Local album reviews: David Lindes' Peace With a Lion and Von Masse's Coil 

David Lindes, Peace With a Lion
SLC singer/songwriter David Lindes has been releasing singles from his new album Peace With a Lion since last November, and the full album is now available in its entirety. This new work is about Lindes baring his wounds and moving towards healing—his effortlessly bilingual voice has notes of Cat Stevens when singing in English, and Juan Luis Guerra in Spanish.

You'll hear Lindes flawlessly blending elements of various genres and inspiration from different cultures. Hearing Lindes explore deep, complicated and heartfelt feelings here is cathartic, and will make your heart go out to him, and might even help with your own inner healing.

The Guatemalan-born singer touches on heavy topics like leaving home, being abandoned by his father and experiencing physical and emotional abuse in childhood. The songs on the album approach these wounds in metaphors. Opening with the bluesy "Gold in the Ashes," a soulful bass line offers a greeting before Lindes' smooth vocals come in. It continues like that before acoustic guitar and keys join in, creating a soundscape that's peaceful and goosebump-inducing at the same time. The aforementioned physical abuse is the fire that burns Lindes' body to ash in "Gold in the Ashes."

"Te Vengo A Perdonar" ("I've Come to Forgive You") was one of the first singles released for the album, accompanied by a music video. Much like "Gold in the Ashes," this track also deals with facing childhood trauma and finding a way to accept it and transform it into wisdom, compassion and even beauty. The lyrics put a forceful end to a self-imposed sentence of pain that only ends with forgiveness. Even for those who are not bilingual, the depth of emotion of "Te Vengo A Perdonar" is poignant.

"If I can take my past, exactly as it is, and turn it into a story and a song, maybe that will bring me a little closer to not wanting a different past," Lindes said last November when the single was released. "And if I like the story, and I like the song, someday, I might even embrace my past."

The title track is a moving folk ballad, with Lindes likening his father's abandonment to a vicious, crippling attack by a predator, asking with both urgency and bafflement, "How do you make peace with a lion?" The weight of this song washes over you immediately, with Lindes' pain and heartbreak on full display. At the same time, there's a hopefulness present that offers solace. Even if you don't know the backstory of this song, it still packs an emotional punch—listeners can easily draw their own parallels with life experiences. Everyone has a "lion" with which they struggle to make peace.

There are also more cheerful tracks on Peace With a Lion that are inspired by the healing power of nature. Themes like mental health forgiveness are wrapped up in tracks like "Lluvia," and a tropical ballad about the nourishing power of rain, "Jardinero," describes the steady, affectionate, healing hand of a gardener. Similarly, "Florecer," is sung from the point of view of a seed eager to bloom and grow.

Peace With a Lion is a beautiful and moving album, and although it touches on sorrowful topics, the gleams of hope Lindes weaves throughout are touching, making it easy to listen to again and again. It's streaming everywhere now.

Von Masse, Coil
A little late to the game on this one, but better late than never, right? Since February, Von Masse has been giving listeners their first new music since 2022, and I'm here for it. The psych/glam/shoegaze group dropped singles before giving us Coil at the end of March.

"This debut full-length album is a deep dive into the cycles of love and loss, decorated in a haze of psychedelic and dreamy sounds and punctuated by heavy rhythms," they announced on Instagram the day of the release. "We self-produced the record over the last two years, carefully learning the mixing process as we went on. Most of the songs were conceived on GarageBand as simple demos, but took on whole new shapes as we crafted each one. Once all hands were in, they turned into something I couldn't have expected at the start. The final result is something we're proud of, and hope you enjoy diving into the sonic realm we created."

This debut album is dreamy, punchy and full of delightfully delicious effects, driving guitar solos and impeccable vibes. They note on their BandCamp page that Coil was recorded over the past couple years between full-time jobs, other bands and life happenings in general. It's always so great to listen to an album you know took a great deal of effort to make happen, and to cheer it on from the sidelines.

The album opens with "Dazer," a strong start that pulls you in immediately with its atmospheric resonance. As it continues you get tracks like "Burst" and "Motion Sickness" that bring funky bass grooves to the forefront, and "Psych(e)" that finishes the album with out-of-this-world keys/synths that permeate your headphones. Even if you don't listen to a ton of music in this genre, you're sure to find a song on Coil that you enjoy and gets you bobbing your head.

Coil is streaming everywhere now, but consider supporting them by buying the album on BandCamp.