When it comes to singer songwriting, many metal fans probably won’t be inclined to stop and give a listen to what’s being proposed to them; well, if that’s the case, it definitely hurts, especially since, in this last period, some are emerging who, also thanks to a metal background, manage to give their works an above-average emotional charge. If recently we have seen the great maturation of former A Forest Of Stars Duncan Evans, today it’s time to open the curtain on a talented Hungarian musician, David Makò (with a present in the stoner band HAW and a recent past with the doomsters Stereochrist), who a few years ago embarked on a solo career under the name The Devil’s Trade, which has seen an exponential increase in its quotations. What Happened To The Little Blind Crow is a real masterpiece, in which Makò assembles a series of intense, moving, rough but at the same time melodic songs, rich in blues nuances and ethno folk references, enhanced by a heartfelt and vibrant vocal interpretation. The beauty of the acoustic opening track I Can Slow Down Time Pt. 1 is enough to make us understand that the work will be at a level that will leave us literally annihilated: David uses only his voice and guitar (or banjo) and yet he manages to fill any space, no matter which direction his music may flow. To An End strikes with the strings of the acoustic instruments that almost seem to be whipped and dissolves into a folk ending (which will be taken up again in the closing of the conclusive I Can Slow Down Time Pt. 2), preparing the ground for the perfection represented by Your Own Hell, a song that can’t leave you indifferent, thanks to a vocal interpretation and a chorus that create a truly chilling combination. The long St. James Hospital is cloaked in a bluesy aura, which the legacy of the Magyar musician makes it unique, with the painful feeling of doom turning into a more melancholic and suffused mood. 12 To Die 6 To Rise is the album’s other standout track, capable of replicating the spasmodic pace of Your Own Hell: it’s precisely on these occasions that Makò turns into a sort of roughened version of the most passionate and introspective Mick Moss (Leaving Eden, for instance), but this juxtaposition, which may even appear improper to some, is basically useful to frame the work’s evocative potential. What Happened To The Little Blind Crow in a little less than forty minutes offers everything you would always expect from a record: depth, feeling, emotion, pain, melancholy and, above all, poetry transformed into music by this wonderful artist, who deserves to be included right now among the best exponents of folk rock songwriting of our time.

2018 – Golden Antenna Records