A band who emerged from the ashes of the L.A. punk scene along with acts such as The Blasters, the Gun Club and X, the Divine Horsemen merged their punk sensibility with a revved up take on roots music on a handful of electrifying albums spanning their first incarnation from 1984 until 1988. 33 years later they re-emerged, longer in the tooth perhaps but still with fire in their bellies on ‘Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix’, released in 2021 and followed in 2023 by ‘Bitter End Of A Sweet Night’.
The band was formed by Chris Desjardins (AKA Chris D), a writer at Slash magazine who also fronted the L.A. punk band The Flesh Eaters. With his then wife Julie Christensen he branched out, initially with a solo album, ‘Time Stands Still’, credited to Chris D /Divine Horsemen. It’s an album firmly ensconced in the then L.A. scene with appearances by Dave Alvin, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Dan Stuart, John Doe and Kid Congo Powers. That said, the rippled guitars and bar room piano of the opening song ‘When The Rain Comes Down’ finds Desjardins moving away from his frenzied recordings with The Flesh Eaters and he prefigures the gothic americana of 16 Horsepower and Nick Cave’s doom on several songs here including ‘Lilly White Hands’ and especially on a scary version of Frankie & Johnny, called here ‘Frankie Silver’ with Christensen sparring with him on vocals.
1986’s ‘Devil River’ (now solely credited to Divine Horsemen) is a classic, sounding like a death obsessed cult hypnotized by REM and Camper Van Beethoven. Desjardin and Christensen sound like the apocalyptic bastard children of George and Tammy as they roar through the spectacular title song, a particularly riff heavy number while ‘Tenderist Kiss’ might be the most savage love song you’ll ever hear, the pair sounding like the embodiment of the protagonists in Badlands.They followed this up with ‘Snakehandler’ which, while not up to par with its predecessor does have the excellent the ‘Blind Leading The Blind’ with Christensen singing on a song which matches anything Lone Justice released. They bowed out on a high with an extended EP, ‘Handful Of Sand’ which featured the title song, a return to the glories of ‘Devil River’, along with a brace of live recordings.
Desjardins and Christensen split up as did the band and it was a welcome surprise when they reconvened in 2021. The opening chunky chords of ‘Mystery Writers’, the first song on ‘Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix’, along with the revived vocal sparring of the lead pair allowed that they had almost never gone away. Indeed, they seem hell bent on reigniting old fires on several songs including a very muscular remake of ‘Handful Of Sand’. Their latest release, ‘Bitter End Of A Sweet Night’, finds the band in a most mature state, able to recall the hard drive of their earliest years as on ‘Memory Fails’ but also to be much more contemplative as on the quite astonishing break up ballad that is ‘The Next Man That I See’. This writer looks forward to their next offering.
