The Keening – Devotion Review

[Cover artwork by Marald van Haasteren]

Objectionable confession from the gate: The 2023 debut from The Keening, Little Bird, didn’t get a lot of attention from me. I feel kind of awful admitting that for reasons I’ll get into in a moment, but just know that the root of the issue was twofold: 1) Like a number of my Last Rites compatriots, I was—and continue to be, especially since their reformation—a big fan of Rebecca Vernon’s previous heavy endeavor SubRosa, and The Keening debut felt a bit like SubRosa Lite. 2) Over the years, I have developed some curious hangups concerning one-person projects in genres that feel better suited for full bands.

Addressing the first “SubRosa Lite” issue: Um… So what?

Addressing that second issue: Despite exhibiting some clear traits of modern(ish) sludgy doom, The Keening is largely rooted in a gothy form of dark folk, and that actually works quite well for one-person projects because it’s a deeply intimate / personal offshoot that often embraces a solitude factor. That side of things notwithstanding, The Keening also benefits from the fact that, while predominantly focused on Vernon’s strengths as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, there are a number of guests that bring additional dynamics to the table, which, pure and simple, is one of the issues I often have with one-person projects connected to the metal realm and its allies. Those friends come up BIG on Devotion, fortifying the album’s more dramatic face, as well as delivering a good portion of the album’s more melodic moments in lieu of guitar solos. For those keeping score, and in an effort to spread the love, here’s the list of guests, many of whom also helped out on Little Bird:

» Andrea Morgan (Exulansis) – violin and viola
» Lily Breshears (Shears) – harp
» Kelly Schilling (Dreadnought) – flute
» Dan Partridge – French horn
» Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Giant Squid, Brume) – cello
» Lisa Lipton – clarinet

Bottom line: I let album number one pass me by for mostly unfound reasons, and now that I’ve finally yanked the ol’ belfry out of the wazoo, I am attempting a bit of atonement. And in case you’re wondering what served as the impetus for my sudden 180, the decidedly unembellished answer is this: Devotion whooped my ass.

Million doll-hair question numero uno: What changed in The Keening camp to allow the sophomore effort to land such a mighty early blow?

Not a lot! Play both albums back-to-back and you will find yourself immersed in a very similar vibe of swirling, sweeping, somber and spectral dark folk peppered with a very specific form of, um, “chamber doom” (sludgy heaviness swaddled in low-pitched bowed string instruments) that, while not unique to the West Coast, certainly stands as one of the region’s more recognizable modern metal traits. So, yeah, expect an overall slower-paced affair that swings back and forth between a fairly witchy form of folk (think 1973’s The Wicker Man) and… Well, SubRosa.

That being said, I do think Devotion eclipses its predecessor. Sure, that’s at least in part based on the fact that the record managed to connect with me almost immediately, but I also believe it makes better use of the things that made Little Bird a GOOD record. The production (by the very same team, including venerated vet Billy Anderson) feels bigger and more lavish, allowing the quieter moments to feel even more intimate, the weightier moments to land more… thumpingly, and just generally providing a more immersive and enveloping experience in general.

Additionally—and I very well could be overstepping my bounds here—it feels like Vernon’s confidence as a writer of ‘softer music’ has taken a step forward. Not sure if its because she’s penning more songs on the piano or something, but the lighter side of Devotion, especially the fully gutting “Devotion IV– O Mother,” totally slays. Pair that with what feels like a stronger emphasis on delivering a hook and you’ve got something that hits the pleasure centers quickly and sticks to the ribs well after the album ends.

Then there’s the more ineffable factor adding to the Devotion windfall that’s centered around the two contrasting environments Vernon experienced while penning the record. The infrastructure was laid down during an extended stay a friend’s cabin near an Idaho ski resort during the offseason, with the remainder of the work being grinded out while staying with her father at a senior living facility in Spokane, Washington. Needless to say, the raw emotion tied to the latter must have been off the scale, and Vernon is very forthright in the promo materials for Devotion about how deeply supportive her recently departed father was with regard to her artistic endeavors, as well as revealing the following traumatic testimony:

“When my Dad was 19, he was the drunk driver in a car accident that resulted in the death of an 18-year-old girl who was supposed to start college the next day. The girl’s mother forgave him and was worried about my Dad and the state of his life. Her actions stayed with him and he was able to turn his life around a few years later. He went on to meet and marry my mom, have a family, and become a colonel in the Air Force. He was loved by everyone who knew him. He visited the girl’s mother a few years ago, as she was dying in a hospital. My Dad was non-judgmental towards people who make big mistakes in life.”

Life is such a wildly unpredictable, often pitiless venture that frequently feels more like a trial than it does a blessing, and the most any of us can hope to do with our time on this sphere is to take whatever hand we’re dealt and use it / strive to improve it for the betterment of ourselves inwardly and endeavor to facilitate and champion those who happen to share our fleeting duration. I will never NOT be impressed with the hardships humans manage to endure and (hopefully) triumph over, and I can only hope that Vernon’s time spent with her father amidst his final months were as much a boon for her as a similar situation was for me several years ago. Based on the work begat from all of this, I would have to assume so, because, while certainly deftly traversing the more shadowy realms of “dark folk meets thumping doom,” a redemptive sense of optimism still manages to permeate through these 42 minutes.

If we allow ourselves to learn a lesson from music experiences such as this, it would likely be something like this: Despite how living in the 21st century all but demands the opposite, remember to embrace as many opportunities as possible to exercise patience, and then celebrate those victories when they eventually pay off. It worked for me by earmarking Little Bird and subsequently jumping back in after getting leveled by Devotion, and it appears to have worked for Rebecca Vernon as well, given that the following statement also happened to be attached to this recording:

“I had procrastinated finishing the tracks and was falling into a pretty bad depression. It felt like it took every ounce of my power to finish them. My Dad played a part in them getting finished; always supporting and encouraging me to keep going, giving me the space I needed to write, holed up in my room for hours with my beloved cat Gabriella. I worked on the demos 8-10 hours a day, just like going to a job, and then ate dinner with my Dad down in the dining room with all the elderly clientele of the retirement home at night. They were all very excited and supportive of my writing an album.”

And, yeah, it’s also worth revisiting this certain truth for the umpteenth time: Take advantage of any occasion to revel in your family and friends. Not only is it good for the soul, it can result in something as emotionally affecting and rewarding as Devotion.