With a biting folk-rock sound and blurry vocal haikus, the band takes us through a muddied but unbowed mind. The band from Huntsville, Alabama covers a lot of sonic ground here, but that in no way implies a lack of cohesion. The fact also that they are too often lumped into the emo dump does not imply all the nightmares associated with that genre. This is a solid rock record, with just the right placement of acoustic and piano additions to round the sound into a great stew of American styles.

?Behold the River and ?Hey Jim? are epic in an almost progressive fashion, but the instrumentation grounds them in the audio valley, as you?d expect from guys raised on both country and King Crimson. ?Gypsy Melodies? and ?Electronic Dream Plant? should have been placed side by side in the mix, as they illustrate the depth of the band?s exposure to varied sound, and their ability to shape them into a powerful sound.

What originally began as a solo project, The Snake The Cross The Crown is a band to watch in hope. They display the best of American listening to and absorption of in a variety of music, and have made what they heard their own. 6/10 -- Mike Wood (27 March, 2007)