Bloodpheasant likes to refer to their sound as “dirty, swampy, pissed doom-folk”, which is a decent enough description that only seems to scratch the surface of this foursome’s “darkness”. There’s a lot of Goth garage mayhem a la Gun Club and Nick Cave and a splash sludge metal swirling in the mix. And there are moments where shafts of light cut through the murk. It’s a heavy and thick sound but it goes down smooth.

The latest and only LP ”Traum” features nine dark, doom-folk tracks, the album clocks in at just over thirty-nine minutes. From the instrumental opener “A Bird and its Wings,” which starts with a slow trudging groove eventually building to a heavy distorted chorus to riff centered “The Drought,” each song has its own voice that can stand alone as well as with one another. One of the strongest aspects of the band comes from the coalescence of powerful vocals provided by guitarist Shannon Le Corre along with either the low guttural or backlining vocals of bassist Derrick Garforth, guitarist Chris Carrera, and drummer Neil King, which, all together, match one another perfectly; this is best represented in the song “Failure,” which, to me, also has a wonderful throwback Alice in Chains vibe.

Bloodpheasant’s origins can be traced back to southwest Virginia, where LeCorre was raised and developed a penchant for “eerie folk music.” She had been in contact with guitarist Chris Carrera about starting a band prior to relocating here, and soon after Derrick Garforth and Neil King joined on. The nine songs comprising Traum were built from song skeletons LeCorre penned while in Virginia which were fleshed out by Carrera.

Members:
Shannon Le Corre - Vocals/Guitar
Chris Carrera- Guitar/Vocals
Derrick Garforth- Bass/Vocals
Neil King- Drums/Vocals
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