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Music

Black River Bell delves deep into dystopia on ‘The Great Unknowing’

Sydney artist Timothy Bray, who creates and performs under the name Black River Bell, spares no detail when it comes to painting his prophecy of the future. 

While the latest album from Black River Bell is oozing a dark sense of despair and aching melancholy, it’s his latest single The New World which hits the hardest, conjuring up grotesque imagery of a world which is falling apart. 

Black River Bell

Fall into the dystopian world of Black River Bell and The Great Unknowing; an album tipped by despair, apocalypse, and an overwhelming sense of woe. 

As our world seems to face inevitable destruction, and as fear seeks to become an everyday emotion, it appears that denial is our preferred option. Here it takes the boldest of artists to uncover what is real. Black River Bell is one of these artists. Using his enthralling presence he’s able to expel an apocalyptic vision of nature in crisis and the existential dread this destruction is truly creating in us all.

Rarely are lyrics so dark yet so truthful, the gloom of every word made more despairing by Bray’s murky vocals. Haunted by the beauty that planet earth once possessed, we are all left wondering; how did it all go so wrong? 

A strangely familiar folk sound is blended with the ghostly aura which Black River Bell carries. Initially the eeriness of the song takes you aback, but as you let it slowly consume you, it seems to mimic the planet’s slow but sure deterioration. 

The New World is just one taste from Black River Bell’s new album The Great Unknowing, a collection of richly textured narratives, with each track unveiling another dark shadow or devastating truth about the world. Bray exemplifies creativity, inspired by his personal revelations surrounding our world. Experimenting with sound, he creates a distinctive ambience, casting shadows over one another. There seems to be no limit to how dark he will go. 

A pure and explorative artist, Black River Bell understands our shifting landscape and yearns to create positive change before the calamitous unknowns of environmental damage become a reality.

 

The Great Unknowing is out now.