Cavalcade the debut LP from Chapel Hill’s Bellafea, establish themselves as an original, peerlessly talented and inventive band. The group, is singer/guitarist Heather McEntire, bassist Eddie Sanchez, and drummer Nathan Buchanan. Sanchez and Buchanan form a tightly controlled duo, pummeling with unrestrained force. Elsewhere, they lock together as a subtle support to McEntire’s snaking guitar, itself capable of outright primal noise as well as sinister ringing. As instrumentalists, they do exactly what trios should: they coalesce as a unit and fill space in a manner that is all theirs. McEntire’s voice lacks any sense of pretension, her stylistic range is as impressive as it is effective. Intense at any volume, she comes across like an artier Chan Marshall on “Telling The Hour,” and goes for a full-on Robert Plant move on “Arctic.” Her voice is as surprising and unique as the music itself, and her sense of melodic counterpoint weaves it into the ensemble’s onslaught as though it were another instrument.
– Mike McGovern
Bellafea: www.bellafea.com
Southern Records: www.southern.com
