Eagle Twin

Eagle Twin
Background information
Origin	Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Genres	Doom Metal, Drone Metal, Drone Doom, Experimental, Sludge Metal
Years active	2007 - Present
Labels	Southern Lord Records, Mordgrimm, Red Light Sound
Associated acts	Ascend, Iceburn, Bible Black Tyrant, Form of Rocket
Website	Eagle Twin Official

Eagle Twin are an experimental doom metal duo based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The project formed in 2007, featuring Gentry Densley (Iceburn, Ascend) on baritone guitar and vocals alongside Tyler Smith (Form of Rocket) on drums.

Eagle Twin's music could be broadly classified as doom metal or sludge metal, but also touches on progressive rock, blues rock, jazz fusion and psychedelic rock, featuring lengthy instrumental passages driven around conceptual riffs. Unlike Densley's previous project Iceburn which was primarily instrumental, Densley does sing in Eagle Twin, though often the vocals can be perceived as a third instrument be it gruff, raspy vocals, chanting or overtone singing.

To date Eagle Twin have released three albums and since releasing their first album in 2009 via Southern Lord Records have managed to tour Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

History

Eagle Twin would form sometime in 2007, largely performing in Utah in their early formation. Unlike Gentry Densley's previous band Iceburn, which explored a fusion of punk rock, metal, jazz, classical music and free improvisation, Eagle Twin is more directly rooted in heavy metal traditions, particularly the focus upon the guitar riff. When asked what shaped the Eagle Twin sound in an interview with The Quietus, Densley replied:

“	"Well, a lot of it comes from "the riff" and the whole tradition of "the riff". It's something that I've become more conscious of – from Page and Iommi, down through people like Wino – the whole idea of people channelling "the riff". I'm also interested in myths and mythology and the creation of myths, the scale of the universal consciousness and how these same stories pop up over the years – the whole idea of collective memory and looking at riffs the same way; the real language of "the riff". I also wanted to do more story telling so there are probably influences from a lot of blues artists and also a lot of Mahavishnu influences; harmonically, I just started thinking about putting some more of that in, and there are elements of fusion jazz as well."	”
	— Gentry Densley, The Quietus

Eagle Twin's debut album, The Unkindness of Crows, was released on 21 July 2009 by Southern Lord Records. A loose concept album presenting a creation myth based on folklore and mythology about crows, the album's liner notes state "We extend apologies for our shameless fleecing of dead poets, native myths, mormon hymns, japanese haikus, Upton Sinclair, and especially Ted Hughes." Hughes's 1970 collection Crow was a key inspiration for the album. Gentry Densley said:

“	"I work in a jail library. I work in the jail giving people books, I'm the librarian. We used to have a copy of Ted Hughes’ The Crow. It's a book of poems. He was poet laureate in Britain before he died, married to Sylvia Plath who wrote some awesome poems as well and The Bell Jar. I picked that up and the language of the poems would always suggest the music to me, the rhythm would give me riff ideas, and it came from that as well, but the lyrical ideas started meaning more to me and it seems like he takes all sorts of world myths and biblical things and imposes onto his crow character. I thought that was really interesting that you could take these universal myths and embody them into one character, just show how it all connects. So that started to interest me a lot more and so I started using the crow as my own variation on that character. Making up my own stories about him and stuff."	”
	— Gentry Densley, The Aquarian

The Unkindness of Crows would attain praise from several publications. Critic Gregory Heaney of Allmusic gives the album four-out-of-five stars, writing, "While not necessarily for the masses, The Unkindness of Crows is a solid experience for anyone looking for something that plays with the [doom/sludge metal] genre in an interesting, and powerfully noisy, way." Critic Daren Cowan rates the album at seven out of ten: "Each track relates a dark, cerebral sound with psychedelic undertones [...] Densley’s voice brings a unique aspect to the album. Due to the length of each track and the album’s plodding nature, The Unkindness of Crows requires a certain mood to digest, but should fit followers of Southern Lord’s classic catalogue quite well."

Eagle Twin would tour the United States and Europe throughout 2009 and into the Spring of 2010 as direct support for Sunn O))) on their tour supporting Monoliths and Dimensions. The band would also make their first appearance at Roadburn Festival in 2010 and participate in The Power of The Riff, a festival curated by Southern Lord. Following a tour of Australia alongside Monarch! and Unearthly Trance among hometown shows supporting the likes of Dark Castle, Liturgy and Yob, work would begin on a second studio album. The Feather Tipped The Serpent's Scale would be released by Southern Lord on 28 August 2012. Densley said that the album differs from the band's debut in that it has a "more specific arc for the overall album and narrative. We ended up with the birds burning in their battle with the sun, turning into snakes. We wanted to eventually evolve the reptilian back to the avian in the end. To us it was just an extension of our previous methodology with more emphasis on transformation or progression".

Eagle Twin would support their second album with two tours of North America (Alongside the likes of Gaza and Earth) with a tour of Australia and New Zealand supporting Russian Circles in between. Eagle Twin would largely tour Europe over the next three years, appearing at festivals such as Hellfest, Southwest Terror Fest, Desertfest London, Heavy Days in Doomtown, Doom Over Leipzig, Psycho California and Roadburn among others.

Following a three-year hiatus, Eagle Twin would return with their third album The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) on 15 March 2018 to critical praise, notably featuring a proper recorded version of "Heavy Hoof", one of the first songs the bandf had written. Eagle Twin would tour Europe surrounding an appearance at Desertfest Belgium to support The Thundering Heard.

Discography

Studio Albums

• The Unkindness of Crows (2009, Southern Lord Records)
• The Feather Tipped the Serpent's Scale (2012, Southern Lord Records)
• The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) (2018, Southern Lord Records)

Other Releases

• Eagle Twin / Night Terror (Split with Night Terror) (2009, Red Light Sound)
• Pombagira / Eagle Twin (Split with Pombagira) (2010, Mordgrimm)
• Live in Atlantis (Live Album) (2014, Belief Mower)

Members

• Gentry Densley - Guitar, Vocals (2007 - Present)
• Tyler Smith - Drums (2007 - Present)

List of Known Tours

• Monoliths & Dimensions Midwest Tour (With Sunn O)))) (2009)
• Monoliths & Dimensions North American Tour (West Coast) (With Sunn O))), The Accused) (2009)
• Monoliths & Dimensions North American Tour (East Coast) (With Sunn O)))) (2009)
• Monoliths & Dimensions European Tour (With Sunn O)))) (2009)
• Monoliths & Dimensions 2010 Tour (With Sunn O)))) (2010)
• The Power of The Riff (With Corrosion of Conformity, Black Breath) (2010)
• The Unkindness of Crows European Tour (With Pombagira) (2010)
• Heathen Earth Australian Tour (With Unearthly Trance, Monarch!) (2011)
• 2012 Spring North American Tour (With Gaza) (2012)
• 2012 Australia/New Zealand Tour (With Russian Circles) (2012)
• 2012 Fall North American Tour (With Earth, stebmo) (2012)
• 2013 European Tour (2013)
• 2014 European Tour (2014)
• 2015 European Tour (With Uzala) (2015)
• 2015 North American Tour (2015)
• 2018 European Tour (2018)

External Links

• Myspace
• Bandcamp
• Facebook