Circle of Crows: Bone Eater EP

Standing at the entrance of Whitegate Cemetery, a local Moundsville music journalist watched as three unidentified individuals stood in complete silence beside the rear of a 1988 GMC Vandura. Each held a single lit candle. Nearby, members of the West Virginia Tourism staff quietly prepared a field microphone and a TASCAM 4-track Portastudio beside the old stone wall beneath the Whitegate sign.

Recorded over a period of 72 hours, Circle of Crows: Bone Eater saw The Dead Broken Heart move rapidly across three different cities to complete the EP. "Organ Grinder" was recorded at Whitegate Cemetery in Moundsville, West Virginia, followed by "Black Feathers" at Lookout State Park in Scotland, Maryland, and finally "Plastic People" at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The reasons behind the selection of these locations have never been fully established. According to the Moundsville journalist who accompanied Jacobs during the sessions, Whitegate Cemetery was reportedly chosen because of its reputation as a haunted location and longstanding tourist attraction. The journalist also recalled overhearing conversations among the three unidentified individuals associated with the black GMC van, who suggested that Point Lookout Lighthouse would be an appropriate location because of its connection to Civil War prison camps and the large number of documented deaths on the surrounding grounds.

In a brief interview discussing the project, P&B Fortezza Records vice president Enzo Belladonna stated, "Kareem doesn't use a mobile phone, has no social media, and is constantly moving around the United States recording music. I think the stories you hear about him are the result of the media not realizing that he has zero distractions and his imagination runs wild without restriction. It's true artistry that I believe the young people haven't seen during their time until now."

As the second chapter of the Circle of Crows trilogy, Bone Eater moves beyond the introduction of the cult and begins examining the people who eventually became its members. Interestingly, the story unfolds in reverse order, moving backward through the group's history and gradually revealing the events that transformed them.

Opening with the guitar driven "Black Feathers," the narrative immediately descends into a place Jacobs describes as being "worse than hell." Through the perspective of the cult's leader, listeners are told that the group's victims remain trapped there, denied relief even after death and condemned to endless suffering.

"Organ Grinder" functions as both an explanation and a justification. The cult's leader describes a profound hatred for the parts of society that abandoned them and left them to "rot." Violence is presented not as a sudden act of madness, but as the inevitable consequence of years spent unseen, unwanted, and forgotten.

The final track, "Plastic People," introduces a surprisingly different atmosphere. Built around an almost Synthpop rhythm and an upbeat 1980s-style melody, the composition abandons the brutality of the preceding tracks and instead looks backward to a time before the cult existed. Its members are portrayed as homeless and isolated young people moving through crowded streets while being viewed as inconveniences rather than human beings.

Beneath the brighter musical arrangement lies one of the trilogy's darkest revelations. "Plastic People" suggests that the Circle of Crows was not born from evil, but from abandonment. The composition reframes the cult as a group of individuals who were gradually pushed toward violence after repeatedly discovering that nobody was paying attention.

Throughout the EP, the group assumes the role of "bone eaters," functioning almost as a clandestine cleanup crew acting in the name of Satan. The resulting narrative feels less like fiction and more like an archived collection of testimonies recovered long after the events themselves.

The final events surrounding the recording sessions remain unexplained.

According to the journalist who accompanied Jacobs throughout production and later requested anonymity, he was given a live crow inside a small cage and left alone at The Club Quarters Hotel in Philadelphia. Shortly afterward, all communication with The Dead Broken Heart and P&B Fortezza Records reportedly ceased.

His return trip to West Virginia, however, had already been fully paid for.

No explanation was ever provided for the bird, the sudden silence, or the decision to leave the journalist alone in Philadelphia.