The Sweet Kill – Darkness
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave
Similar artists: The Cure, Joy Division
There’s a world of uncertainty and menace out there. For some, the best way to approach it is head-on. There are those that feel most ease when sitting in darkness, thinking about darkness, or singing about it, in the same way, that a yogi might feel best when meditating.
In many ways, this is what goth music is. It’s rock n’ roll with the lights turned off. It’s rock n’ roll with the participants taking long deep breaths as ghoul around slowly, as compared to the quick, shallow breaths taken by their more dynamic musical cousins.
The Sweet Kill’s Darkness applies this logic. And. they’re right. It feels good to think about the gloom. The song functions almost like a soundtrack piece to a scene where a movie’s protagonist has decided that they will get revenge on the world that has wronged them. Imagine bats, caves, and Robert Smith. The Sweet Kill does.
Grey Daze (with Chester Bennington) – Soul Song
Genre: Rap Metal, Post-grunge, Hard Rock
Similar artists: Linkin Park
Regardless of your interest in rap-metal and early 2000s rock, the story of Chester Bennington will be familiar to even the most casual music listeners. The singer possesses a memorable voice. He used it on some of the most successful rock songs of the era, after being selected by Linking Park, to sing lead in the group.
Bennington received recognition from his peers, got to sing for Stone Temple Pilots, and remained the face and voice of a highly successful group a couple of decades after their breakthrough. Sadly, his demise left a lot of questions unanswered about his artistic direction. Where would he have gone next?
One way of answering that is to look back. Grey Daze was a band for which Bennington sang in the 1990s. Soul Song is a tune created around vocals recorded around that era. It finds the group indulging in dramatic a grunge-influenced style. It’s also a good opportunity to hear Bennington’s early singing style before it had evolved to the one that most listeners will be familiar with.
