Similar to “This Year,” someone drives home and anticipates a new world in “The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums.”

Track: “The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums”
Album: Dark in Here (2021)

John Darnielle has called “The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums” the most autobiographical of the songs on Dark in Here and it’s not difficult to see why. It’s a literal song about the things that make up the title and as a result it draws some obvious connections to other parts of the catalog. Beyond that, there are direct references across it just like the similarly autobiographical “Younger.” Some of them are to Goths songs, but “Never Quite Free” gets checked in the closing lyrics. The extended Mountain Goats universe collapses in on itself at times, but this is rare.

In that light, “The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums” feels a little bit like a sister song to “This Year.” We don’t know how old Darnielle is in this one or if it even is literally him, but it’s someone driving home and getting lost in the music and “toxins” of some sort, trying to face the world they’re headed back into as they leave one they feel safe within. Your music may not have been this and your home life may not have been that, but the reason “This Year” works is because everyone can relate to turning into that driveway. This one’s not a belter, but it’s space to picture that sensation with some more room to stretch out.