I do love me some Atmospheric Folk Black Metal, especially the style that has been seeping out the dark wilds of the US like NECHOCHWEN from the Appalachians and WAYFARER from the Rockies. This review takes us to the latter, where the ice is thick and the air is thin. WAYFARER dropped their fifth full-length album, “American Gothic,” on October 27, 2023 on Century Media Records and Profound Lore Records.

If you’re wondering if Atmospheric Folk Black Metal is a newish thing, maybe emerging out of the wasted mire that was 2020 and 2021, WAYFARER formed 13 years ago in 2011. If you’re just discovering this band, you stumbled upon them at a great time. “American Gothic” is one of their finest to date.

With eight full-winded tracks (not including the bonus track) across three-quarters of an hour, “American Gothic” is as deep as it is dark. The classically etched cover—which is simply the title done up in something like steampunk calligraphy, silver on black—speaks to the iconic vibe that pervades the entire album. This is American West through and through. Every track recalls a western archetype gone to rust from oilfields to high plains to cattle thieves all cast like dry bones across the fractured landscape of dreams. Fractured by what? Good old fashion industrial greed. What’s more American than that?

The album kicks off with a chilling track entitled “The Thousand Tombs of the Western Promise.” There’s some steel guitar slide action (or that’s what it sounds like to me. Also in my mind, it’s played by a skeleton covered in cobwebs wearing a rotting poncho and a Stevie Ray Vaughan hat and smoking a cigar.) That goes on for a minute or two with some random or not so random spoken word samples. Then blackened riffs and demonic vocals begin their dance to the rising and falling tempo of drummer Isaac Faulk’s ire. Perfect opening track. Following is the nine-minute, multi-movement “The Cattle Thief.” Lyrically and musically, this track is a helluva journey. What should be a simple song deriding the common cattle thief becomes a lingering ghost story with disturbing implications. One of my favorite tracks of the lot.

Next up is “Reaper on the Oilfields,” a doomy piece with far away, distorted vocals. Not the best track, a bit repetitive and ponderous. By track four, “To Enter My House Justified,” we’re back to it. Some interesting songwriting going on here with intriguing lyrics about owning up to one’s deeds and the fact that no matter how long we ride, we can’t outdistance our due: 

“The paths we walk reach far and wide

The paths we tread on which we’ll die

The paths will never forgive me

Or trade the future for a dream”

With track five, “A High Plains Eulogy,” we get our mellow on, which is fine if that’s your thing. This track is a bit past mid-point of the album and feels like an interlude. Track six,“1934,” is a short instrumental that gently nudges us from our uneasy slumber. With track seven, “Black Plums Over God’s Country,” WAYFARER dons their truest of skins and we’re back to the scathing indictments of the pale horseman. Call him progress, call him industry, he brings naught but slow corrupting darkness. A fine track this one. And ending the album is the epic “False Constellation.” Lyrically, this track is heartbreaking for its truth . . . in the end the only sign of our passing will be, as Shane McCarthy intones with the final words, “A grave, a nation. A shadow.” And so goes the “American Gothic.”

Did I say ‘final words’? Well . . . for purchasers of the CD version from Profound Lore Records, there is a bonus track covering “Night Shift” by SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES. The song is about the Yorkshire Ripper, so not very American Gothic. It’s more 80’s Goth and less Black Metal, but still a cool listen.  

WAYFARER’s “American Gothic” permeates the soul like fog on night. A fine album from one of America’s best and more interesting Black Metal bands.