The Tain

The single 18-plus minute track, in five parts, is named after the Irish mythological epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, often simply called The Táin. With production help from Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie, the Decemberists recorded the EP over the course of four days in Walla's studio in Seattle, Washington. The album cover was designed by the Portland artist Carson Ellis. “The Tain's cornerstone is a cycle of Celtic mythology under the same name and is basically a one epic song divided into five parts. A bit of a rock opera, The Tain has been a live favorite among their fans. The Portland, Oregon, band vividly conjures the clang of battle and the stench of ruined flesh in this mini-epic of marching guitars, bowed upright bass and artful contradiction." - David Fricke, Rolling Stone Track Listing: 1. Part I 2. Part II 3. Part III 4. Part IV 5. Part V

"I never was a metal head," remarked Colin Meloy in an Earlash interview last July. "It's something in my ...

After releasing two solid albums of British folk-inspired library-pop, it's only fitting that the Oregon-based collective the Decemberists would construct a nearly 20-minute EP based on an epic tale concerning a violent cattle raid in pre-Christian Ireland.