Ok, for starters when they say something about a murder of crows, that’s just what they call a bunch of them gathered together doing crow stuff, and it’s not a whodunit that’s worth getting the homicide guys out for. Anyway, I bring it up because the album of the same name was my first exposure to Devon Graves and his band Dead Soul Tribe.

The formula wasn’t anything altogether out of the ordinary, but it more than did the job. It didn’t really matter that a lot of the songs on the album didn’t sound too different, or that a lot of the time, things seemed to be simplified down to the bare bones. At the end of the day, it had catchy songs, a full sound and Graves’ distinctive voice, which was reason enough to give it audience.

In general, that presentation was what I associated with Dead Soul Tribe from the few albums that I heard and liked, which set it apart from the more experimental nature of Psychotic Waltz, Graves’ previous band. Lullaby for the Devil seems to toss that right out of the window. Hmm. There’s quite a bit of variety coming across, but I can’t seem to get fully behind it, nonetheless.

We’ve got good songs on this album, no denying. In fact, the opening track, Psychosphere is the only track I’d point out as being genuinely bad. Using your weakest song to give people a first impression? Don’t see the point. And Lost in You sounds a bit too much like APC’s Judith for comfort. All the others fall somewhere between somewhat decent and pretty good. We’ve got some industrial sounding chugging in Here Come the Pigs, the trademark Ian Anderson worshipping flute-based tunes in The Gossamer Thread, acoustic thumping in Fear…ah screw this, I’m boring myself here.

Bottom line, I really didn’t like it as much as their previous albums, even though it’s probably more ambitious. Still, it’s definitely worth a listen to see if you can get into it. Sweet album cover, too. Cheers.

Lineup:

Devon Graves - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Flute

Adel Moustafa - Drums

Roland Ivenz - Bass

Roland Kerschbaumer - Guitar 

Year of release: 2007

Label: InsideOut Music