As crushing and catchy as Windhand's music can be, it's the presence of singer Dorthia Cottrell that elevates the Richmond doom metal band's above the rest of the Sabbathian swarm. Her soulful, emotional singing brings an element of rustic, roughshod humanity to Windhand's music, even when the band is lumbering through their heaviest, most downcast moments. That, along with the glimpses of autumnal Americana that appear throughout their releases, are a big part of why Windhand is one of the most popular underground doom metal outfits right now, so the sound that reveals itself on Cottrell's debut solo album shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who's been following her band. With it's witchy, psychedelic album art, the album is a spare, often solemn affair that for the most part features just Cottrell and her acoustic guitar, playing a kind of gorgeous, twilit country-folk that often feels like something that's

drifted in from the early 1970s, with only the occasional added instrumentation courtesy of her friends in fellow RVA band Horsehead, who add lap steel and sitar to a few of these songs.

I'm not often sold on these sorts of forays into acoustic-based folk/country from artists from the metal/punk underground, aside from the works of Michael Gira, Wino and the guys from Neurosis. Luckily, Cottrell's first solo effort succeeded in capturing my full attention, and I was quickly hooked on the dark, bluesy feel of these eleven tracks. Backed by the more minimalist instrumentation, her breathy, brooding singing is fully in the forefront of the songs, and her appreciation for older soul, country and blues comes through in the bewitching vocal melodies that are woven around the sparse, shadow-streaked chords and gorgeously heartsick harmonies that drift across songs like "Moth", "Orphan Bird" and "Oak Grove", though as the latter shows, she can also easily slip into a hushed whisper that's just as captivating. The album also includes a pair of covers (Townes Van Zandt's "Rake" and Gram Parsons' "Song For You"), obvious nods to two of her key influences, and the lyrics for the original songs are poetic and bleakly beautiful, sometimes unfolding like lines from an old Appalachian ghost story.