After Alter

After Alter finds Jaye Jayles Evan Patterson at something of a crossroads -- a place that couldnt be more appropriate for an artist who straddles heavy music and the traditions of blues and folk so seamlessly. The cathartic outpourings of 2023s Dont Let Your Love Life Get You Down played like the end of an era in Pattersons life and music; that feeling was only heightened when his other band, Young Widows, reunited after a lengthy hiatus. Gathering four newly recorded songs and four that Patterson self-released prior to Love Life, After Alter turns the tension between past and future into frequently gripping listening. Young Widows influence is unmistakable in the gritty heft of "Father Fiction," which teams gospel-inspired backing vocals with a pummeling attack from former High on Fire drummer Chris Maggio. Jaye Jayle uses the grinding stomp that unites the albums newer songs to wonderfully eerie effect on the paranoia-steeped "Fear Is Here" and "A Blackout," a portrait of a man living on the streets that swings from desolate emptiness to suffocating distortion. Its After Alters second half, however, that reminds listeners of Jaye Jayles formidable range. "Small Dark Voices," a spacious synth-blues epic, suggests theres plenty of life left in the electronic experiments Patterson pioneered on Prisyn. The skeletal twang of "Help!," meanwhile, delivers something rare: a Beatles cover with a mood and personality entirely its own. The two versions of "Bloody Me" -- a song Patterson wrote in the projects earliest days -- best capture Jaye Jayles extremes. First appearing as a slow-burning Black Sabbath homage, it returns to close the album with a solo rendition so dusty and weathered, it couldve been recorded on wax cylinder. It feels like Jaye Jayle could go anywhere with their music after releasing this time capsule, but taking stock rarely sounds as imaginative as it does on After Alter. ~ Heather Phares