Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic album review

Swedish chanteuse takes a feral leap beyond the ‘funeral pop’ tag

Cover art for Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic album

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On her fourth album, Anna von Hausswolff is being swallowed by darkness and finally outgrows the ‘funeral pop’ tag – a classification that never did her justice anyway. Dead Magic is a sinister, heavy and hypnotising journey through organ-driven psychedelic, postrock and dark ambient, traversed by sacral severity. From the 12- and 16-minute-long atmospheric epics The Truth, The Glow, The Fall and Ugly And Vengeful to the fierce and excessive The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra, Anna delivers her most daring yet focused performance while cutting down the tracklist to only five songs. Constantly shifting between feral madness and delicate innocence, her voice is a gift that keeps on giving. Together with the organ that is prominently featured in the instrumental The Marble Eye, it creates a nightmarish sense of drama that is nearly impossible to resist.