Mar 222022
Ahead of the release of the third volume of Townes Van Zandt’s cover albums, Songs of Townes Van Zandt, Belgian sludge-metal band Amenra have released a cover of Van Zandt’s dark ballad “Kathleen.”
The original is a dark and moody country track, with gentle finger-picked guitar and well timed swells of a string section adding to the the ambiance. Amenra have kept the soft guitar, but have underscored it with a foreboding cello melody, and slightly off-centre keyboard drones. The result is a ballad that just sounds menacing. While Van Zandt’s track had the potential for something to go wrong, this new cover indicates that danger is very much ahead.
