Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer EP (2009)

I remember when I first heard the album Furr by the American West Coast band Blitzen Trapper. I was extremely impressed by their sound. Later on I discovered that Furr was actually the hight of their career. One of my favourite tracks on Furr was Black River Killer, a dark folk song about a murder. This song was very similar to some of Bob Dylan's storytelling songs. Then I saw this EP in a record shop in Helsinki and I noticed that there were six songs that weren't on Furr in addition to the title track, which made me buy it immediately. I don't think other songs on this album are necessarily Furr quality, but at least it's like a bonus track compilation of leftover songs from Furr. The album cover is very beautiful with the dark heavy-metal like text. The music itself doesn't really have anything to do with heavy metal though.



Blitzen Trapper plays groovy alternative country and folk music with some southern rock elements. I very much like their songwriting that's very melodic. I was already a fan of the band based on the albums, but later on when I saw the band play live here in London, my respect for them grew even more. Live, this band is an awesome rock band that sounded like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Wilco and Bruce Springsteen in different songs and finally just themselves in the last half of the gig where they played amazing guitar solos. This gig re-kindled my fandom for the band.

The album starts with the title-track which still is one of my all time favourite Blitzen Trapper songs. It's followed by Silver Moon, which has the cool groovy beat that's familiar from other Blitzen Trapper albums. The cool and laconic singing style fits in this kind of music really well. Going Down is a bit more experimental song with almost progressive rock key changes and crazy fills. Shoulder Full of You is a stripped down folk ballad that's only played with one acoustic guitar and doubled vocal track, until later on piano and some other instruments jump in. Preacher's Sister's Boy is a return to groovy and edgy alt-country. This song is spiced with some crazy sounding space-organs. Black Rock shows the guitar skills of the band with some fast-picked Spanish guitars. As a song it's not very interesting, but it's interesting for any musicians out there. Big Black Bird is more in the southern rock category that the band has also ventured on on a few occasion.

There's also a cool music video made of Black River Killer. It features murder scene material along with the band playing for an audience with mass murderer masks and some beautiful landscapes from the American south. And of course, there has to be a sheriff.

EPs are rarely the best material by any band, but they give a chance to get more familiar with bands you like. Black River Killer is an interesting short album that shows that the band has more to offer than what can be found on their full-length albums.

Listen to the album on Spotify.