Far from an easy or comfortable listen, Tim Mechling’s “The Decline of the Flies and the Rise of the Spiders” is an eerie folk album that traverses dark and philosophical topics like death, sin war, lust, murder, rebirth and all things in-between. The rather unsettling and dreary energy that’s exuded throughout this album ranges from outright haunting to scarily intriguing. There’s a host of subtle ambient noises that Tim Mechling expertly uses to just accentuate the mood of the album. It’s hard to settle for this album as a collection of disparate elements that might bear some resonance towards one another. I initially attempted to hear it as separate parts while coming back to review the collection later.
However, there’s a strange obsession that you find yourself in as you start to hear over it. There’s so much happening, so many strange and outright baffling elements that feed into one another as they transition from track to track with confusion and disbelief in equal measure. The haunting opening on ‘The American Civil War’, the complete silent lull on the opener, and the sheer three minutes of anxiety riddled noise that Sherman’s March to the Sea puts you through are enough to have you decide whether you want more or you simply can’t take any more at one go.
It’s a sensationally bewitching piece of art rock from a musician who’s artistic sensibilities clearly are tuned to a different purpose than most.