Family Band, Miller Path
Dark, eerie and often cryptic — but also beautiful
"I've been wasted here and I sense movements of beauty," sings frontwoman Kim Krans on "Hatred," the opener of Family Band's debut LP Miller Path. It's hard to know exactly what she means, but there's no denying its chilling impact. Family Band's music is like that: dark, eerie and often cryptic, but also beautiful. It's not surprising to learn that guitarist Jonny Ollsin has been playing in metal bands for the better part of two decades; even though there are no thrashing powerchords or throat-shredding screams, metal's intense bleakness lurks in every corner of Miller Path, creating a sound the group has dubbed "heavy mellow."
Family Band's rage is a quiet one, best summed up by another line in "Hatred": "It is hatred that makes the horse run strong." That image of Krans internalizing her pent-up anger and channeling it into determination and power is grim, almost frightening. The songs have themes of death and nightmares, but the darkness is contained — it's tightly coiled in Krans's alto, and it's what fuels the strength in her voice. At times, she channels a Moon Pix-era Cat Power, most apparently on the soulful "Fantasy," one of the record's more stripped-down numbers, which finds Krans singing, "Open up your memory, let those floodgates spill/ Baby, I will get you home."
Family Band is Ollsin's first non-metal outing, and you can still hear echoes of his musical background in the spiraling, minor-key guitar arpeggios that decorate many songs. He originally made an agreement with Krans (who is also his wife) that major chords were out of the question, though he conceded a few times, for the better, not only in the chord structure, but also in the lilting guitars and blues-guitar march in "No Sound." Drummer Adam Cimino's atmospheric, non-intrusive technique reinforces the album's fluid feel: Sometimes all the song needs is a steady tambourine hit ("Hatred") or a cymbal- and rim-click-driven waltz ("Diamonds"). (Since this recording, Cimino has been replaced by former Yeasayer drummer Luke Fasano.) But even when the drums are more prominent, intertwining with Ollsin's guitar and Scott Hirsch's bass, they're still very much in tune with the rest of the album's calm-yet-foreboding soundscapes. For every spiraling, muted guitar run, spooky whistling effect, and dissonant hook, Miller Path has just as many moments of gorgeous resolution.
