Musical Fiction I Like

Ironically, as a person who works in words, I rarely listen to the lyrics in music. In heavy metal, the vocals are usually textural. In rap, they’re too prominent and distracting. But most music means to tell a story. And sometimes the stories are really good.

clipping

One song by LA’s clipping inspired this post. Whenever you discover a band in a space dedicated to a different genre, you know it must be good. I first heard “Nothing is Safe” off clipping’s There Was an Addiction to Blood on extreme metal site No Clean Singing. And it is the most chilling horror story I’ve ever heard. I literally get goosebumps every time I hear it.

The music is perfectly calibrated to build tension without release. The lyrics frame a story of fear and death so spare that you’re free to fill in the details with your own personal nightmares. The words could be applied equally to the fall of the last survivors of the zombie apocalypse; or a seriously outgunned gang in John Woo crime world; alien invasion or even the invisible dead.

The entire album is interesting, but “Nothing is Safe” is a goddamn masterpiece.

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The Decemberists

Except for “The Rake’s Tale,” nothing by The Decemberists is even remotely as dark as the first song in this list. I know some people think they’re twee, but I find every single song in their catalog to be a lesson in flash fiction.

The Night Watch

Generally you need words to tell a story. But An Embarrassment of Riches is a concept album by instrumental band The Night Watch. The Night Watch use a combination of classical strings and piano; Opeth-style progressive riffing, and a handful of heavy metal subgenres to tell a story. Perhaps intended literally, their deserted island story serves as a timely metaphor for isolation now. The stylistic hodgepodge could easily have sounded more like the madding crowd than solitude. But the album is put together well enough to work representing the jagged feelings of a person with no place to go.

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Moor Mother

I’ve run across music by Moor Mother a couple times and found it intellectually intriguing without actually liking it. Philadelphia experimental activist-poet Camae Ayewa incorporates slave narratives, oral histories, field hollers, and sorrow songs in their music. On Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes, these things combine with compelling rhythms and percussive vocals in a way that I still don’t quite enjoy, but can’t ignore. Like the best fiction, it’s about the truth. But if this unsettling album was fiction, it wouldn’t be a straightforward narrative. This is MFA-level experimental fiction. It’s not easy, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s very good.

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Skálmöld

I liked Baldur, the first album by Skálmöld until I saw the band live at Iceland Airwaves, and then I loved it. Their follow-up Born Loka, was just as good. On the surface, they could be mistaken for another Viking metal party band. But the more you dig, the more innovation you find in every aspect of their music.

So I don’t know why I lost track of the band, but I did. Then, when I was thinking about storytelling in music, I remembered them. Both of their first two albums were concept albums. They pulled stories of the gods from the Eddas, and attributed those adventures to humans. So I checked out their latest album, Sorgir. It too tells stories. This time, four tracks tell stories of tragedies caused by ghosts. They are followed by four tracks retelling the stories from the perspective of the ghosts. I love that Rashomon approach. And the music sounds as good as ever.

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殞煞 Vengeful Spectre

Speaking of ghosts. Including Vengeful Spectre 殞煞 in this list is a bit of a cheat, since I can’t understand the words at all. But like Skalmold (whose lyrics I’ve at least read), Vengeful Spectre has written a concept album based on the folklore of their home country – in this case China. I wish that I knew which folkloric swordsmen the six “chapters” of this self-titled album refer to (maybe the Outlaws of the Marsh?).

But even if I can’t understand the story, I know it’s the type of story I like. And I like the alternately noodly and shredding guitars spiced with traditional instruments and battle sound effects, too. Plus, isn’t that great cover art?

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