Cruel Child by Viking Moses

Nearly 13 years since his proper debut as Viking Moses, Baltimore musician Brendon Massei is slated to release his fifth album, Cruel Child. As one would expect from someone who is noted for having consistently toured since 1993, Cruel Child offers a dozen dusty and deep and wistful explorations of the soul, written in such a manner they could only have come from a master traveler of dark and imposing paths both literal and philosophical.

Yet in darkness, light; it would be wrong to fully assume that Cruel Child is an album that wallows in its misery. Yes, Massei sings with a deep and haunted voice reminiscent of Mark Lanegan, Will Oldham, and David Eugene Edwards, but like those masters, Massei is adept at hiding beautiful, tender, and positive messages that are shrouded in mystery and melancholy. The power of devotion to love can be found in the swampy gospel grunge of “Let This Trouble Pass,” the slow jam R&B rhythm of “Killing Kind” builds upon the tension of impatience, and the desolate power of bleak country emboldens the unfolding beauty of love in the one-two knockout album-closing punch of “A World So Full Of Love” and “Take Tender,” both of which are astonishingly beautiful love songs presented in a heartbreaking arrangement not seen since Townes Van Zandt.

Cruel Child is an album of dark sounds, to be sure; it is a beautiful darkness, though--one that should not be feared, but embraced. It is an album that unfolds itself slowly; its foreboding and lonely trails growing lighter on subsequent listens, revealing hidden beauty and truth with every visit.

vikingmoses.com