By Monk
Like most of the rest of us in the Überverse – with the possible exception of our so-called political leaders, who seem to blithely stroll on along their own individual paths without any due regard for the travails the rest of us have been facing – bands, and artists of all descriptions have been forced to adapt to the vastly, and perhaps irrevocably, changed landscape in which we have all found ourselves over the course of the past 18 months.
Northern Irish symphonic metallers Ravenlight found themselves in the unenviable position of releasing their debut album, the ÜR-approved ‘Project Genesis’, just as the first peak of the COVID pandemic was at its peak. However, with zero opportunities to promote the album with live gigs – something they hope to rectify next month, if the eejits in the Northern Ireland Executive finally get their tongues out of each other’s arses and allow the music scene to fully open up once again – the band didn’t sit around twiddling their thumbs… Rather, guitarist John Connor twiddled with his fretboard and started working on a series of cover versions, first hinted at toward the end of last year and now about to be released as fully-fledged beings in their own right.
Now, I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical about the project (as I always am with releases of this nature), and especially as the lead off track is a take on ‘Blinding Lights’ by boyband Weeknd: I’ve paid scant regard to the act concerned and had never heard the song itself – and when I checked it out my immediate reaction was “how quickly can I nuke this shite”? But, it has to be said that Ravenlight take the track to a totally different level, energising it with more power than a bunch of spides on an overdose of Bucky and Red Bull. Apart from the intro section, and the underlying beat, it sounds like a completely different song: lush, sumptuous and vibrant, with some neat folky touches and a fuckton of symphonic hyperbolae. If you’re going to do a cover, especially from another mien, you might as well deconstruct, rebuild and twist it, which is exactly what Ravenlight have done with this:
The other two covers are closer to what you might expect – Stratovarius’ ‘Black Diamond’ and Ghost’s ‘Zenith’, which was actually the first track to be teased from the EP (around this time last year) and is the slightly more leftfield of the pair. The former is a pretty faithful and expertly performed copy, differentiated by a somewhat deeper vocal than we would expect from Rebecca: the keyboard backing is a bit clangy and overly shrill in the early section, but once JC lets rip on the mid-section they both complement and congratulate one another.
As I said, ‘Zenith’ is the slightly more leftfield choice, not being one of Ghost’s better-known tracks, being a bonus track on the vinyl version of ‘Meloria’, and so one for aficionados only. But that is why it works, because it shows Connor’s depth of knowledge and nous to pick something slightly more obscure – as anyone tackling a project of this nature should bear in mind. Again, the band capture the spirit of the original while adding their own twist, especially in terms of Rebecca’s vocal shedding an entirely new light on its gothic classicism.
- ‘Intermission’ is released on Friday (27 August). You can get your copy HERE.
- Ravenlight are due to play their much postponed album “relaunch” show at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Saturday 11 September.
www.facebook.com/RavenlightNI/
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.