up a hectic schedule, carving out a huge swath of sonic real estate both as a solo artist and with her shoegaze outfit Marriages -- she also joined stalwart post-metal instrumentalists Red Sparowes in 2011. The follow-up to 2016's cathartic Marked for Death, On Dark Horses continues to pick at the darkness within, but with significantly more empathy than its predecessor. Rundle's singular blend of swirling post-rock and doomy gothic metal feels remarkably intimate, even when the decibels are being pushed into the stratosphere. As a whole, it's her heaviest outing to date, but that weight has more to do with atmosphere than it does clamor. Melody reigns supreme, and it rings out in between every sinewy guitar line -- Rundle and partner Evan Patterson (Jaye Jayle) swap six-string secrets with icy elegance -- and sludgy breakdown. Rundle's voice, which rises and falls with the undulating waves of sound that surround her, is such an effective tool for conveying emotional heft, that when she's dialed in, nearly everything else falls by the wayside, as is the case on the sprawling "Fever Dreams" and the steady but muscular "Darkhouse." Marked for Death, a record written alone during a period of discord in the sparse high California desert, was a largely insulated affair that saw Rundle calling out her demons. Recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, On Dark Horses is a far more collaborative affair, and while it still looks inward, it does so with the kind of steely warmth that can only come from somebody who has seen the light at the end of the tunnel as clearly as they've seen the oncoming train. ~ James Christopher Monger