“The past four years changed me in some profound ways,” says Eight Bells founder Melynda Jackson. Jackson probably speaks for all of us. No one escapes from a period of rampant illness and death, uncertainty, and political and social upheaval unscathed. Jackson capitalized on that ennui in writing the new Eight Bells album Legacy Of Ruin (due on February 25 and available now for preorder), the band’s first record in roughly five years.
Some good news: Jackson found ideal collaborators in bassist (and Decibel staff writer) Matt Solis and drummer Brian Burke (No Shores, Cave Dweller). Legacy Of Ruin ably explores big-ticket feelings like grief and loss and humanity’s push to consume regardless of the outcome. It’s a bittersweet and often beautiful record with quirky power that isn’t beholden to any genre.