True Widow - Avvolgere 2x12"

Label: Relapse

Our Review:

What a great fucking record! But when has True Widow failed to deliver a great fucking record? Nope, that's never happened in the past, and unless they drastically change course, it's unlikely to happen in the future. Over their past three albums, this Texan trio has mastered a slow-crawl songwriting that touches on a number of the well-known idioms of stoner rock, doom, shoegaze and plenty of good old rock 'n' roll outlaw bravado. True Widow distills the basic building blocks from these pre-existent forms and shape them into an economical yet mesmerizing sound. These songs can be so simple and effective that it seems impossible that they've not been written before, locked into a torpor groove from the black-tar pit rhythm section and the down-tuned buzzsaw riffage from Dan Phillips guitar. Vocals are typically handled by Phillips, whose tongue this reviewer has always likened to the mumble-mouthed drawl that Kurt Cobain could muster in striking his bluesman pose. On the occasion when bassist Nicole Estill steps to the mic, True Widow really shine with her angelic vocal harmonies encircling the world-weariness of Phillips' voice. The slow pace and the drowsy moodiness of Avvolgere follow that of Codeine and Low, with remarkable panache. True Widow eschew the loud-quite dynamics of their antecedents, preferring a long-haul swagger of the purposeful amble that would guide them from one side of Texas to the other.