Local Music Reviews
Roses and Exile
Nomads
Dungeon
Street: 01.13
Roses and Exile = (Sisters of Mercy x Current 93) + Wendy Carlos
Yet another project by local Christopher Alvarado (Twilight Transmissions, Little Sap Dungeon, Harsh Reality), Roses and Exile is on its way out with this bang of a final album. With the help of Cathy and Eric Fillion (Sanmarkande), Michael Browser (Leaders of Men) and others, Alvarado dredges up dank neo-folk experimentation of the 1980s, layers it with a velvet-black tar of electronic, rock and ambient noodling, and finishes it off with glittering spoken-word gems. Standout tracks include the big gothic anthem, “Flies in Heat,” and the eerie, skeletal “The First to Die Trying.” Finishing off with an industrial-metal dance number, “Love Lies Bleeding,” the album shows many facets. The individual tracks drip like a laudanum lure and together spin a nightmare web of an album.