Album Notes

Grave Blessings, the fourth full-length album from Unto Ashes is easily their most powerful and emotional work to date. It is a virtual essay in "blood-lit" music, exquisitely created, performed, and recorded. Once again, Unto Ashes reveals their signature combination of sublime vocal harmonies and characteristically unorthodox instrumentation: hurdy-gurdy, dulcimers, cello, French horn, acoustic and electric guitars, and vast drums and percussion. Grave Blessings presents fifteen "offerings" to the living and the dead, to those who are loved, and to those who are lost. "In Memory of D'Drennan" - written in response to the suicide of the beloved Regent of New York's Vampire court - is so seductive, so infectious, that it seems destined to become THE unintentional hit on the dance floors of goth clubs from Gotham to Leipzig. Three highly unlikely covers, including The Cure's venerable "The Drowning Man" (here performed on acoustic instruments), an Apocalyptic folk version of "The Way of the World" (written by the influential, now-defunct Punk band Flipper), and finally a spectacular version of QNTAL's "Frühling" in which instruments from three continents (Appalachian dulcimer, church organ, and dumbec) are impossibly employed; and yet the effect is unmistakably victorious.

A review from Liar Society
Unto Ashes returns with their fourth, and most eclectic, album to date. Grave Blessings finds Unto Ashes working at their most alchemical: with this selection of songs they mix diverse tonal ingredients in search of sonic gold. And more often than not, they find it. A fine example of what Unto Ashes is after this time around is the song "In Memory of D'Drennan" which marries a trip-hop beat to deathrock guitar, cold waves of synths, subtle male vocals, and accents of soaring neoclassical female vocals. In less expert hands that kind of experimentation would turn into a mess of disparate influences, but every song on Grave Blessings shows a perfect melding of styles. Dark folk rubs shoulders with neo-medieval danse macabre and foreboding instrumentals; every track blossoms into a monument of frightening beauty. This is one of the deepest recordings I have heard in a long time. 4 1/2 stars out of 5 - Jack