The Bone of My Bones is the first solo album from Lord Vicar guitarist Kimi Kärki — whose impressive resume also includes current tenure in Uhrijuhla, E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr, Orne and a past playing under the moniker Peter Vicar in Finnish trad doom forebears Reverend Bizarre — and it is out now on Svart Records in gatefold LP and CD. It is an album that lives up to its title. Acoustic, minimal in its arrangements despite flourish of organ alongside Kärki‘s guitar and a host of guest vocalists, it proves indeed to be a deeply personal, deeply internal offering, comprising seven songs and 36 minutes of contemplative searching, a process that seems to be discovering the musical atmosphere even as it constructs it. That’s not to say songs like “My Name is Free,” “Red Rooster” and “Archipelago” are lacking in structure or progression, just that it becomes clear over the course of The Bone of My Bones that Kärki is building his sound from the ground up, and this is the beginning of that process.

“Young Goodman Brown” touches some on the melody of Led Zeppelin‘s “No Quarter,” and there are other flourishes of ’70s era progressive and psychedelic folk to be found throughout, but the richness of The Bone of My Bones comes from the humanity of the effort more than any particular lushness of sound, though a bit of swirl emerges on the nine-minute closer “Taxiarch” with wisps of electric leads curling around a steady acoustic line. As a vocalist, Kärki seems most comfortable in a semi-spoken lower register, but he pushes himself to expand beyond it right from the start in opener  “I am Aries,” and the additional contributions of Mat McNerney (of Svart labelmates Hexvessel), Anna-Elena Pääkkölä and Pirita Känkänen enrich the song’s ambience, bringing it somewhat out of Kärki‘s own experience and into a place where the listener can engage with it on another level. The launch of the album is just one of the high points, as Kärki elicits a melancholy sense of meditation without getting lost in neo-folk pretense or giving up songwriting for the experiment. True to its Edward Coley Burne-Jones cover art, The Tree of Forgiveness (1882), it has a classical feel.

And though the prevailing sense is that Kärki is laying the groundwork with The Bone of My Bones to, say, return to the form later and flesh it out, having that impression does nothing to diminish the appeal of his solo debut. Please find The Bone of My Bones on the player below and enjoy:

Kimi Kärki, The Bone of My Bones

Kimi Kärki‘s The Bone of My Bones was released Dec. 5 through Svart on CD and LP. More info at the links.

Kimi Kärki at Svart Records

Kimi Kärki on Thee Facebooks

London Desertfest is apparently announcing a band a day this week, and tomorrow, Sunday’s headliner (you’ll note it says “Very Special Guests” on the poster above) will be unveiled. The news that Lord Vicar and Sigiriya have been added to the bill is worth posting in the meantime, seeing as how it’s, you know, awesome. Serious lineup coming together — I have the feeling it’s going to be a hard time deciding where to be at any given moment. Can’t wait till the full schedule is up.

Also revealed today is that Elvis Deluxe will be playing Desertfest Berlin. Can only hope those dudes get added for London as well. Fingers crossed. Until then, here’s the Lord Vicar and Sigiriya news from Desertfest‘s site, with more to come:

Arising from the ashes of Reverend Bizarre, who called it a day back in ‘07 came Lord Vicar. With Peter Vicar (formerly of RB) now going by his real name Kimi Karki, he felt he had unfinished business. The four-piece doom metallers are eager to destroy you with their brutal intensity. Fans of Trouble, Saint Vitus and Pentagram take note: Lord Vicar will be preaching their brand of doom at Desertfest.

If you don’t know already, Sigiriya emerged from the mighty Acrimony who disbanded back in ‘01. Dorian, Stuart, Paul and Darren decided to form a completely new band with a more sonic riff-worshipping sound. The guys didn’t hang about between the demise of Acrimony and the birth of Sigiriya serving time with the likes of Iron Monkey, Dukes of Nothing, Yeti, Helvis and Black Eye Riot. Hailing from Wales, the four-piece recently opened at the Orange Goblin Xmas gig and are receiving rad reviews on their live performances and for their debut album Return to Earth.

A well-suited pairing between Finnish and Canadian outfits, Eyes Like Snow’s recently-issued split between Lord Vicar and Funeral Circle is doom for traditional doomers. It’s available in a variety of vinyl editions as well as CD, and with a total runtime of 22 minutes across three tracks, it’s a decent opportunity for anyone who hasn’t yet to get to know either band. Lord Vicar, with former members of Reverend Bizarre and Saint Vitus/Count Raven, is obviously the higher-profile act of the two, but Funeral Circle, who formed in 2007 in Vancouver, give a solid showing of themselves and even cover Witchfinder General to add memorability to their side of the record. It’s over quick, either way, but both Funeral Circle and Lord Vicar have something to offer doom heads: Namely, doom.

For Lord Vicar, this split with Funeral Circle follows one from this past winter with Swedish act Griftegård and will lead into one with Maryland doomers Revelation and the follow-up to 2008’s Fear No Pain debut full-length, reportedly titled Signs of Osiris. One thing that should be abundantly clear right away, then, is that Lord Vicar likes to keep busy. And why not? Guitarist Peter Inverted has been able to maintain the steady momentum of limited releases that helped Reverend Bizarre’s cult and sphere of influence grow as wide as they did and continue to do, and his pairing with vocalist Christian “Lord Chritus” Lindersson – who sang on Saint Vitus’ underrated C.O.D. album after fronting Count Raven for their 1990 debut, Storm Warning – has led to one of the most formidable partnerships in the current European scene. Here, Lord Vicar offers the 13:50 woeful epic “The Fear of Being Crushed,” which unsurprisingly finds Peter taking the lead on guitar with bassist Jussi “Iron Hammer” Myllykoski and drummer Gareth Millsted (ex-Centurions Ghost) adding righteous thickness behind. The song weaves its way, slowly, through longer heavy sections and offsetting acoustic breaks that do more to complement the atmosphere than detract from it, also – in the case of the middle one as opposed to the song’s intro or outro – allowing for Lindersson to show his emotional range in a kind of existential “how low can you go?” verse before the driving electric riff kicks back in with the bass and drums. Even without the context of Lord Vicar’s pedigree, it’s easy to hear in “The Fear of Being Crushed” why they’re among European trad doom’s forerunners; their overall melodic sensibility, Peter’s riffing, the tonal strength of Myllykoski’s bass (as heard when everything else cuts out 12 minutes in), Millsted’s steady plod and Lindersson’s sparse but effective vocals are not only paying homage to the foundational principles of their genre, but are helping to refine them as well. With crisp, clear production and the stateliness of their approach, the “duh” factor is high, as in, “Well, of course it rules. Duh.”

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