The Ballad of John Joel Glanton

Inspired by both the exploits of the notorious scalp hunter / outlaw John Joel Glanton (1819 – 1850) and his gang in the American South and Southwest, and the Cormac McCarthy novel "Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West", itself based on the Glanton gang's travels, adventures and murder sprees, US black metal act Wraithlord adds a musical soundtrack to both the gang's infamous deeds and the novel itself. "The Ballad of John Joel Glanton" more or less follows the narrative of the novel even though Glanton himself is not a major character in the novel. At this point, I should warn MA readers who might be interested in reading the novel that its narrative is very brutal and violent, and some of the language and punctuation McCarthy uses can be hard to understand and follow. In a nutshell the novel revolves around two characters, The Kid and Judge Holden, protagonist and antagonist respectively, who join the Glanton gang and participate in the gang's savage deeds. Through The Kid and Judge Holden, the novel explores human nature and the place of good in a universe made hellish by past human colonisation and the violence and endless tit-for-tat retribution engendered as a result, and where whites and non-whites alike exploit one another (and their own) without mercy in a never-ending struggle for power, wealth or survival.

The recording appears uneven with the title track taking up most of the EP's playing time and the other track "The Dance (VI)" lasting just over four minutes: this arrangement reflects the period covered by the novel, in which its mysterious and deliberately vague epilogue takes place about 20 years after the novel's events. The title track itself is divided into five parts – this explains why the second and final track is titled the way it is – and as such it's an astonishing rollercoaster ride through darkly meditative melodic desert-Western guitar ambience, raw noisy BM with symphonic elements ("Mexico, 1849"), black'n'roll ("The Killing Fields"), doomy atmospheric BM with celestial choral voices ("The Massacre at Yuma") and a reprise of the second part "Mexico, 1849" in its intensity and ferocity as much as in its musical motifs. The second and fifth parts, with their repetition of important, sometimes doom-laden riffs, the shrieking lead guitar solos, the noodling bass melody and acoustic guitar strumming for contrast, are easily the best parts of the track – but the whole track itself is a remarkable work that spans the heavens as well as the hell of the Blood Meridian universe, with raw energy and savage fury. Though the lyrics are an important part of the track, the raspy vocals come a very distant, even forgettable second to the aggressive music.

Listeners might be tempted to skip "The Dance (VI)" as it's nowhere near the title track in scope and musical variety – it is rather a mostly instrumental acoustic guitar melody piece – but in its own way it comments on the music in the title track and the events in the novel that inspire it. The track's rather bland delivery, especially in its second part where organ and piano join in, belie the indescribable horror of the final confrontation between the two major characters.

If you don't know the novel and don't care for reading it, you'll probably find this EP a bit strange in its arrangement – but the title track is still worth a listen as a mini-soundtrack in its own right. Go on, you've got 20 minutes to spare!