Songwriters:
Gregory Jamie
Gabe Darling
Jesse Newman
David Rogers-Berry
Bob Pycior

New York outfit O'DeathÕs third LP, Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin, feels like a giddy junkyard hoedown, from the panicked fiddle screeches of opener "Low Tide" to the celebratory gallop of closer "Lean-To." At times it sounds morose or contemplative, but underneath the melancholy is a gospel fervor-bashed from paint buckets, banjos, guitars and anything else in kicking distanceÑthat defines their sound. Since 2007's buzzed-about Head Home, the quintet, which contains vocalist/guitarist Greg Jamie, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Gabe Darling, fiddle player Bob Pycior, bassist Newman and drummer David Rogers-Berry, has evolved the possessed americana-meets-gypsy-punk of recent years into a more urgent, unrelenting celebration of life, death and everything in between.

For their latest album, the musically diverse Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin-which O'Death coproduced with Alex Newport (Two Gallants, the Locust)-they've recreated their live fervor in the studio. And although it may be the same lineup, the band that plays on Broken Hymns isn't the same ensemble that formed in 2003 at college. In that time, they've evolved. "After Head Home, we only wrote three songs that year," says Rogers-Berry. ÒBy the end of that year, I was like, I don't know if I can do this project. This is making me really crazy and sick and I don't like it. As soon as we started writing new music again, I was like, That's why we have this band. Playing music is the only thing that matters to me.Ó

They've grown up a little, but haven't lost the underlying longing or the unruly jubilation in their songs. Jamie's vocals sound more confident, even when singing lyrics like "I'm gonna leave you when the morning comes on "Lean-To" or the infectious "hold on" hook on "Fire On Peshtigo," which is based on a real fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, in 1871. The songs were written over the three years since they recorded Head Home, and each one shows a different side of the band as they toured almost nonstop. "There are a lot of songs that are about putting things to rest, overcoming hardship, and rising above," Jamie says. "It's sort of the connective theme." As a band, they expanded beyond the old-time influences that first inspired them without forsaking them. "I think it's all going on, on this one," says Darling. "More of David's world music, more of Newman's metal, more of Bob's grunge."


In the end, they finally created an album that captured who O'Death is as a band-their dark side and their hopeful nature. From the oompah-pah of "Mountain Shifts" to the gypsy violin of "Home," it also shows the breadth of their musical command. It's a whole new band. "It was a hard winter," says Rogers-Berry, "but this record saved my life."