Following Bohannons’ previous two efforts (the Steve Albini-produced debut EP Days of Echo and their critically-acclaimed 2012 album Unaka Rising) the Chattanooga, TN-based foursome will be releasing their sophomore studio full-length, Black Cross. Black Shield this March (through This Is American Music).
On it, brothers Marty and Matt Bohannon and company deliver an intense, highly-charged platter that incorporates punk, metal and southern roots music into a heavy and heady melting pot of sounds and styles. The often thundering calamity that charges through these 10 tracks provide the perfect backdrop to the equally heavy subject matter. The album delves into heartbreak (“Love Stunt”), loss of loved ones through both suicide (“Darkest Night”) & terminal illness (“Death and Texas”), ghosts (“Lightning and Thunder”), corporate insurance greed (“Black Cross. Black Shield”) and inhumanities toward immigrants (“Dias de las Muertas”). Yet there are also songs that not only face death with a certain fearlessness (“Cold Rag”), but also finds the band second-lining headfirst into the Apocalypse on the closing metal dirge (“Red, White, Black and Pale”).
Bohannons’ Black Cross. Black Shield will be available through This Is American Music on CD, vinyl and digital formats March 31.
Today, Ghettoblaster has the pleasure of premiering “White Widow.” This is what Marty Bohannon said about it:
“Penned with one of my favorite singer songwriters in mind, Dave Dondero. I had just returned from one of his shows and wanted to really focus on details as he does in lyrics. I just picked up on some subject matter from out my mind’s window and compressed it. It’s also a ‘keep your chin up’ to all those songwriters who haven’t got theirs yet. It’s not like you can stop writing, so patience has to be in full stock.”

(Visit the band here: http://www.thebohannons.net/.)