Trial of the Bow

Rite of Passage (Release)
by Angela Dauthi

I find it odd for this band to immediately try to disassociate themselves from Dead Can Dance. Even if it is true. Trial of the Bow uses middle eastern instruments and percussion, lots of reverb, and a minimalistic style of playing that allows for lots of space. Maybe that’s the difference. DCD, especially on Spiritchaser, layered dozens of instruments on top of each other. Trial of the Bow leaves room for breathing in the songs, and aren’t afraid to incorporate non-traditional styles in their music. For example, “The Eyre of Awakening” is a completely ambient piece, which seems to be a wash of electronics, triggered by some bowed instrument, the nature of which is lost in the ocean of sound that is produced. Strangely, this song, which has the least amount of immediately discernible movement, is the thickest. There’s no real room of silence to move around in, you’re just enveloped, the sound wrapping around you in great swaths. Still, when tracks like “Ceilidh for the Sallow Ground” play, the DCD sound is unmistakable.

Using what sounds like the Pipes at Jajouka, as well as some very slippery drumbeats that slide through the song, shifting emphasis from one pulse to another, Trial of the Bow have a much larger and darker scope than DCD. While the latter focuses on a certain sound, a certain time period, usually several hundred years ago (even “American Dreaming” has a peasant-folk sound to it), the former uses contemporary sounds and techniques as well, like the sonic trance of “Muezzin” and the sliding, dissonant vocals in “As Night Falls,” reminiscent of something a 20th Century composer would write. Not only that, but Trial of the Bow allow themselves to gather elements of sound that are more frightening than what DCD use. In “Alizee,” which features Lycia-like drum sounds and a bansuri flute, they add nightmare sounds and feverish scrapings, ideal for when you want to freak yourself out late at night, whereas a typical DCD tune will leave you in a somewhat happier state. I know I’ve been harping on about Trial of the Bow vs. Dead Can Dance in this review, but it turns out they’re two sides of the same coin. I also did it because it sounded like they’re sick of the comparison. I’m such a bitch.