I grew to embrace Sworn to a Great Divide just cuz, well, sometimes a by-the-books melodic death metal album from Soilwork is exactly what a person needs.
Bleeping honking and farting sine/cosine waves that fell from the art-inflected U.S. pre-punk underground’s soft, white underbelly via rusty knife c-section.
Pink Floyd (’67), Hawkwind (’70), and Chrome (’77) are antecedents, as is Amon Duul, Guru Guru, and Can. Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle are in the diet too.
We called it drug folk. Now, it be freak folk. It’s got an eye-rolling approach to its “genre” that keeps the “revival” tag at bay using “ethnic” instruments.
Ramones-inspired ditties stemming from ’50’s prom songs and juvenile delinquent movies are present, but these diverse bands show a wide range of vocal styles.