The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats are a horror movie. Not because John Darnielle writes scary death metal - although he does enjoy it - but the parallels are there: his music started off with shaky acoustic guitar recorded direct to a boombox like Sam Raimi started with shaky handicam on cheap tape; Darnielle sings about bad people in small towns and the destructive relationships people put each other through, often resulting in a catastrophic loss of blood (see tMG's No Children or Stephen King's Misery).

Perhaps Darnielle is attracted to the genre as commentary, summarising the state of pop culture in 90 minutes?

"Nope, I like horror movies 'cause they're bad ass! They're dumb and brutal and it's the same reason I like metal: it's a cheap uncomfortable thrill." He enjoys horror with an almost giddy joy. "You know which Frankenstein is my favourite now? It's the original Edison Frankenstein that they dug up, the silent one from 1910. All that survived for many years was this one still of the monster." He pauses, smiling "And then, a few years back, a collector in Wisconsin says 'Oh, no I have that'. It had been missing forever, no one had seen it since 1913 or thereabouts and this guy is like 'have it!' It is amazing, very different from the American one in which the monster can't talk, can't think, it's just a blind brute force... and that's where you can go with horror movies. The point of a horror movie is you get punched in the face!"

The Mountain Goats may not punch you in the face, but their music is still striking, as Darnielle confesses. "I have this point somewhere on this axis of joy and depression, sort of this exultant feeling of sadness, where you have sort of agreed to be bummed out about something and you feel good that you've checked in to that feeling, it's an exuberant, dark thing."

If their latest album is any indication, that feeling visits characters doomed by design, like Janet Leigh in Psycho, whose demise is anticipated by everyone but her. "Well yeah, that's your classic Greek tragedy and that's what I'm in to, people coming up on the moment when they realise something bad is about to go down. That's the most exciting moment in any narrative, when the inevitable becomes apparent to everybody. That's the point in the novel where you go 'OH GOD!' It's all about to come down, there's nothing anybody can do about it."

But after almost 20 years of recording, critics suggest Darnielle must be running dry, accomplishing his musical goals a long time ago, but he objects. "I think that's a toxic way of looking at writing. Goals are for businesses, they're for corporations, but writing is for people. You don't really sit down and say 'I have a message that I have to send to the people and the message is...' No, I sit down and write and I learn what's in there. Every human being is infinitely complex, so you find out what's in there. If it comes out interesting then it's worth doing. Hopefully, if you come to my show, you get something out of it that you could not get from another, the particular blend you get from us I don't think you get anywhere else."

With Heretic Pride's enormous pre-release hype The Mountain Goats are no longer stalking the shadows of smoky bars at night; they're no longer right behind you. They're in front, on the stage, singing their lungs out, and it's scarily good.