DAMIEN – Melbourne Afternoon (2022)
DAMIEN grabbed our attention with his sexy and brazen ‘Love Myself’, before chatting to us about ‘2 Out of 10’, his bad habits and more. He is now bringing a reflection on depression, existential dread and wrestling with demons to our ears in the raw sounds of ‘Melbourne Afternoon’. Drawing on his own struggles, the single merges his industrial style with powerful lyrical content.
While he highlights the dark days that many have to fight through, he offers the push needed to keep holding on and struggling through the chaotic nature of our own fears. As he offers the push many people need right now, DAMIEN uses the single to continue pushing against mainstream conventions with his unique sound. Reshaping what we view as alternative electronica, he brings post-punk commentaries to rhythms that shake you from the inside out.
‘Melbourne Afternoon’ vibrates through your brain with the deep drone of the opening tone. There is a live wire feeling to the opening drone that sends a steady pulse of electricity through your skin, shaking you up from the inside out. The bone-deep vibrations of the beats fill the melody with the lightest touches of instrumentation resting over it. As the single progresses, light tones chime against the vibrating drone adding a touch of brightness to the dark vibes created by the droning. More layers of instrumentation make their way into the soundscape from this point, but the almost oppressive tones of the drone remain. The melody perfectly replicates the feeling of being drawn into the darkness while grasping for the shards of light that will draw you out of it.
DAMIEN’s vocals have a creeping feeling to them like oily slick dark thoughts sinking their sinister talons into your brain. There is a slight croak to the vocals as they reflect on the past and scratch at the raw points in your soul. As the single continues, there is a layering to the vocals, allowing them to draw you close while reaching out their dark tendrils. The lyrics leave you with a lot to think about and connect with the chaos inside all of us. The chorus has an uplifting call that urges all of us to hold on and continue fighting against the darkness. Combined with the melody, the vocals create the storm inside all of us as we fight the darkest parts of our souls.
DAMIEN zaps through you with a droning live wire as his vocals reflect on the chaotic fight against the darkness inside us all in ‘Melbourne Afternoon’. The darkness in many of our lives is brought to sonic glory by the droning tones in the melody, before the higher instrumentation begins the fight against it. DAMIEN’s vocals try to draw you back into the darkness, only to urge you to continue fighting.
Find out more about DAMIEN on his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
