Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses

So covering this album is kind of a difficult feat simply due to my relative unfamiliarity with the broader realm of indie folk to which this album is connected and my limited ability to talk about it in the context of metal. Not that I’m going to be trying to shoehorn this album into an analysis of its content through the metalhead’s lens, nor conversely that there is no discussion of the album’s metallic elements to be had. Rather, most of what is here can be attributed to a genre with which I have much less familiarity with than metal, but there’s some metal here, so I’ll definitely be getting into that while doing my best to address the other “indie-er” aspects of the album.

I had the pleasure of catching Emma Ruth Rundle live last year, yet in my infinite business, stupidity, and forgetfulness, I didn’t get around to checking out her studio work more fully, but this album is very in line with what I heard at the concert, which I imagine is rather representative of her catalog. Ordinarily I prefer to get as much of an artist’s previous work into my ears as I can to compare their new music to, to see what kind of progress they’re making. However, not every album (most in fact) is meant to be dependent upon the artist’s earlier releases, and On Dark Horses doesn’t seem to be giving me any indications of being dependent on previous work. And even if it does tie in to Emma Ruth Rundle’s earlier efforts, I don’t really see that tilting me too far in one direction or another for this album.

Immediately while hearing Rundle on studio quality tracks as opposed to on stage, the similarities to Chelsea Wolfe’s early albums like Apokalypsis and her acoustic album, Unknown Rooms, made themselves very apparent with Rundle taking on that similar moody, melancholic atmosphere with heavy instrumentation to provide the thickness to her sound. The clarity of Rundle’s voice also made clearer her vocal similarities to indie crooners like Florence Welch, Dolores O’Riordan, and the Casady sisters (of Cocorosie). But I don’t want to minimize Rundle’s work and this discussion of it to a comparison to her contemporaries. I don’t want to just put her in the shadow of Chelsea Wolfe (even though that’s hardly a bad shadow to be under), or reduce her to her close ties to Chelsea Wolfe (who happens to be a fan).

Anyway, basic contemporary similarities aside, the music on this is certainly a unique addition to but the world of metal and of indie, even if it’s only dipping its toes in the former. And while it definitely isn’t revolutionizing either genre, it shows Rundle’s proficiency with both and makes its appeal by being an interesting crossover of the two, and indeed separate and unique from the works of Feist or Chelsea Wolfe. More specifically, the grey-ish ambiance Rundle conjures with her echo-y guitars is thickened well by subtle swells of guitar distortion and kept awake by the kind of prominent,pounding drumming that hooked me into Apokalypsis (sorry, last Chelsea Wolfe plug). But aside from just building an atmosphere, the vocal melodies Rundle sings with her expressive inflections are filling and lifting in the ethereal sense and really bring the album its personality like one the album opener, “Fever Dreams”.

Even though it bases a big part of its character on Rundle’s indie vocal techniques, the album does well to hold its ground through its shoegaze-y instrumental passages like the gorgeous bridge on “Darkhorse” or the doom-inspired riff on “Dead Set Eyes”.

There are moments like the denser parts of “Control” and the more subdued singing of “Races” where the Chelsea Wolfe connection is just impossible to ignore, which, again, is not a bad thing in itself, but it does logically place Rundle in the same niche as Wolfe, and if Rundle wants to make this kind of music, she is going to have a hard time shaking that comparison. Aside from trying to occupy a musical role that Chelsea Wolfe (perhaps unintentionally) dominates, Emma Ruth Rundle unfortunately seems to by not so much on a dark horse, but on a one-trick pony. With the exclusively ambient folky closing track and the more overtly grim heaviness of “Light Song” being shining exceptions, the approach to most of these songs is pretty similar in mood, structure, and incorporated components, which is a natural tendency for an album like this, but it again leads to that other natural placement alongside a giant in its field.

All in all, On Dark Horses is certainly an enriching album to listen to even if it kind of accepts the place of second fiddle to Chelsea Wolfe as the slightly brighter meditative yin to her gothic transfixing yang. I had a similar problem while talking about Gruesome’s newest album this year: on one hand, I really wish I didn’t have to bring up one other artist so much throughout this post so much, but the other, I’m glad it’s someone as truly brilliant and unique as Chelsea Wolfe and not someone I’m tired of hearing contrived imitations of. And by no means is this album a mere imitation; it just finds itself in the region of a figure who has made a vast impact on it. Still, I hope Emma Ruth Rundle finds a way to get her head up through the high, dense canopy of the dark forest Chelsea Wolfe has covered their land with.