Amenra / Cave in / Nadler, Marissa - Songs Of Townes Van Zandt Vol. Iii [LP]

My Proud Mountain and Neurot Recordings are thrilled to release Songs Of Townes Van Zandt III, continuing the tradition of well-known artists in the heavy music and dark genres covering the songs of Townes Van Zandt. This album features nine new and unique covers by Amenra, Cave In, and Marissa Nadler. Opener "Quicksilver Dreams of Maria" paints Nadler as a pastoral daydream of mournful siren vocals, embodying the lovelorn and lustful side of Van Zandt some listeners tend to overlook. Her covers of "Sad Cinderella" and "None But the Rain" capture the tender and weary surrender to hope in the face of turmoil, like a flower blooming on a gravestone. The melodic and rhythmic contributions of Milky Burgess help make the covers a hazy carnival of memories that may be real or imagined. Amenra strip back their sludge metal sound to just vocals and acoustic guitar to pay tribute to the tortured soul at the center of Van Zandt's work. "The sadness and despair in his songs are unparalleled," says guitarist Lennart Bossu. Tackling "Kathleen", "Flyin' Shoes", and the eerie "Black Crow Blues", Amenra shine a light on the real pain that made Van Zandt's lyrics all the more haunting. The result is the Texas desert by way of Belgium, a set of stark and emotionally raw ballads for long night drives to nowhere. Cave In's full-band covers of "The Hole" and "At My Window' find them at their most cavernous, slowing down their high-wire sound to a sidewinder crawl to navigate the claustrophobic darkness. At nearly seven minutes long, their doomed-out cover of "The Hole" is as black as west Texas midnight.