Mount Eerie's new record is going to be heavy. Not heavy in the same scope as Swans or Deathheaven, but heavy because the record deals with the loss of Phil Elverum's wife to cancer. It's the heaviest songs since Björk's Vulnicura and as direct as Sun Kil Moon's Benji. "Ravens" is particularly haunting as lyrics fill the conscious backed only by a sparse acoustic guitar. "I knew these birds were omens but of what I wasn't sure" Elverum states before going into further details on the struggles that plagued not only his wife but his family as well. It's one of the most honest and real songs I've heard in a long time. The depths of grieving are never easily expressed, but Elverum does it with such poise. He speaks to the hardship of seeing his wife pass away in a room and then having to give away her clothes. It's an act that you've never associated with pain until you've lost someone. "Thinking about the things I'll tell you / When you get back from wherever it is that you've gone / But then I remember death is real." It's not a song that one probably wants to listen to on repeat, but in some cases it acts as a balm. It's a comfort to hear that these feelings are indeed what make us human and in the loss of a loved one, recovering is not always an option. Sometimes all we can do is just survive and on "Ravens", Phil Elverum tries to teach us how.
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