murder by death

who will survive, and what will be left of them?

'So, the devil comes to a Midwestern town where he gets drunk in a local bar and talks a good deal of shit. Upon exiting the bar, an area man shoots him in the back. Being Beelzebub, he doesn't die but he does get kind of pissed.

"Damn, I'm the devil," he thinks. "I don't have to put up with this."

He seeks his revenge in stereotypical devil fashion: apocalypse, plagues and murders. That bastard. Needless to say, the people try to fight back and fend off their extinction. The tension mounts as the story progresses. Will man defeat evil incarnate? Or will they survive? And, if they do, what will be left of them?

Don't worry, the surprise won't be ruined for you, but I will tell you that those who remain, in a non-traditional move when faced with the imminent possibility of death, turn to whiskey before God. Awesome.

It's captivating and entrancing, a story built upon the ancient theme of good versus evil. That's what helps to define this band's sophomore album - but the first under the name Murder By Death - as a successful concept album. Add on top of that the fact that there is a cellist in the band and the comparisons to Cursive will be unending.

The fact of the matter is that they don't sound anything like Cursive. What they sound like is hard to pin down. The easiest thing to find parallels for is frontman Adam Turla's voice. It is very versatile and runs the gamut of stylistic comparisons from Eddie Vedder to Neil Young to David Dondero. These rough-edged vocalists are great musicians to emulate for the music that Murder By Death produces. The piano and cello fills out the already huge sound and gives it a haunting, chilling edge - the perfect score for a tale of apocalypse.