I read a Roger Ebert review one time, I think it was of American Psycho and he praised Christian Bale for his lack of "survival instinct;" essentially, the point was most leading actors would have tried to make the character cool out of instinct to preserve their image. That's the same way I feel about the album Hallowed Ground.
On the self-titled album, Gano plays the sexually frustrated teenage misfit throughout, but on the followup he tries on a number of extremely un-flattering personas, a pretty daring move in my mind. From the child-murdering hillbilly of "Country Death Song" and the wannabe-gangster schoolyard bully of "Never Tell" to the bizarre juxtaposition of solemn Christian hymn with awkwardly homosexual urges and racist sentiments in "Black Girls" and the creepy rapist guy in this song, this album is full of odd people you definitely wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. The unsympathetic speakers of this album set it apart from most other pop music and are a large part of what make it so compelling. It's almost like a backwoods "Goodfellas" or "Midnight Cowboy," a beautiful piece of art whose subject happens to be ugly, damaged people.
I read a Roger Ebert review one time, I think it was of American Psycho and he praised Christian Bale for his lack of "survival instinct;" essentially, the point was most leading actors would have tried to make the character cool out of instinct to preserve their image. That's the same way I feel about the album Hallowed Ground.
On the self-titled album, Gano plays the sexually frustrated teenage misfit throughout, but on the followup he tries on a number of extremely un-flattering personas, a pretty daring move in my mind. From the child-murdering hillbilly of "Country Death Song" and the wannabe-gangster schoolyard bully of "Never Tell" to the bizarre juxtaposition of solemn Christian hymn with awkwardly homosexual urges and racist sentiments in "Black Girls" and the creepy rapist guy in this song, this album is full of odd people you definitely wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. The unsympathetic speakers of this album set it apart from most other pop music and are a large part of what make it so compelling. It's almost like a backwoods "Goodfellas" or "Midnight Cowboy," a beautiful piece of art whose subject happens to be ugly, damaged people.