The good people at Enemies List Home Recordings have released a new album. If you're familiar with the Connecticut-based label and its most celebrated releases, the prospect of them releasing an album alone should be exciting--you know, without even knowing who the artist in question is first.
Well, the artist in question is Dweller On the Threshold. The New England band doesn't give much personal information. The bio I picked up off the Dweller Tumblr doesn't give much away:
Dweller on the Threshold is a collaborative effort realized by a circle of friends spread around the East Coast of the United States. The eight musicians on this effort combine obscure allusions, charged with meaning by spasms of bleak, ghastly cadences with twisting melodies and dynamic tones.
Dweller on the Threshold has no set personnel: the band’s line up is unpredictable and holds the capacity to change shape and sound at will, whether as a near-orchestra of multi-instrumentalists or as a stripped down minimalist outfit.
The ELHR bio is a bit more informational.
While the band's membership isn't set, the style of music they create seems to be, and if Dan Barrett isn't musically involved in this group, they certainly sound inspired by his music--Have A Nice Life, Giles Corey--to a degree.
Dweller delivers a combination of soul-swallowing atmosphere and songs written in a personal and simple singer-songwriter style. Yes, people strumming and finger-picking guitars with lots of reverb hanging in the air. Nothing new, but you guys know I wouldn't be blogging this if there wasn't an angle here. While these two elements of Dweller are certainly haunting, the band makes use of a surprising amount of influence from doom metal in its music as well, building a lot of its soft, cavernous songs into riff-laden epics that bludgeon all ears willing to listen.
It's an album of songs that soothe and shock. It's available via the Enemies List website as a vinyl pre-order or a pay-what-you'd-like-to-pay digital download. Stream one of the tracks from this album above.