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Kristian Montgomery serves up country rock ‘Heaven for Heretics’

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

Pretty deep into “A Heaven for Heretics,” the most recent album from Kristian Montgomery & the Winterkill Band, country-rocker Montgomery sings, “All Hail the wolfman/Crawled out of his grave.” The song – “Family Owned” – is a bluesy number, with a Southern guitar skid underscoring everything, but it’s also revelatory to the whole album. Montgomery sings, “The raw and wicked/Crawl out of their holes/They want a monster/A monster of their own,” soon after singing, “That dog might roam buy he’s family owned.” The song serves up a pretty good picture of the album’s persona: That others see him as a monster, and that he sees himself that way. But he’s still tethered to his family, and throughout the album, that proves both a source of both salvation and heartbreak.

The album kicks off with with “I’ll Break Your Heart Again,” a song which pretty much wears its theme on its title: “I ain’t cut out for family and working life,” sings Montgomery, “I’ve lived a life a sin/When I looked for work/I found out for sure/They don’t hire my kind of man/And come tomorrow/I’ll break your heart again.” The last two lines are separated by a spare eight count that puts emphasis on the selffulfilling prophecy. Even when the song’s anger escalates at the bridge, there’s still a sense of resignation about the song: This is who the persona thinks he is. But does that mean it is who he is?

The answer to that lies in the second song, “Come Carry Weight With Me,” which was written for Montgomery’s brother, who died of cancer. “The ashes of my mother,” sings Montgomery, “Scattered in the sound/No one is lost forever/I’m finally coming home.” It’s telling that Montgomery gives us one picture of a man pushing everyone away, and then follows it with one of finding himself in grief, and family remains the through line throughout. It’s a heavy moment, one for which the honky-tonk rocker “Times Like These” helps lighten the mood.

The next song, “Here’s to the Men Who Have it All and Still Want More.” The song is actually sung in Danish, but its intent is fairly clear: A message of contempt to the rich and powerful for whom the rest of us toil. The tone is there in the vocals, and the sheer slide of the guitar drives the message home. This is followed up with “Ain’t Got Nobody But Me,” an extremely catchy song which obscures a self-destructive relationship underneath its grooveladen bass lines. “She’s candy sweet but the devil’s in deep,” sing Montgomery, “And he calls me to her lips/They taste like Tennessee whiskey/And burn like the fires of hell.”

By the time the album reaches “The Year the Bottom Fell Out,” Montgomery has painted a pretty raged picture: “My lips are cracked/And the whiskey stings/But not worse than my back/I

The album cover for “A Heaven for Heretics,” by Kristian Montgomery & the Winterkill Band. PROMOTIONAL PHOTO

SONG TO GET YOU THROUGH THE WEEK

“For Elastics” is the first single from Worcester-area rapper Lo Gun, collaborating with British producer FarmaBeats. PROMOTIONAL PHOTO

Lo Gun, FarmaBeats team for brief and intriguing ‘Elastics’

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

“For Elastics,” the latest recent release from Worcester-area hip-hop artist Lo Gun, is a brief and interesting piece of music. A collaboration with British producer FarmaBeats, “For Elastics” parallels gentle, rolling strings against the ferocity of Lo Gun's aggressive rap flow.

Lo Gun's tone raises to a near manic level as the song progresses, while the underlying beat has the sound of harps washing over each verse like the tide.

Indeed, sometimes the mania gets buried in the tide, which is unusual.

It gives the rap a sense of desperation.

And make no mistake, this IS an aggressive song, despite the tone of the beat. “Everybody wanna give advice, kid,” raps Lo Gun, before launching into his tirade. His rhymes are tight and bludgeoning, “Smash their brains out until their clueless,” raps Lo Gun, “and never know where the shooter go.” It's not subtle, and honestly, it's not trying to be. Lo Gun is hitting the beat with pure force, which adds to the song's sense of discord.

Clocking in at just shy of two minutes, the song, admittedly, leaves the listener wanting more, and doesn't really have a hook or a chorus. It feels like it's a pivot inbetween two other sections of an album, which it very well may be, as Lo Gun and Farma Beats have an album on the horizon.

Still, it's a tantazling little sample of an in interesting collaboration, one that's both overly linear and entirely too short, and yet still posessses a musical depth, evoking an emotional reaction from the sparest of constructions, and that's a subtle sort of triumph.