I’m on a plane from the UK, on the way back home, and my ears and sinuses are instantly plugged; it’s a personal hell that much of my family and I have to experience, and it makes breathing extremely difficult. I’m never in a “good state” on takeoff and touchdown, and it truly feels like a hammer is slowly but surely smacking me across the noggin.
I throw on some music to distract me, and Emma Ruth Rundle’s “Powerless” (the very state I’m in), the opening track on her new These Killing Times album, appears through the haze with a soft piano line before exploding into a gargantuan, sludgey shoegaze, and Rundle’s colossal voice appears. It’s truly amazing when music can completely influence your surroundings and fit what you’re going through. The Germans have a word for this: “Stimmung,” meaning a complete emotional synchronicity with a harmony or tune. I believe this has happened before with Rundle’s music, that pleasing web of atmospheric folk, alt-metal, post-rock and heavy crashing waves guitar work. I still remember hearing “Protection” from her 2016 album Marked For Death.
Back to this new one, “Anvil,” continues all of this, feeling like a ritualistic calling, led by Rundle’s haunting voice, which switches between traditional vocal falsettos, Gaelic keening, and what sometimes sounds like throat singing. Another track that stands out is the dark folk, almost 80s goth rock-vibed “Catherine Wheel.” I love this song. It has so many vocal, lead guitar, and synth hooks and really showcases what makes Rundle a force to be reckoned with. Emma Ruth Rundle has done it again.
