Album #6 from Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter/poet Emma Ruth Rundle. After dabbling with minimalist arrangements on her previous album, Emma enlists a full band to add emphasis to her messages on her new album, These Killing times.
OFFERING A RESILIENT RESPONSE
Observing the devastating effects of yet another climate disaster in early 2025, Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter/poet Emma Ruth Rundle was inspired to write. As she reflected upon the systematic issues at the root of so many global crises, she made a conscious decision to acknowledge the pain in what she was seeing, but also to offer a resilient response. The result was the suite of songs that make up These Killing Times.
These Killing Times is the sixth album from Emma Ruth Rundle and her first since 2021’s acclaimed offering, Engine of Hell (our review here). For Engine of Hell, Emma opted for a minimalized approach, framing her voice and lyrics with the pared-back accompaniment of just acoustic guitar and piano. This time around, she’s reverted to the full band sound of her previous work; she feels strongly that the fuller sound is better suited to her now more direct vocal style: “I wanted to feel fortified by friendships and to be in community with other musicians,” she says. “To make something that pushed back against the isolation.”
INTENSITY…
And, so – drummer Jess Gowrie and long-time friend and collaborator Troy Zeigler were enlisted to work up Emma’s new batch of songs. They were subsequently joined by saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi and guitarists Nick Reinhart and Gina Gleason to add the final polish.
Over the album’s eight songs, Emma tackles such subjects as Christian nationalism, the ever-worsening quality of political discourse and ontological disorientation. It’s heavy and intensive but, alongside the agonized soul-searching, Emma also offers love, balm and a means to escape the traps that we lay for ourselves.
The scene is set from the opening bars of Powerless, the album’s opening track – and one of two singles to precede the album’s release. The word that springs immediately to mind is ‘Intensity,’ as Emma delivers her vivid vocals to a piano backing. And the intensity is magnified ten-fold when the band kick in for the full-force, metal-heavy chorus.
Photo: Kristin Cofer
WHIRLPOOLS OF SOUND
The first song that Emma wrote for These Killing Times, God’s Picture is her ‘prayer for intervention.’ It’s the song that she felt inspired to write after witnessing the impact of that 2025 climate disaster. The intimacy and intensity remain, with Emma’s voice almost at a whisper, whilst piano and acoustic guitar give the song a jazzy vibe. “God’s got a picture of the whole world burning,” she sings, as the song blossoms from jazzy contemplation into a widescreen anthem.
Chiming church bells supply the intro to Anvil but the tune and instrumentation – slide acoustic guitar, piano and swirls of electric guitar – suggest a far more sinister agenda. Emma’s lyrics squirm their way past her lips and, as the song reaches its crescendo, she seems in danger of drowning in a whirlpool of sound.
A passage of strummed acoustic guitar lulls the listener, before the band strike up with a sound that’s almost orchestral, for the excellent Catherine Wheel. This time around, Emma is almost snarling out her lyrics, with a voice that’s loaded with passion and confused agony.
Photo: Mike Ainscoe
MAELSTROMS
A soft drum rhythm and a rich, laid-back combination of piano and guitar signal the return to a more jazzy feel for Don’t Delay Heaven. Emma’s vocals are lizard-slick and varied in tone. Breathy, seductive, whispered intimacy slips into a tone of soft, vulnerable pleading and, when Emma sings “Come to me,” it isn’t a request, it’s a demand.
A crisp drum pattern launches Enough, the second of the album’s two singles and another album highlight. Emma’s in an ethereal, dreamlike mindset for this one. Her contemplations are occasionally interrupted by sounds such as a tinkly guitar solo, but she sticks to her mission. That is, until all hell breaks loose as Patrick butts in with what Emma rightly describes as: “a maelstrom of saxophone.”
Human Kindness is the album’s longest track by some distance and it’s clear from the outset that the song is a slow-burning epic. The backing builds and fades and Emma’s startling vocals are, alternately, soothing, enticing and threatening. As the song reaches its climax, guitars howl and grind and, through it all, Emma continues to spill out her emotions.
THE QUESTIONS REMAIN...
And Emma is joined by her ‘celestial choir,’ Marissa Nadler, Lukas Frank and Amelia Baker for Oceans of Time, the album’s sedate closing track. Piano provides the instrumental aspect of the accompaniment, before a wave of electronic sound banishes all before it, and Emma’s task is complete.
Looking back at the events that inspired the songs on These Killing Times, Emma is moved to pose a few questions. What do we do next? What responsibility do we take as individuals? What role do artists have? Finally, she asks: What will we live for beyond the valley of the shadow of the fear of all men? That’s a question with no definitive answer, but one that is being asked with increasing urgency.
Emma Ruth Rundle: Website