There once was a time in which the only thing that mattered to me about music was the complexity and production value. Everything needed to be over-the-top complex (a naive form of self-assurance that led me to believe I was more sophisticated than I truly was at the time) and sound as polished as can be. At some point over the past five years, my priorities dramatically shifted, to the point where excessively complex/pristine music fails to even pique my interest (unless it is something truly special of course). Now don’t get me wrong, I still do enjoy the occasional long track filled with twists and turns and time signature changes and whatnot, but it isn’t what I deliberately seek out anymore, plus who has the time for that. I now find the most comfort in music that strips away the fluff and speaks straight from the heart, no matter how it may sound.
Screamo/skramz as a subgenre has a natural tendency to gravitate toward this realm of raw vulnerability, which would explain why I’ve been especially drawn to it as a whole lately. It is the perfect genre to complement the emotional turbulence that comes with some good ol’ soul-searching, as is the central theme of State Faults‘ Children of the Moon and ∞ (eight)‘s Kuinka Löydän Luoksesi to serve as two poignant examples. All that being said, there is a new up-and-coming melodic skramz band from Germany called MISERE who check off all the boxes regarding what I just mentioned above; we at Everything Is Noise are privileged to premiere their second single, “GEISTERBAHN”.
Upon hitting play, the cheerful guitar tone and chord progression immediately give off an uplifting mood, which is unexpected from a musical niche that is characteristically quite forlorn in nature. In the opening fifteen seconds on my very first listen, I had almost entirely forgotten that I was listening to what would eventually be a skramz song with how enlivening the instrumentals are and would persist throughout the entire track. The bouncing melodies from the lead guitars are so delicately layered betwixt the rhythm guitar/bass, making for such a pleasant listening experience, even when coupled with the coarse vocals (which are synonymous with screamo/skramz as a whole of course). This intentional juxtaposition between melody and abrasiveness is satisfying indeed. Check out what Micha (vocalist) had to say about “GEISTERBAHN”:
‘The song breaks itself apart and reassembles with a different shape each time, which felt like the only honest way to tell this particular story. I wrote the lyrics around the image of Christian Boltanski’s specters dancing on walls; these looming, flickering figures that tell stories about the world while time quietly slips past in the background. In my view, there’s something deeply unsettling about that: the way narratives get projected onto us, the way belief, especially belief in oneself, becomes its own form of deception. ‘Am besten lügt, wer an sich glaubt‘. That line sits at the center of everything.‘
MISERE scratch that specific itch I get for non-English skramz, similar to that of ∞ (eight), Vi som älskade varandra så mycket, and envy just to name a few. They are definitely a band to keep an eye on if this style of music is right up your alley: they are very much so for me. They’re just getting their feet on the ground under MISERE, so if you would be so kind to help give them the chance that they deserve by swinging by their socials (Instagram | Bandcamp), I’d very much appreciate it and I’m sure they would too!
