by Bob Keeley
If you’ve heard only one song from Our Road to Dust, you really don’t know what the album sounds like. In fact, the shift from the opening track, “Of Ascent” to the second track, The Illusion of Permanence,” is so abrupt, you might wonder if you suddenly started listening to another band.
But that is just the way Edensong is. After a nine-year absence, Edensong is back with their first new album since Years in the Garden of Years. Now down to a quartet, James Byron Schoen leads the band as primary vocalist and guitarist (along with some keys.) But this is no solo album. While Schoen may be the spark plug, other members, along with a few guests, participate in writing and arranging.
The image of dust, as both something found in the desert and as the eventual end for all of us (dust to dust,) is one that seeps into many of the tracks. The opening, “Of Ascents” is an acoustic guitar duet that sets the stage for the rest of the album. The title makes a reference to a portion of the biblical book of Psalms. (Psalms 120 – 134 are known as the Psalms of ascent and were used as the faithful traveled up the mountain to the temple in Jerusalem.) The song serves to let us know that there is a journey ahead. But then, a sudden jump, mid-musical-phrase. The peaceful journey is interrupted by distorted guitars as we dive headlong into prog-metal. “The Illusion of Permanence” furthers the dust metaphor as the temporal nature of human existence is considered. The metal sound of the track shows the urgency with which people “search for beauty” and engage in a “Don Quixote quest” referencing the character who famously tilted at windmills.
“These Old Wounds” is a moody piece that reflects how we manage to hang on to hurts and wounds from our past. In this song, we hear one of the hallmarks of Edensong’s unique sound: the flute. Throughout this album, the lightness of Barry Seroff’s flute adds a special tonality to their sound. Jethro Tull’s influence is seen in the way Seroff plays and how the flute is embedded with the rest of the band.
“Black Crow” shows yet another side of Edensong, their rich vocal harmonies. In this song, Orfeo is mentioned, an alternate name for Orpheus, a musician of myth who traveled to the underworld to save his bride. Musically, the track is unlike anything else on the album. While the first incorporates electronic elements and tribal drumming, he second half introduces flamenco guitars along with haunting group vocals as the singer laments the situation he finds himself in with his love. Breathtaking.
This theme of lost love continues in “Hall of Statues” as the singer again laments how his home is no longer a place of life but merely a “reliquary,” a place where religious relics reside. The unique meter of the song reflects the unsettled nature of the text, although it is once again supported by pleasant harmonies and instruments. Flute takes us to a place of reverie in the wonderful instrumental section.
“Book of Complaints” puts together many of the musical ideas we’ve seen so far, but it carries perhaps the most compelling lyrics yet.
I got this book of complaints / Write in it every day / That’s how I know exactly what you said to me… / …that morning seven years ago / After a million years I wipe away my tears / And look at my battle-scarred face in the mirror / And say “I like you just the way you are.”
The juxtaposition of “seven years ago” and “a million years” nicely shows how time is both a specific construct and lives in the mind of the beholder. That simple phrase says much about the interior life of the singer.
After those songs give a frankly disheartening look at life and relationships, a pair of instrumental tracks prepares us for the finale. “Of Ascents (reprise)” revisits the same melody that we heard in the opening track but the accompaniment is quite different, telling us that the pleasant journey that we set out on at the beginning of this album is not what we thought it would be. The second instrumental,“Wikkr Basct,” follows as a violin (guest artist Chris Baum) interacts with the flute in what is a wild ride of a track that gets decidedly metal at the end. Perhaps this is meant to show that we hold our lives in complex and fragile wicker baskets.
We now arrive at the title track and longest song on the album, “Our Road to Dust,” in which vocals, along with the flute presents a particularly strong melody and paints a picture of getting older and recognizing that we dance in “a desert trail,” and find ourselves in a place where “our footsteps leave no trace.” The song moves through several distinct musical sections before arriving at a standout outro, featuring a repeating melody that brilliantly closes the album and is sure to stay in your head for days.
Our Road to Dust is an album that would be easy to dismiss on first listen as a pleasant diversion but it is much richer, both musically and lyrically, than might at first appear. Even though this isn’t a concept album in the strict sense, the songs, take us through what Schoen has said is “a time of deep change for the band, both personally and sonically.” This is an album that plots a season of loss but does not end in despair. In the final words of the album, “our fallen friends” are seen “as landmarks along our road to dust.” It is in the relationships that we have that give us courage and help point the way forward.
By using ideas borrowed from faith traditions as well as mythology, Edensong have crafted a thoughtful album that will stand up to repeated listens with lyrics that will give us much to consider. The influences from Tull and other bands are, at best, buried deep in their music. Edensong have crafted a unique and powerful place for themselves. Our Road to Dust is an album that deserves serious consideration for any end-of-year lists, and one I expect to go back to often.
Released on May 9th, 2025 on The Laser’s Edge
1. Of Ascents (1:36)
2. The Illusion of Permanence (6:10)
3. These Old Wounds (6:36)
4. Black Crow (4:51)
5. Hall of Statues (5:27)
6. Book of Complaints (3:27)
7. Of Ascents (Reprise) (2:02)
8. Wykkr Bäsct (3:48)
9. Our Road to Dust (7:56)
James Byron Schoen / guitars, vocals
TD “BenBen” Towers / bass, vocals
Barry Seroff / Flutes
Nick DiGregorio / drums, percussion
