God’s Revolver - Little Black Horse, Where Are You Going with Your Dead Rider?

Atmosphere in regards to art is rather paradoxical, in that it is both over-rated and underappreciated. It is good that critics, fans, and professional commentators are able to wax eloquently over how a book, song, album, painting, or poem makes them feel (too many critics forget that they have hearts). Yet, while these people are right to acknowledge and pay homage to how their emotions are pricked by a piece of art, they rarely give proper credence to the locale in which the art was originally created. It should never be forgotten that Faulkner and O’Connor wrote about the humid, moody America South, how Dostoevsky and Tolstoy wrote from the depths of Russian winters, how Dylan and Mitchell composed from the turbulent ’60s, or how Picasso painted from the fractured political nature of the European Continent. Atmosphere is both created and projected by quality art.

For instance, take a look the tortured environment created by God’s Revolver and Little Black Horse, Where Are You Going with Your Dead Rider?, as well as the environment in which it was created. Born out of the beautiful geology and curious theology that surrounds their hometown of Provo, UT, the band has crafted an album that sounds as if The Whiskey Priest from Graham Greene’s The Power and The Glory had grown up listening to Southern rock and metal and decided to write songs about his troubled soul. The record is steeped in a host of ruminations about love, lust, salvation, destruction, whiskey, and how the combination of those literal and philosophical elements can either tear down or build up a man.

Furthermore, if Garth Ennis ever thought to create a movie based upon his Preacher comic series, the lyrical themes presented on LBHWAYGWYDR (isn’t THAT a mouthful) could easily serve as the soundtrack to such a film, as these hard-bitten, hard-drinking songs sound as if Jesse Custer himself was uttering them. This is a record for folks who like their music hard-rocking, deep-thinking, and more than a little ribald. The weak-at-heart and the easily offended will probably not enjoy this album, but those folks who are well-versed in “testing of the faith” type experiences, as evinced in tracks like “Justify,” “Scratch Dealt Me a Dirty Hand,” or “Preacher’s Flask,” would easily understand exactly what these five Utah boys are singing. While it might not be comfortable or palatable to some, God’s Revolver definitely know how to set a mood.