Tag haunting

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Malia J

Peter Jones Leave a comment

New music Monday is upon us. I had been wondering what I wanted to write about for the past few days. Simply because, well, I haven’t found much music in the last week or two that really interested me.

That was, until Friday night.

Went to Black Widow with some friends and family. I thought it was a great movie that really should have been filmed and released a few years earlier (curse you Ike Perlmutter!). It is also dark, especially for a Marvel movie. There are some really sinister undertones throughout the movie, and these are set up from the very beginning, particularly with the opening credits.

We see scenes of young girls being taken and forced into the Widow program by the main antagonist of the film. And if that wasn’t heavy enough, all this is happening to the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as performed by Malia J. I had not idea who she was, and still know far less than I would like. It is enough to say that this rendition of this classic song (yes, it is a classic that is around 30 years old now, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees) is truly haunting.

Minimal in many ways, with some breathy vocals, it still crescendos to some really powerful levels. The song just screams loss to me, and it so fittingly matches what we were seeing on the screen.

I hunted it down on Apple Music and was delighted to find some other covers Malia J has done. All have the same sort of formula, minimalist intro that builds to a powerful crescendo and then fades out with a soft denouement. And all are just fantastic. But “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the best of the bunch. This song is so entrenched in my youth, I can literally see, hear, and feel where I was the first time I heard it. And hearing like this makes it a completely new song. Check this track out, it is just fantastic.

Malia J- Smells Like Teen Spirit (Black Widow Opening Credits)

Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow

Peter Jones Leave a comment

In 2017, a little album came out of nowhere and knocked my socks off with its technical approach to power metal. WItherfall dropped Nocturnes and Requiems, a compelling mix of progressive, power and even neoclassical metal, all with a dark, haunting undertone pinning it all together.

Having lost their original drummer to tragedy in 2016, the band released that album posthumously. It was replete with powerful vocals, stunning guitar work, and a melancholic attitude that impressed me. However, for some reason, it didn’t really click with me, and while I found it impressive in many ways, I didn’t find myself coming back to it that often.

However, just one year later, Witherfall dropped A Prelude to Sorrow, follow up to their debut. It would be easy to be worried about a second album coming so quickly after the debut, however, given that Nocturnes and Requiems had actually been finished some time before release, and my fears were assuaged. Some.

And then I listened to A Prelude to Sorrow.

Not much had changed, but for some reason, this album instantly clicked with me. I found myself listening over and over again. The same elements were present, yet something about them this time around spoke to me. Subsequently returning to Nocturnes and Requiems has revealed it to be an album I really love as well.

The dark atmosphere that permeates A Prelude to Sorrow is the key in making it enjoyable for me. It harkens back to the gone, but never forgotten, Nevermore. Sure, there are elements of power metal here, but the standard cheese is exchanged for melancholy and darkness. That instantly improves the album in my estimation.

Lyrically, this isn’t happy go lucky fair. Take these lines from first proper track, “We Are Nothing”:

We are nothing

Our souls are just flickering lights

To be extinguished,

Snuffed out by the cold hands of time.

Or how about these words from “Ode to Despair”?

Sometimes mirrors only show

What we want to see

And we’ll fall into despair

And we’ll get no reprieve

As we descend further down

You see what you want to see

In our ode to despair

And we’ll get no reprieve

In our ode to despair

Time just slips away

Still, these are all things we have felt, and I find the expression of said sentiments to be cathartic. There is something to be said in expressing these thoughts and feelings. Perhaps that is why I find this album somewhat therapeutic to listen to.

And musically, this is an impressive album. The guitars are technical, driving, powerful, while still emoting. The vocals are equally powerful. There are high falsettos, lower register vocals with some grit to them, but always tastefully done, executed with the utmost skill. Really, every member is excellent, with the rhythm section being more than up to the task of carrying the weight of these songs.

The best part for me, I gained an entire new appreciation for Nocturnes and Requiems after really falling in love with A Prelude to Sorrow. Witherfall has proven themselves to be one of the most promising and talented prog/power bands, and I look forward to more from them.

Second to Sun – Legacy

Peter Jones Leave a comment

This is a bit of a mix-up today. I hadn’t originally planned to write about this album. In the list of 30 albums for the 30 days of November, this wasn’t on the list, simply because it hadn’t been released yet. But now it has been released, and I simply must write about it.

Second to Sun hail from Russia, and their music is deeply rooted in their country. Songs often take themes from Russian history of folk-lore, and just as often, incorporate sounds that strengthen that tie. And they have been incredibly prolific over the years. Starting out as an instrumental band, they have added lyrics and vocals over the years, broadening their sound. But they still hold close to their instrumental roots, as all of their past few albums have had both an instrumental and a vocal release. Most interestingly, they are such excellent writers, that the two versions feel like separate, wholly realized compositions, not just one version with the vocals stripped away.

Deeply rooted in black metal, but playing around with a host of other elements, including some death metal, so groove based riffs and passages, and always willing to allow the music to progress, Legacy is no different.

Let me just start off by saying, this album freaking rules. I’ve been listening to it almost nonstop for the past 3 days, and it is infectious, addictive, and has a real shot at being in the top 10 list of the year for me. I won’t bore with a track by track discussion, but I will say that there isn’t a weak song here. Some are straight up bludgeoning tracks (opener “Devil” comes to mind). Others alternate, building tension with keyboards and orchestrations, giving the songs room to breath and become more than weapons (“Pages For A Manuscript” for example).

Calling the vocals harsh is like calling ghost peppers “spicy”. Talk about understatement. These vocals could strip the paint right off your deck and sand it at the same time. They are raw, powerful, and uncompromising. But they fit the music so well. This is music written by people who know what they want to do and how to use those tools to make it happen. Instrumentally, there are no drawbacks to be found. The music is frenetic, it is brutal, it is atmospheric, it is haunting.

Second to Sun don’t write music to relax to. This isn’t casual music. It is heavy, it is harsh, and I can imagine that it would be too much for people without some degree of comfort with heavy music. But it is also brilliantly written and performed, and an impressive demonstration of just how vital and important black metal has become as a sub-genre. Far from the church burning roots, Second to Sun clearly demonstrate on Legacy that black metal is simply a tool, and they are using to bring a haunting piece of Russia right into your ear-holes.

https://youtu.be/q9UGNaRbFz8