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The Gutter Twins, should you not know by now, are Greg Dulli of the gone but hardly forgotten Afghan Whigs and Mark Lanegan of the dearly departed Screaming Trees. This is not their first collaboration, Lanegan having contributed to Dulli’s post-Whigs project, The Twilight Project. Saturnalia, however, their first release as the Gutter Twins, is a fully realized project. It is seamless, perfect in every way.

Dulli has heretofore been an acquired taste for me, requiring two to three listens (at least) before I could access what he was doing. Lanegan‘s work, on the other hand, has always been more immediately accessible but ultimately less appealing. Saturnalia, interestingly enough, is one of those cases where the whole is greater than the already considerable parts, a multi-layered, varied work that demands and rewards repetitive examination.

It is clear almost from the beginning that Dulli, as is his wont, is fucking with us. The title, Saturnalia, references a weeklong Roman pagan festival, roughly coinciding with Christmas, in honor of the God Saturn. It was characterized by practical jokes and role reversals. Yet the songs on Saturnalia reference Christian salvation and apocalyptic visions. The song titles --- The Stations, God’s Children, Who Will Lead Us? --- point the way with the lyrics following up. The cover photo --- two shotgun houses in what appears to be the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, separated by a vacant lot which contains two empty chairs, as a storm threatens --- is representative of the swirling, dark, and uneasy tone of the music, layered with guitars, keyboards, and echoed vocals, sometimes played in counterpoint to each other (All Misery/Flowers, Circle The Fringes) as they struggle for control of the track’s final destination. There is a bit of fun with the sequencing; the acoustic but sinister The Body, for example, is abruptly followed by the storm and noise of Idle Hands, which is actually getting airplay on terrestrial radio.

Saturnalia has been a couple of years in the making; while I’m of the “get ‘er done” theory of rock music creation, Saturnalia has benefited from the time expended. You’ll listen to this and wish all alternative rock projects sounded this great, even as you go running back to play every Dulli and Lanegan CD you’ve got. All this, and on Subpop, too, which brought Afghan Whigs into the world. You have got to hear this. Over and over.