''Red of Tooth and Claw'' is the fourth full-length album by the American five-piece

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Murder by Death, their first for the

Vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

record label. The title comes from a reference in Lord Tennyson's poem ''

In Memoriam A.H.H. The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametri ...

'' It was recorded by the

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

-winning producer

Trina Shoemaker Kathryn "Trina" Shoemaker is an American mixer, record producer and sound engineer responsible for producing/engineering and/or mixing records for bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Something for Kate, Nanci Gri ...

at Dark Horse Recording Studio in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and was released on March 4, 2008. ''Red of Tooth and Claw'' is, as the singer/guitarist Adam Turla put it, a "Homer's Odyssey of revenge, only without the honorable character at the center." It is a concept album, and a prequel to their second album, '' Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?''

Track listing

Reception

Critics compared Turla's vocals to those of

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ca ...

and

Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...

. Overall, critical reception has been positive. The album has a score of 70% on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating generally favorable reviews. '' Alternative Press'' gave the album four stars, writing, "They've finally realized their full potential..."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

described "...a taut, tense, elegant delivery..." and gave the album four stars as well, stating "the band's combination of a taut, tense, elegant delivery and poetic lyrics breathes life into each of ''Red of Tooth and Claws songs." In a mixed review, ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' felt it "...runs low on contemporary touchstones or appeal." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the album a C+, stating it "envisions turbulence, stages it professionally, and downplays Murder By Death's power to frighten listeners and conjure up dust storms."

Sputnikmusic Sputnikmusic is an American music community website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites. The format of the website is unusual in that it includes both professional and amateur c ...

criticized the album for sounding too similar to the previous album. '' Paste'' wrote that "the album triumphs on the sheer energy of the band’s performances—every one of them swirling, unapologetic tours-de-force."

Personnel

* Adam Turla – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards * Sarah Balliet – cello * Dagan Thogerson – drums, percussion * Matt Armstrong – bass guitar * Vincent Edwards – keyboards on "Ball and Chain"

References

2008 albums Concept albums Gothic country albums Murder by Death (band) albums Vagrant Records albums {{2000s-indie-rock-album-stub