Of The Muses
Underheavens- Of Blood, Ghosts And Saltwater
Underheavens Of Blood, Ghosts and Saltwater" is OF THE MUSES' sophomore endeavor after the great success of the debut "Senhal". It marks Cristina Rombi's departure from the raw romanticism of her early Black Metal-infused material in favor of a sound that intensifies the dynamic, straightforward elements in her music, now permeated by soulful pop, punchy alt rock, and subtle gothic undercurrents, albeit with the same underlying emotional intensity and the kind of unapologetic honesty that feels borderline unsettling at times. Here Cristina, sole member of the project, gets candid about her experience with navigating the personal and collective trauma of the AIDS crisis, which led to the premature loss of her father in the 90s. The way this collection of compelling, often earwormy songs sounds intensely reminiscent of the music from that very decade is absolutely no accident: "I wanted to evoke the feeling of broken clocks frozen at the time of an explosion", Cristina reveals. Tapping into her love of 90s-defining styles such as britpop, trip-hop and grunge, and capturing the lacerating tensions of that cultural moment in time, OF THE MUSES crafted a visceral, haunting meditation on death and the afterlife in the form of an immersive, bittersweet record that once again exists at the intersection of hope and tragedy, grace and gravity, light and darkness.