Murder By Death – ‘Sometimes The Line Walks You’ (Cooking Vinyl) Released 07/05/07

Brimming with a furious tone and opening with a menacing guitar line, ‘Sometimes The Line Walks You’ makes no bones about the raw aggression flowing through it. Adam Turla’s vocals bristle, the sound of a man who could assault you merely for looking at him the wrong way while the backing is a rumbling country stomp, elements of bluegrass and punk shining out as well. With a tale of prison life unfolding there’s a dark heart to Murder By Death’s work, Turla snapping “A man died in my cell, damn the guards sure gave me hell” while the music reaches a level that could probably soundtrack a riot.

Of the several b-sides the most effective is a cover of Sonny and Cher’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’, with only guitar and vocals. You can almost smell the booze coming off the fractured voice as it bitterly unfolds. Murder By Death should really be roaming around the Wild West, clattering into saloon bars and being told “We don’t like strangers here” before smashing the place up. Instead they’re producing top notch pieces of angry and lyrically sharp music. The world is all the better for that.