Fern Knight: Castings Review
78/100
Fern Knight once released an album titled Music for Witches and Alchemists, which gives you a pretty accurate of what the band is all about. Led by singer Margaret Ayre and her husband Jim on guitar, Fern Knight has expanded to a quartet to flesh out their gothic doom folk for their most recent album.
While Margaret’s voice is the center of this record and rightfully so, the layers of instrumentation make this a great sounding record. From the slow march of strings and psychedelic guitar solos of the opener “From Zero To Infinity” to the harp on “Long Dark Century”, each song is a lush layer of strings providing a great foundation for Margaret’s voice. A horn section even makes a grandiose addition to the middle of “Cave Of Swords”. Jim’s guitar also adds a great element of a heavy psychedelic element, from gloomy chords to noisy effects filled solos. The band does one cover on the record, taking King Crimson’s “Epitaph” and making it sound even more gloomy.
Castings is a solid 4th album for Fern Knight. Drawing heavily from British and European folk of the 70s like Pentangle and Donovan, they add a lush layer of psychedelics to the whole package. Castings may never stray from its gloomy tone, but it’s a great sounding record from a band who has found their purpose.
-Adam
Fern Knight: “The Poisoner” from Derek Moench on Vimeo.
