It's been said that bad times lead to good art. Indeed, it has been fascinating and reassuring to hear how different artists have responded to the soul-crushing years we are living in. We are awash in music that is reflecting in our current darkness, and Emma Ruth Rundle does not shy away from the horrors of the world on her new album, These Killing Times. But, fortunately, nor does she shy away from hope. 

Rundle has always struck me as one of heavy music's most incisive lyricists. On her last proper solo album, Engine of Hell, she carved a permanent mark on my brain with these lines that open the track "Razor's Edge: "Spending all my money / As the petty cash of youth runs out." On These Killing Times, she makes the thesis statement of the album clear in the first track, "Powerless," with the chorus "Let me lie here with this hammer in my hand /

One for breaking one for building something better." There it is, the mentality that should be guiding us all during these awful years: Let's smash what oppresses us. Break it to fucking bits. But we can't stop there. We must build back something better in its place. 

Of course, to find hope in the darkness, there must be darkness. These Killing Times tackles war, greed, and all forms of human failings. There is sadness, and there is rage, and there is righteous indignation. "You turn your eyes up / Stringing his teeth / To weave a tapestry from our blood, A document of his greed / In these: these killing times," she sings on "Enough." Limiting myself to just two of my favorite lyrical passages was one of the most challenging parts of this review. 

Had ERR delivered these new songs with just her voice and piano as she did on Engine of Hell, I would have been plenty happy. ERR"s voice sounds as rich and strong as it ever has on this album, and often recalls Tori Amos at the height of her fame. But on These Killing Times she is back to performing with a full band, and the effect is staggering. While not as traditionally heavy as most of the albums here, these tracks build and swell like the most intricate post metal and punch like the heaviest doom. While ERR has always been a stunning guitar player in her own right, she's brought a fantastic crew of collaborators with her this time. One track features another one of my favorite performers, Marissa Nadler. The sonic high point of the album is the psychedelic guitar shredding of Baroness' Gina Gleason on "Catherine Wheel."

Rundle said bringing in collaborators was an important part of processing the issues that are tackled on the album. “I wanted to feel fortified by friendships and to be in community with other musicians - to make something that pushed back against the isolation,” she said. Fortification with friendship and pushing back against isolation is something we should all be striving for in these killing times. The forces of darkness are strong. Together, we are stronger. 

Emma Ruth Rundle’s These Killing Times is out September 18th via Errant Child.