Pic Hampus Ströberg
Icy winds might be biting hard and the temperature blistering the senses right now, especially for us in the UK, but that is nothing compared to the hellacious senses piercing cyclone that is Violent Playground, the new album from Swedish deathcore outfit BITE DOWN. It presents or rather unleashes nine barrages of sound and discontent that, even as we soothe the bruises and…
Man I really made a whole ass art blog and then did NOT use it huh, anyway I'm making a graphic novel called Bite Down and you WILL like it
Here are some very rough designs of some of the characters. I'm deep in thumbnailing land right now and if people are interested I am willing to post some, they're just really really rough and mostly meant for my own reference so.... They are not very legible to anyone who isn't in my mind.
I want to be transparent with the process but everything is subject to change! I'm using thumbnailing as an outline rather than typing out a script and it's allowing me to be free and loose with it in a productive way.
Rosali Middleton experienced a lot of change in the lead up to recording her fourth solo album, Bite Down. She relocated to North Carolina and changed labels to Merge Records. Some constants remain. Her collaboration with Mowed Sound, a group of players who work with a number of artists, continues. The recording is also augmented by keyboardist Ted Bois, who melds well with the rest of the musicians.
Rosali’s interest in experimentation, which she has explored under other monikers, has gradually infiltrated her solo work. She goes the furthest to date towards it on Bite Down, which includes noise elements that distress the edges of songs that could easily be successfully presented in more straightforward contexts.Pinpointing Rosali as rock or folk or country is overly reductive. She takes things song by song, with varying styles and approaches.
The album opens with “On Tonight,” featuring briskly overlapping rhythm guitar riffs, some by Mowed Sound, but Rosali plays guitar as well as sings. There is an arcing melody in synth strings and, a signature for Bite Down, multi-tracked vocals. Rosali’s voice has an impressive range, from low alto to dulcet soprano. “Rewind” is a love song with lyrics about seeking stability in a romance. Its chorus provides a memorable hook: “I love you, And I know you love me too, Be the same you, I’ll rewind for you.”
“Hills on Fire” is one of my favorite songs on Bite Down. Country adjacent, it features a keening vocal melody and East Nashvillian arrangement. The extended slide guitar introduction is succeeded by a winsome vocal and several solo breaks. This is Rosali’s voice at its most gentle, cooing in her upper register.
The title track is something of a feature for Bois, whose electric piano sets a mid-tempo syncopated groove buoyed by the rhythm section, and synths that add sustained tones ghosting the vocals. Mowed Sound particularly distinguishes themselves here. Biting down is taken here as grasping at what’s real, with which the narrator struggles. There’s also a veiled reference to Virginia Woolf’s suicide: “I keep on walking, Putting rocks in my pocket, I’m drawn to the docks and Eternal Life.” Ultimately, we learn that it is a plea for help from a beloved: “Everything has a price, What’s it worth to you?” The music belies the sobering subject matter, but also lets us know there remains a suppleness of step that, we hope, will afford the narrator the courage to turn away from the water. “Is It Too Late” depicts the murky mornings of depression, with a resolve to keep going. Here, the moody guitar riff and florid singing match the challenges depicted in the lyrics.
Rocking out is on the menu, particularly evident on the penultimate track, “Change Is in the Form,” a doppelganger of a Neil Young song with attractive layered backing vocals juxtaposed with an inexorable groove and duo guitar solos. “Hopeless” has a strong backbeat and a number of instrumental breaks. It is about accepting the end of a relationship while remembering its previous laughter and joy. “Slow Pain” immediately follows, and its musical vibe and lyrics suggest it is a companion (estranged companion) song: “Have you seen my grief? Hold it so I don’t spill out, Keep quiet and wait it out.” It has one of the most extended guitar solos on the album, which closes the song with verve and virtuosity. Such plaintive lyrics occasionally make bopping one’s head to the memorable tunes seem like a guilty pleasure. The connections between pleasure and pain seem to coalesce in much of Rosali’s work, and it is the better for it.
Bite Down ends with an extended song, “May it Be On Offer,” which clocks in at five and three-quarter minutes. It has a slow paced, loping rhythm, once again with overlapping guitars, both acoustic and electric, that presents a stark contrast to “Change Is In the Form.” Its vocal melody, again country adjacent in construction, sits in the mid-register, sung with a repeating melody in speech-like declamation. The lyrics depict contemplation of the struggles that have come before on the recording, with a pointed question asked by so many that serves as the album’s enigmatic close: ”And I’ll sit for hours, Gazing at the light, And I do wonder, If I waste my life. No, I don’t wonder, If I waste my life.”
This is for certain, no time is wasted listening, likely again and again, to Rosali’s compelling emotional journey on Bite Down.
