Black Heart Procession

THREE

(Touch and Go)

This third full-length from Black Heart Procession finds the band's two principal members, Tobias Nathaniel and Pall Jenkins, maintaining the dark mood of their first two albums. There's a nod to Roger Waters in Jenkins's dispirited vocals, and his sense of despair is reinforced by the slow, sparse arrangements. "Till We Say Goodbye" combines acoustic guitar and skeletal piano under a flat-lining lyric. The dirgy "On Ships of Gold" layers echoey found sounds, like a sampled phone conversation, with the slow whine of a pump organ. A lone trumpet strains in the distant background in "Guess I'll Forget You," and several tunes feature coldly clanging, industrial beats. Vaguely disturbing imagery in the lyrics adds to the cloudy feel of the music. The result is a disturbing, somehow cathartic journey through the singer's personal hell in which, as in life itself, problems are left unresolved. Sometimes there are no happy endings.

(Black Heart Procession perform next Friday, December 8, at T.T. the Bear's Place with Octant and Charlene. Call 492-BEAR.)

-- Jon Marko