Messir – Idolatress
There’ll come a time, and even as we speak, that moment is fast approaching, when the rebel of today will be the grandpa of tomorrow, a figure who, at best, commands respect for their old age and makes youngsters chuckle whenever they start telling stories of the past.
Nobody, of course, plans on becoming that. And, there are even some who cannot fathom this thing ever happening. Just take a look at most rock stars strutting stages during the 1970s, and then see them now, decades later and a few sizes added to their wardrobe, doing the same thing.
That’s why you ought to get your thrills off of dangerous-sounding hard-rock when you can. Who knows what’s going to happen? It isn’t like you’re always going to be able, or even desire, to ride your bike while blasting rock music through your headphones.
Sweden’s Messir is looking for a rebellious, dangerous rock n’ roll sound for “Idolatress.” This is music for rebels running away from the law on winding highways, and getting mixed up in extraordinary love affairs. And while the song, no doubt, is very well crafted, bringing to mind The Cult of the late 1980s, it’s also a kind of cool that’s going fast. Grab it!
Big fish – Nattens kalla klor
There are doctors who are paid to help their patients deal with their overwhelming sense of dread, their anxiety, and their fear of the future. Those doctors do their job just as the rule book suggests. But if they really care about the person that they’re trying to help, they might recommend unapproved custom methods. One of these has always been to find small ways in which to confront those fears.
In other words, the human mind, always fearful of what could happen, needs to expose itself to microdoses of fear. And, in fact, a very good portion of entertainment, in rock n’ roll especially, has served this compulsion.
But it’s hard to be afraid of the things that you know are coming. It’s difficult to be scared of something that you can easily understand. That’s the reason why no horror movie shows you the monster in the opening shot, and why no terrifying song gives you all of the musical information all at once.
Sweden’s Big Fish has taken up the mission of writing dark alternative rock with the view of presenting it to the world. The group does this by mixing styles, including chant-like vocals that hint at traditional Nordic folk music. But the recent single “Nattens Kalla Klor” is particularly effective because of the way that it creates dynamics.
Big Fish’s music creates the monster that’s on your path, but the group’s smart enough to only show a silhouette of it. That’s part of a musical language that we all can understand and something that helps the band’s cause immensely.
