The Death of Her Money – Spirit of the Stairwell

February 27, 2008 • self-released

It's tough to review any sludge album after Cult of Luna because it's probably going to feel underwhelming to me, and I hope that didn't happen with The Death of Her Money. Turns out they're quite a good band in their own right, with a very nice and varied approach to the style.

The Death of Her Money plays a standard locked-in-a-groove sort of sludge—not in the stereotypical Southern style, but there's hints of that here and there as the band sort of sits in the middle of the road between the atmospheric style and the down-and-dirty style, which is neat, if not particularly unheard-of. It has a very dissonant, syncopated style to the riffs but it also slips into more melodic stuff now and again. It's a nice balance and the band plays it off well, easily sliding from softer post-rock-like parts into really nasty palm-muted breakdowns or these strained, atonal tremolo passages. The grooves are really quite nice, even the simpler ones like the buildup at the beginning of "Newport Scars" with its all-enveloping-but-not-suffocating sound and washes of guitars—just one of a good handful of cathartic moments on the album.

I also really like how the album was mixed and produced. There is this very distinct buzzsaw-style sound to the guitars (and really, the production in general), making it a bit reminiscent of Isis' very early material with a bit of polish on it and a bit more of an emotional edge. The rare use of vocals is also an interesting touch, and when they are present they're always pushed to the background, keeping the focus on the razor-sharp riffs and walls of sound.

I'm not sure how much relistenability this album has, and Spirit of the Stairwell may not be truly unique, but the band's own personal sound is quite good and anyone who enjoys the standards of the genre will find something to like in this.

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