Double Eyelid: The Tell-Tale Heart

(Bandcamp) ST | DL

Released: 10 October, 2025

In time for Halloween, Double Eyelid narrates Poe’s classic tale over a haunting soundtrack. Snuggle up and enjoy. Mark Ray reviews…

It is October and the time when the wind blows to release the bats from the bell tower, summon black cats whilst waiting for the blackout in a forest with Alice, the Fatman and Isabel, becoming spellbound by song and legends, waiting to see what godsends, discovering the beauty of poison, finding sin in your salvation whilst still being religious as hell, ignoring the machine and deciding that sometimes dead is better.

Yes, children of the night, it’s Goth time.

Into this maelstrom of darkness Double Eyelid release a new EP which tells the tale of Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart. Edgar Allen Poe is, of course, the most formidable and revered of gothic writers. Poe was influential on the nascent goth scene of the late 70s and early 80s. Lou Reed himself, not a goth but no stranger to the darker side of life, took on Poe with his Raven album. It’s a very brave thing to take on a project like this – to narrate a gothic story over music can come across as either overly reverential or too po(e)-faced.

So does Ian Revell, the man behind Double Eyelid, pull it off? If you asked a Ouija board then the pointer would fly to YES.

Poe’s story, first published in 1843, is one of his darker – and from a palette that includes being buried alive and plague that’s saying a lot. It’s narrated by an unreliable, unnamed person who does their best to convince the reader that they aren’t insane whilst describing the murder and dismembering of an old man, who, so the narrator tells us, never did him any harm besides having a “vulture-eye”. The body parts are buried beneath the floorboards from whence the narrator perceives the sound of a beating heart. Grand guignol indeed.

Commenting on the release, Revell says, ‘This was an idea that sat on the back burner for multiple years – it was too ambitious, too weird, there were always excuses not to do it. But for a number of reasons I decided about 4 months ago that it was going to be my main focus, and it’s a true joy to finally be able to put it out.’

Revell narrates the tale with an actor’s poise and timbre, with an ear for the theatrical, whilst never falling into bathos. He uses his voice and music to create tension, pity and horror. There is a three note motif that runs through the chapters. In chapter 1 it sounds like a Black Sabbath riff, backed with psycho strings. The tension is as taut as a tightrope that the narrator treads carefully upon. In chapter 2 the motif is played on the piano, tinkling like the rattling of bones in a haunted house. It builds up almost imperceptibly as we race towards the murder.

In chapter 3 the sound of the heart beats on for a while before finally stopping. Then we just hear the voice happy in the deed done. The music becomes playful, and slightly unhinged, as the narrator sets to work dismembering the body. It’s chilling to hear the matter of fact way the taking apart of a body is described. In chapter 4 the bell tolls 4am and he rests from his labour until the police turn up. The music is now tinkling organ and strings with the three note motif played lighter, but with an underlying tension. The narrator is unconcerned until an external noise perturbs him. A low, dull quick sound. The tension rises with screeching strings and quivering paranoia until the narrator breaks down.

The Tell-Tale Heart, as performed by Double Eyelid, is an absolute delight and is the perfect dark listening pleasure for those Autumn nights huddled under blankets, as the wind howls outside and…wait…what is that thumping noise? Is it coming from…under the floorboards?!

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart by Double Eyelid

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You can find Double Eyelid online here, on Facebook, X, and YouTube.

All words by Mark Ray. More writing by Mark Ray can be found at his author archive. And he can be found on Instagram.