Irish quartet ØXN play “experimental doom folk” and their debut CYRM has more in common with avant-garde noise bands than campfire folk.
Love Henry is a murder ballad dating back to the 18th century but it’s never sounded like this in all its 300 years: a voice, a creaky concertina, an ominous drone and increasingly creepy harmonies reaching maniacal fever pitch. And the lyric is even creepier.
The song tells of a spurned lover who lures her man to bed after he falls for a more beautiful woman then (SPOILER!) drugs him, stabs him and throws him in the river.
You may know the song as Henry Lee, as it was called in the version by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds; folk fans may know it variously as The Proud Girl and Earl Richard.
This recording is by a new Irish group called ØXN who call their sound “experimental doom folk” and have as much in common with Low and Sunn O))) as they do with finger-in-the-ear folkies, their songs often dissolving into dissonance and chaos.
My full review at Louder Than War here: