JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS’ fourth begins with the aptly titled ‘Moss’ the fuzzed (dare I say it, “mossy”) guitar phrasings slow but unceasing, creeping as its namesake. These are the open lands, dark and wide, and Tim Coutts-Smith’s passionate baritone harks to fellow countryman NICK CAVE but fronting a more rough-and-tumble WAYFARER. ‘Venomous’ strikes, quick and deadly before coiling to attack again, serpent-brained and hooded, while ‘Mt Macedon’ drags classic CRAZY HORSE into the spotlight, loose, loud as thunder, and more concerned about emotion than perfection of technique.

There’s good bit of grunge ala PAW or Screaming Life era SOUNDGARDEN albeit filtered through the psych-haze of SCREAMING TREES throughout Inexorable Opposites. That the quartet manages to take influences so sonically close to each other and still carve out a space that sounds as if it belongs to them is admirable, nowhere more evident than the fever dream ‘Dave Is Done’, bassist Liam Barry rolling over the Carmine Appice-influenced drumwork of Brayden Becher as the guitars of Jordan Richardson succeed at evoking SWERVEDRIVER and Kim Thayil in equal measure.

Becher’s near jazz swing kicks off ‘Seer’, seeming ridiculously off time, but quickly revealing itself as a rock-solid foundation for the track. There’s no doubt that JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS utterly destroy in a live setting, and it’s the cascading rogue waves of sound we’re pulled under for much of the album that attest to the fact. The slow burn of ‘On The Overwhelm’ does nothing to decrease the intensity, if anything making what’s come before seem heavier than it would’ve had this gem not shown up exactly where it did. Whispers of latter-day CABLE (r.i.p.) can be heard here.

Ending with the meditative ‘To Die’, the quartet has given fans of the loud, the dark, the bright, and the slightly twisted much to enjoy. Inexorable Opposites reeks of the night before and dimly shines in the fog of the morning after.
Review By: Lord Randall

JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS
Inexorable Opposites
Magnetic Eye Records