The Coffinshakers : "Graves, Release Your Dead"

 This Horror-Billy band has been shaking graves since the 90s. Sweden seems like an unlikely place to have spawned such, but here we are. There is a mellow Americana feel to these uncanny reverb drenched tales of Western Creepiness. There are no cow boys from Sweden which makes it more perplexing, but OK I will suspend my disbelief. This is my first dance with these guys. I appreciate the fact they are dark, and Rob Coffinshaker's  plaintive baritone croon works , he can get more dramatic at times. I suppose if 69 Eyes tried making a country album, it would not be far off from what happens here. "Wretches" begins to find them sounding somewhat like Murder By Death. 

With Rockabilly there is often this weird intersection with surf rock which occurs going into "The Siren's Call". The drummer wakes up a little for this one with more step in his shuffle. The singing begins to lose some of it's charm at this point as he could stand to throw his voice around more. I do like this sort of thing as I am huge fan of both Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison who could flex their pipes more than what is going on here. They have a great guitar tone that rings with spooky reverb, but after awhile it begins to sound the same. Female vocals sometimes back them up. I could stand to hear a little more growl coming from him in an effort to belt it out .But if this is as good as it gets it is not a deal breaker. 

"Prince of Darkness" leans more into the country side of what they do. His voice generally avoids taking on a twang, which makes sense as a Northern European. I can hear where Johnny Cash might be an influence, he does his story telling with more vocal prowess than Cash who I have always felt was over rated. The vocals are not hook oriented which country music is more often than not. These guys display guitar prowess on "Down in Flames". They add a little bit of experimentation with "River of Souls" but nothing monumental , just tucking with feed back tones. Perhaps if this came out in the 60s I might be more impressed , though I appreciate they recapture that feel and on the last song remind me a little of Neil Diamond. If you dig spooky rockabilly with a Johnny Cash vibe to the vocals, then this band is for you. I prefer a little more dynamics from the vocals so I am giving it an 8.5, which still places it head and shoulders above the bulk of the country music you are hearing on the radio these days