Bear Within Us – Devil’s Day
Genre: Hard-rock, Heavy-metal
Bear Within Us brings a modern, confrontational style to their brand of alt-metal predicated on grooves and powerful vocals.
Hard rock was, for a very long-time, the most popular music genre in the world. It was pop. Bands that wrote their songs from the guitar riffs up, sold millions of records. These bands toured arenas and were household names. But all of this sounds very unusual in a day where even pop-rock music struggles to find its way into the charts.
This does not mean, however, that rock fans have disappeared. Instead, various styles have begun to nurture their own tightly-knit communities. Most of these sub-genres have the idea of rising to challenges, bettering yourself, and, well, surviving terrible disasters as their core beliefs.
Bear Within Us’ “Devil’s Day” is a modern metal song about taking charge and standing tall in the face of hardships. It is a message that will resonate with many and even help some face their own challenges. Musically, the instrumental and, especially, the lead vocals bring to mind a modernized version of Disturbed or Volbeat.
There isn’t much room for subtlety here, but this is not really one of the requirements. This kind of music should be judged by its power and the quality of its production. On both fronts, Bear Within Us is doing fine.
Romanie – Are We There Yet?
Similar artists: Middle Kids, Alvvays, Wet Leg, Katy J Pearson
Genre: Alternative Rock
Romanie understands the power and aching weight of expectation and gives it a voice in the most recent pop single.
Great songwriting, really, is being able to tell something obvious that nobody has been able to utter before and adding a nice beat behind it. Or, that is what, at least, was once considered great songwriting. Fortunately, those plagued by nostalgia over pop music’s salad days still believe this to be true.
The good news for songwriters is that, as people, we have improved our communication very little over the past decades. Folks are routinely plagued by anxiety, boredom, and troubles of all sorts, yet rarely find an efficient way to tell their friends and neighbours about it.
Romanie’s “Are We There Yet?” is a gorgeous song about everyday, never-ending anxieties. It’s not a topic often discussed in polite company, let alone in the guise of a pop tune. The matter of factly vocal delivery and the clever lyrics are disarmingly honest and capable of delivering clever, sharp observations. Most of us are obsessively looking at the exit food of anything, and Romanie is one of the few to capture this so pristinely in a pop song.
