Style: Noise-rock fused with Americana; imagine Jesus and Mary Chain by way of 16 Horsepower
Top tracks: “The Toll,” “Conscience Killer,” “River Styx”
BRMC begins their new album with a melody lifted straight out of “Wayfaring Stranger”—it’s a stylistic choice, and they wear it well. Ever since they jumped from noisy, punk-ish rock to country-roots music on Howl, they’ve increasingly favored imagery taken from the back pages of American gothic literature, Greek mythology—and the Bible. Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is essentially a set of weary relationship songs, but steeped in symbols of sin and redemption. Early in the album they want to kill their conscience but later they find all their problems to be caused by the evil in their own hearts—and they want to be washed in the river ’til they’re made clean.
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