Holy Sons

Holy Sons is a one-man solo band built around Portland songwriter and drummer Emil Amos. Amos is notable for releasing "genre-bending" albums, according to LA Weekly music reviewer Chris Martins,[1] and for being a prolific songwriter; one account in Spike Magazine suggests he has written over a thousand songs.[2] Amos is also a multi-instrumentalist for groups such as Grails[3] and Om and Lilacs & Champagne. Amos was born of the lo-fi home recording movement of the '80s and early '90s.[1]

Holy Sons
Emil Amos, c. 2011
Background information
OriginPortland, Oregon, U.S.
GenresAvant-garde
LabelsPartisan Records
MembersEmil Amos

Amos described the mission of his music as "facing your personal reality."[1] Amos said in an interview that, beginning at age sixteen, he used drugs every single day and didn't let up for years.[1] A music critic for The Guardian described him as a prolific songwriter and as having a "great voice".[4] 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."[5] 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.[6] 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."[7]

Discography

Albums[8]
Year Album details
2000 The Lost Decade
  • Released: January 2000
  • Label: Pamlico Sound
2002 Staying True to the Ascetic Roots
  • Released: May 2002
  • Label: Pamlico Sound
2002 Enter the Uninhabitable
  • Released: October 2002
  • Label: Red 76
2003 I Want to Live a Peaceful Life
2005 Decline of the West
2009 Drifter's Sympathy
2009 Criminal's Return
2010 Survivalist Tales!
2013 My Only Warm Coals
2014 Lost Decade II
  • Released: April 2014
  • Label: Chrome Peeler
2014 The Fact Facer
2015 Fall of Man
2015 Decline of the West Vol. I & II (deluxe reissue)
2016 In the Garden
2018 Lost Decade III
gollark: Also gecken and other lizards/
gollark: Cats are nice.
gollark: Heresy.
gollark: For some reason I taste minty stuff as "hot" and very unpleasant, which is quite problematic since most toothpaste has mint in it.
gollark: Why would you want *more* wasps as opposed to fewer?

References
  1. Chris Martins (March 10, 2011). "Sober People Scare the Shit Out of Me". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  2. Mark Oliver Everett (2010). "Holy Sons: Survivalist Tales (Partisan Records)". Spike Magazine. Retrieved 2011-04-28. Actually the songwriting count for this project is at the 4-digit mark...
  3. "Grails – "Almost Grew My Hair" (Stereogum Premiere)". NPR / Stereogum. February 16, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-28. Seasoned Portland instrumental out-rock quartet Grails are set to release their fifth album, Deep Politics. It the first in three years. During the time off, drummer Emil Amos (aka Holy Sons) recorded God Is Good, his first album with his other...
  4. PJ Harvey and John Parish (1 April 2009). "Holy Sons - Evil Falls (from Decline of the West)". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-04-28. Another track from a Portland-based musician....
  5. Rob Cullivan (Mar 24, 2011). "Live Music!". Portland Tribune. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  6. "My, What A Busy Week!". Portland Mercury. March 26, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  7. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER (September 29, 2008). "Holy Sons, "Gnostic Device," Decline of the West (Partisan Records)". WWeek. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-28.
  8. http://holysons.com/records


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