The Big Rip – Kraken Mare
The word “atmospheric” is used liberally across all types of heavy music nowadays. What kind of atmosphere the bands are actually trying to summon is not very often mentioned. That’s partly because: a. It’s always the same – some desolate picture of an unfriendly planet and b. It’s a nifty way to get out of saying that the song isn’t really about anything.
We’re supposed to be in awe of nature. Another assumption is that every place in nature has, at least, one great piece of music meant to be dedicated to it. But, if you so much as check out your Spotify playlists, you’ll realise that few songs have been written about the tundra or the great plains.
In the business of atmospheric songs, just as in the tourism industry, there are only a few places worth considering. One of those places, a dream for all travellers and a potential tool for artists looking for inspiration, is Norway. Surely, Norwegians can’t help but be awed by the beauty around them. Certainly, that has to slip into the work of their numerous young rock bands.
The Big Rip may have started writing “Kraken Mare” as a tribute to the American desert rock bands that they grew up worshipping. But, partly because of the inevitable Northern European influence, the result is something far different, and a soundtrack something far more striking, frightening, and awe-inspiring. The band’s colossal stoner rock riffs are the ideal match here and, yes, they properly help to design the atmosphere.
Late Night Television – Looking Glass
Just like famous stuntmen risking their lives for big stake tricks, the big rock bands also pushed in front of paying audiences who are eagerly waiting to see if this is the day that the people on display hit the pavement and don’t get up.
Human attention is a strange, macabre thing. It only gets activated for truly special things, and when it does, it turns the people who can provide these thrills into popular, rich, respected members of society. It should do that for the members of the young punkish band Late Night Television.
But the human imagination is so desperate for thrills that it will seek them among wreckages. There’s a reason why the television stations deliver news about lions eating their tamer, or terrible disasters. And it ain’t because they simply want to inform the public.
Late Night Television’s “Looking Glass” is a short, to-the-point and massively thrilling song that sounds in danger of falling apart at any moment. It’s a song that uses up all the energy that the band can deliver, and all of the fast-paced lines that the singer can muster. Does he fall over? Does the whole thing explode in a mess of broken glass and twisted metal? Well, I’m sure that the risk of it all will make you want to find out.
