*rating* 7.8*summary* High pressure meets low pressure in a storm that roils, crackles, and ultimately passes - for now.*This two person review is by Ethan E. and Sage T.*EE: The album cover is right - a storm is a brewin'. ST: But what kind of storm? EE: That's the question now isn't it.ST: So, to get everyone at home up to speed, The Gutter Twins is the long rumored fusion of Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers' Greg Dulli. EE: You could call em a supergroup..if more than 10 people in the whole world had ever heard of any of those things. ST: "A screaming what in your gutter's who?" EE: Heh. Exactly. But for people who know...this is a big deal. I loved the Screaming Trees, and have always been a huge AW fan.ST: Same..only I became a Dulli fan a little later on with his Twilight Singers side project.EE: I've been hearing rumblings about this album... about these guys not bringing anything "new" to the table - but you know from the Twilight Singers, innovation isn't what they're about.ST: Yeah, this isn't about being "new" - on Powder Burns Dulli samples the Beatles no less - it's about two guys taking their long, hard-learned lessons from a combined 40 something years in the scene and putting it to use.EE: That's the way I see this album - they probably decided, "Ok, we either make this about writing songs...or making an experience.ST: And really...they've proven they can do the song thing.EE: Not to say that this is some experimental noodling or rain-drops in the glen or something. ST: well, it tells you something about the world we live in when a cohesive, well assembled ALBUM is considered an "experience". What Dulli and Lanegan have done is made a record that demands to be listened all the way through and understood on those terms.EE: That's true, on a basic level, they're old fashioned fuddy-duddies that couldn't care less about having an iTunes single-of-the-day. So, the sheer novelty of crafting an "album" is something in and of itself... but I don't want to quantify, these guys really have made an experience.ST: Hence the storm comment at the beginning. EE: right. ST: The more you mention it, the more I think you've nailed it. This record really does roil in like a cloudy bulkhead, muted lightning-flashes deep in its guts.EE: And it's not enough to just approximate the sounds of a storm, any heavy metal band with a penchant for cymbals can do that. No, what the Gutter Twins are doing here is recreating the FEEL of a storm. The pressure drop...the tingle on your skin...then the torrent.ST: It really gives the album more dimension to listen to it in this way. The first track, "The Stations", is exactly like the darkening before a midwestern funnel-storm - all becomes cold, the air about to burst. The buildup continues on "God's Children", "All Misery / Flowers" brings the rain, "The Body" the supplication, "Idle Hands" brings the thunder. The storm brews, boils, and eventually passes. Hell, the final song, "Front Street", even has the chirping birds of a new day washed clean.EE: You mention a funnel storm, and I know what you mean, those huge dark sheets of cloud that wrap over the sky, the feeling that nature is about to kick your ass - but that's not the kind of storm here. A twister never forms and pulls Helen Hunt's shirt off.ST: yeah, it's more like one of those storms people gather to watch over the mesa or whatnot. More awe than ominous.EE: Which in large part comes from the grounding narration of Dulli and Lanegan - one sounding like a thousand year old mystic, the other a faith-shaken preacher. These guys are story tellers, and you want to hear them through - and you know they'll never let the storm get out of hand.ST: Which, for me, is maybe the downside of this album. I was really hoping these guys would just freaking let loose and blow minds. The storm never does get out of hand, which while being fun while it lasts, only really leaves you itching for the next one - and hoping this time it'll punch wheat-stalks into the power lines.EE: Well, expectation will always get in the way of enjoying an album like this. It's not a math equation - Screaming Trees X Afghan Whigs != Explosive Audio Diarrhea.ST: Well, heh, when you put it that way. Make no mistake, this album is a grower, and is badass in its own slow burning way. I truly enjoyed the listen - but something tells me I'll enjoy the next storm even more.EE: Amen.