Murder By Death hail from Bloomington, Indiania, and take their name from a 70s whodunnit movie. Essentially an outlet for the surreal outpourings of singersongwriter- guitarist Adam Turla, they were discovered by Geoff Rockly of Thursday and signed by Eyreball, who released Like The Exorcist… in June 2002, and their second album in October 2003. To coincide with a tour, Cooking Vinyl have made available again Turla’s widescreen American gothic epics of devils and mental turmoil served with groaning deep oak cellos, rippling Bad Seeds pianos and convoluted prog arrangements sometimes reminiscent of midperiod Alice Cooper or Curved Air.
The first album provoked comparisons with Nick Cave and Radiohead, the latter more applicable to the dominating doomy histrionics. Its tour de force is They Left Us, an eight-minute instrumental which builds into a sky-scraping pyramid making full use of those strings and keyboards. The second album features then-unknown former labelmate Gerard Way (now known for fronting My Chemical Romance), introducing its storyline about a small western town taken over by the Devil. Here, titles such as You Are The Last Dragon (You Possess The Power Of The Glow) and Intergalactic Menopause fade the soundtrack element in favour of Yes-in-hell bombast. Worth checking before handing over your hard-earned soul.
