Gutter Twins Saturnalia CD

The Gutter Twins is a project fronted by Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, the former leaders of the seminal indie rock acts Afghan Whigs and Screaming Trees, respectively. Like the music made by Dulli and Lanegan's two past bands, the sound on SATURNALIA, the Gutter Twins debut, is passionate, moody, guitar-driven, and intense.

Yet SATURNALIA is directly reminiscent of neither the Whigs' punchy alt rock nor the Trees' psychedelic grunge. Instead, the Gutter Twins lead listeners down a dark, swirling path of minor key atmospherics, haunting harmonies, and harrowing confessionals. An album better suited to headphones and late-night speculation than to big speakers and headbanging, SATURNALIA is a shadowy, melancholic treat from two of rock's cult heroes.

Saturnalia is the anticipated first album from The Gutter Twins, the collaboration forged in late 2003 by Mark Lanegan and fellow maverick singer-songwriter Greg Dulli. Saturnalia finds the axis Dulli nicknamed "the Satanic Everly Brothers" going even deeper into the shadows than ever before. Mystical, unpredictable, ultimately masterful, the album both embodies and defies any expectations suggested by the principals' individual notoriety. Pointedly not resting on the sonic laurels of their previous successes, Saturnalia instead proves rootsy but baroque, handmade yet modernist, teeming with siren melodies that don't resolve. Produced by Dulli and Lanegan along with the band's unofficial third member Mathias Schneeberger, "Saturnalia's eerie modal swirls trap the listener in each song's atmosphere; simultaneously evoking everything from Indian sitars to Appalachian folk and Delta grit, the drones inadvertently create narcotic hooks

The Gutter Twins: Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar, guitars, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, Mellotron, keyboards, bass instrument, bass guitar, drums, congas, percussion); Mark Lanegan (vocals).

Additional personnel: Dave Rosser (vocals, guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, organ, bass instrument); Scott Ford (vocals, bass instrument); Greg Wieczorek (vocals, drums, percussion); Joseph Arthur, Martina Topley-Bird, Jennifer Turner (vocals); Mathias Schneeberger (guitar, harmonium, organ, Mellotron, bass instrument, drums); Jeff Klein (guitar, organ, programming); Mario Lalli (guitar, bass instrument); David Catching, Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar); Rick G. Nelson (violin, viola, cello); Petra Haden (violin); Simone Vitucci (cello); Quintron (organ); Natasha Shneider (synthesizer, sequencer); Eddie Nappi (bass instrument, drums); Andy Preen (drums, percussion); Cully Symington, Norm Block , Brian Young (drums).

Spin (p.96) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hey're both versed in meaty riffs, acoustic drama, noirish electronics, and a nice heavy backbeat."
Spin (p.47) - Ranked #32 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "[With] a touch of grace that recalls their classic work without repeating it."
Uncut (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "With Lanegan at his stentorian best and Dulli in confessional mode, SATURNALIA is a feast..."
Alternative Press (p.160) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "[O]n tracks like 'God's Children,' the cosmos align and Dulli's and Lanegan's grizzled harmonies combine with stunning clarity."
CMJ - "Mournful, if synthetic-sounding, strings provide the frequent backdrop for an insistent dose of dirge that finds surprising texture as the album creeps closer to later selections like 'Bete Noir'..."
No Depression (p.69) - "Their collaboration is the result of opposing strengths: Lanegan's sludge-rock inclinations and Dulli's sensual soul, which together examine both the horrors and the splendor of primal introspection."
Kerrang (Magazine) (p.48) - "It has a gravity and a weight that aches with poignancy and experience, and is carried through by songs that are beautifully crafted with natural authority and natural light."
Q (Magazine) (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Squelching beats and breaks underpin Saturnalia, an air of woozy menace pervading 'Seven Stories Underground' and 'All Misery/Flowers,' bringing to mind Massive Attack playing gothic blues."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.112) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Lanegan's never sounded so powerfully bereft as on purgatorial blues 'All Misery'..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.79) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[B]rooding, bluesy rock -- a worthy soundtrack for those dark, whiskey-soaked nights of the soul and the regret-filled mornings after."
Harp (magazine) (p.100) - "Like a searing cross between 'Gimme Shelter' and 'Kashmir,' a song like 'The Stations' rises as it rings, its singed guitars and rolling rhythms episodically bolstering down and at once lifting their talk of the godly and the pleading."
Paste (magazine) (p.72) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "'Seven Stories Underground' builds on rough-cut Tom Waits-like percussion. 'Each to Each' uses funkier beats and strings."