Hey PALODINE I'm a 40 year old male and a few years back I pretty much gave up on the music scene. I put away my bass guitar and stopped listening to music to pursue other hobbies because I couldn't find any music that inspired me-until I met PALODINE!!!!!!! I love your type of dark story-telling and your music is like reading a book and listening to music at the same time!!!! It's very refreshing to listen to. You guys inspired me to listen to music again and I even dusted off my bass and started plucking again. Katrina's artwork is also AWSOME and a pleasure to look at!!!!! PALODINE'S music has inspired me to listen to music again and for that I thank you guys very much!!!!! I cannot wait to get your newest record!!!!! PALODINE ROCKS CD BABY IS MY NEW COOL RECORD SHOP THANKS STEVEY

When guitarist Michael Aryn and vocalist Katrina Whitney came together as Palodine, each had done time with a number of bands across a broad variety of styles, including experimental and straightforward takes on gothic, folk, country and shoegaze. Like twin children of different mothers, Aryn and Whitney seemed to take similar inspirations from each experience, making their meeting and musical single-mindedness almost pre-destined. With help from multi-instrumentalist Jason Brooks, Palodine makes introspective but wildly intense roots music, a shambling soundscape that draws in turns on the swirling buzz of psychedelic folk, the dark storytelling ethic of country and the sonic density and emotional frenzy of shoegaze. Depending on which style Aryn and Whitney allow to bubble to the surface within each song on their debut album, Desolate Son, the pair fashion a shifting sound that suggests a boozy, bluesy summit between the atmospheric haze of Mazzy Star and the dusty moan of 16 Horsepower. Other than the joy of creation, there is little light on the aptly named Desolate Son, as Aryn and Whitney don’t attempt to illuminate the darkness but merely report on its quality with passionate resolve. Palodine’s water is a little chilly, but ultimately fine...come on in.

I am going to forego the usual musical comparisons found in most record reviews: no need for that, Palodine is an original. Singer Katrina Whitney seems to have a knack for discovering new/fresh/good melodies, while guitarist Michael Aryn is a God-send and multi-instrumentalist Jason Brooks is to the band what rain, beer and coffee are to Seattle: completely essential! The effect of listening to Desolate Son is similar to those desired of homeopathic magic when welded for good. To wit: despite its dark exterior, concealed within is a heart of gold. This music is organic, alive, ethereal, bittersweet and darkly romantic all at once. Call it Northwestern Gothic. A completely new genre of music: definitely a form of folk music, blending the perceived darkness of the latter 19th Century with rock music into a pure synthesis. If you are the sort of person that likes dusty old books or worn out black and white photographs, then this disc is for you.

An ode to this American way of life can be heard in all its mordant power on Seattle band Palodine's traumatically tender and awesomely affecting Desolate Son. Similar to the new American rock of certain neo-psychedelic bands, this debut is formed in the rustic ferocity of Sixteen Horsepower's religious-schizophrenic wake. But the stark lilting or loping late afternoon desert soundtrack is balanced by Katrina Whitney's singing from the bowels of spiritual poverty and mutilated bloodlines. Desolate Son is a relentless dark rain of apocalypse beneath stumbling cries of mercy. "Devils Song" and "Devour Me" are one-two punches of gospel folk-metal, confirming the album's sequence of valley, peak, valley, inverted.