TEN STONES

"Ten Stones" finds David Eugene Edwards at his most acerbic and hard rocking, with cuts alternating between unchecked if bleak passion and his more typical morose observation. A far cry from the crafty assemblage of "Mosaic", as an album this comes across as illegitimate and hastily thrown together. In addition, the more pungent exercises seem more than a tad overwrought.

While "Not One Stone" demonstrates that Woven Hand's fitness level is up to the task, "White Knuckle Grip" is a dressed up big old boogie blues number in all the worst ways, and "Kicking Bird" is yet another wholly unsubtle megillah of rants and gashes that, at 2:14, runs about...er..2:14 too long. Even the ostensible showcase opener "The Beautiful Axe" is essentially shrouded in oppressive dread. Now, Woven Hand has always been this way, but somehow they knew how to skirt the boundaries while still respecting musicality, until here.

The album does include several isolated peaks in the form of "Horsetail", the achingly Gothic "Iron Feather", and "Kingdom of Ice", but in this divide and conquer episode, the thrashers win out, so avoid this stoning and try "Mosaic" instead.