Details: In times of trouble, women have often had to bear an even heavier burden throughout history. On their tenth full-length "Ruby Red", San Francisco based all-female quartet Amber Asylum offer a haunting reflection on turbulent eras and blends instrumental passages with evocative lyrics. "Ruby Red" combines dirges, introspective laments, and powerful songwriting that evoke both despair and hope. The album transitions between themes of pain, loss, empowerment, and mortality, while creating a sonic landscape that is both raw and introspective. "Ruby Red" features bass, classical strings, percussion and kit, modular synthesis and female voices. Musically, Amber Asylum balance driving neoclassical elements with the raw power of pounding bass and drums, adding a potent, rhythmic force that contrasts beautifully with the quieter, brooding strings on "Ruby Red". The bass and percussion create a compelling pulse that underpins the tracks, adding both intensity and depth to the album's darker moments. Amber Asylum were conceived by composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Kris Force in the Californian city of San Francisco in 1990. Throughout their ever-changing musical evolution, the band has shifted throughout a variety of styles and collaborated with a host of musicians such as Steve van Till (NEUROSIS), Sarah Schaffer (WEAKLING), John Cobbet (HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE), Leila Abdul-Rauf (VASTUM), among many others. With "Ruby Red", Amber Asylum perfectly capture the growing dread and horror of a new dark age falling in our time. Yet the Californians balance the eerie and unhinged with a fragile beauty and blossoming of hope. "Ruby Red" is a most fascinating soundtrack of all that is to come. Listen carefully.

Amber Asylum - Ruby Red (CD)