Black Lab – “A Raven Has My Heart” Review

“A walk through ’90s grunge with industrial elements, healing heartache”

Swelling is the best word to describe Black Lab’s April 2014 release, A Raven Has My Heart. The layers of sound and lyric surround, swelling so the listener is filled with the heartache and eventual catharsis that pours out of singer Paul Durham.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq4NFHNgZ3s

The moaning melodies create an ambiance against a lashing of keyboard strokes. “Gravity,” with its electronic heartbeat that pulses at the crescendo of the first chorus, invites analysis as a release from the pain that comes from being chained to a love that acts as a force of nature. The sound feels hot, like sitting in a sauna sweating out the bad vibes, moving on: healing.

Black Lab introduces ’90s grunge-inspired textures mixed with industrial elements, combining the best of the worlds offered by bands from Radiohead to Nine Inch Nails. Durham’s lyrics mask frustration with melody and allude to hope and faith as a method to push through the powerlessness, but certainty lies in the honest release coming forth from each vowel.

A Raven Has My Heart will soothe, invigorate and help heal the most tortured, while inspiring the most hopeful of music fans.

Black Lab
A Raven Has My Heart
San Francisco, CA
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