{"id":89359,"date":"2019-02-06T15:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/?p=89359"},"modified":"2019-02-07T08:57:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T14:57:04","slug":"review-haint-blue-overgrown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/review-haint-blue-overgrown\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Haint Blue &#8211; <i>Overgrown<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Right out the gate I\u2019m going to have to let you all know that this band is not metal or even metal adjacent. I was honestly equal parts surprised and confused to see this promo slide into my inbox by way of Toilet Ov Hell. I\u2019m glad it did, though.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Haint Blue<\/strong> is an Americana folk group from Baltimore, oozing with tons of Appalachian and bluegrass sounds, though it stays far from old timey or hokey. <em>Overgrown<\/em> sees frontman Mike Cohn explore his own life in deeply personal and heartbreaking ways. From him and his best friend needing to run away from their families\u2019 fundamentalist beliefs, to falling into pill addiction and losing that best friend in the aftermath of escaping that pitfall, everything in <em>Overgrown<\/em> is vulnerable, honest, and commendable. The honesty is layered over the skillful playing of a group of great musicians, who lend their own emotional weight and energy to the record, taking it from something that&#8217;s just an interesting story of struggle to something worth coming back to again and again.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 420px; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1660227810\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/haintbluetheband.bandcamp.com\/album\/overgrown\">Overgrown by Haint Blue<\/a><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Like a lot of folk music, the melodies can often sound deceptively upbeat, with the heartbreak hidden within the lyrics for those who take the time to listen to the poetry. While there are hints at the tough subject matter melodically and through moments where lyrics shine through, it all comes to a head with the track \u201cMama, God,\u201d where the lines from Love You Forever, the influential children\u2019s book by Robert Munsch but with the perspective flipped around\u2014I\u2019ll love you forever, I\u2019ll like you for always, as long as I\u2019m living your baby I\u2019ll be. Remember that Cohn made the difficult decision to run away from his family. This puller of heartstrings is followed up by \u201c2\/10,\u201d referencing the recidivism rates for addicts.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t to say that <em>Overgrown<\/em> is the Americana equivalent to a funeral doom record. There are moments of triumph, acceptance, joy. It\u2019s just that Cohn is honest about the hard road it took to get there.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-89361\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=1170%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1170\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?w=1170&amp;ssl=1 1170w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/HB_live_by_Allyson_Washington.jpg?resize=400%2C267&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>live photo by Allyson Washington<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even if Americana sound isn\u2019t really your thing I\u2019d recommend giving <em>Overgrown<\/em> a try. If you like <strong>Panopticon<\/strong>\u2019s acoustic sections chances are Haint Blue won\u2019t be too far away from your wheelhouse and this is a project that deserves to be heard.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">4.5\/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-38031\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=1024%2C234&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=1024%2C234&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?resize=300%2C68&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NEW_TOILETSCALE_4-5_of_5.jpg?w=1249&amp;ssl=1 1249w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Overgrown<\/em> Comes out February 15.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right out the gate I\u2019m going to have to let you all know that this band is not metal or even metal adjacent. I was honestly equal parts surprised and confused to see this promo slide into my inbox by way of Toilet Ov Hell. I\u2019m glad it did, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":89360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Pull out the banjo. We're checking out Haint Blue's take on folk and Appalachian bluegrass.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[370,70],"tags":[14290,1161,14265],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cover_1541173489817344.jpg?fit=706%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89359"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89705,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89359\/revisions\/89705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}