Holy Sons is a one-man solo band built around American songwriter and drummer Emil Amos. Amos is notable for releasing "genre-bending" albums, according to LA Weekly music reviewer Chris Martins,[ and for being a prolific songwriter; one account in Spike Magazine suggests he has written over a thousand songs.] Amos is also a multi-instrumentalist for groups such as Grails and Om and Lilacs & Champagne. Amos was born of the lo-fi home recording movement of the '80s and early '90s.
Amos described the mission of his music as "facing your personal reality".[ Amos said in an interview that, beginning at age 16, he used drugs every single day and did not let up for years.][ A music critic for The Guardian described him as a prolific songwriter and as having a "great voice".] Reviewer Rob Cullivan of the Portland Tribune described Holy Sons' album Survivalist Tales to be an "ode to the dime novels in the early 1900s that peddled the stories of wilderness explorers," and described the music as "sonic wanderings" with "strange song structures". A review in the Portland Mercury described his music as "dark, languid psychedelia" and commented how Amos has "habitually been kept underground" with few live performances up until the last few years. His vocals have been compared to Neil Young but change personalities quite often. Willamette Week described the album Decline of the West as "a varied, meticulously constructed piece of avant-folk that stands alone by its own merits."
Discography
Albums
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2000 |
Released: January 2000
Label: Pamlico Sound
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2002 |
Released: May 2002
Label: Pamlico Sound
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2002 |
Released: October 2002
Label: Red 76
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2003 |
Released: July 2003
Label: FILMguerrero
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2005 |
Released: December 2005
Label: Partisan Records
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2009 |
Released: April 2009
Label: Important Records
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2009 |
Released: October 2009
Label: Important Records
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2010 |
Released: October 2010
Label: Partisan Records
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2013 |
Released: April 2013
Label: Important Records
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2014 |
Released: April 2014
Label: Chrome Peeler
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2014 |
Released: September 2014
Label: Thrill Jockey
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2015 |
Released: August 2015
Label: Thrill Jockey
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2015 |
Released: December 2015
Label: Partisan Records
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2016 |
Released: October 2016
Label: Partisan Records
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2018 | Lost Decade III
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2020 | Raw and Disfigured
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Released: OCT 2020
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Label: Thrill Jockey
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External links