This month’s return to the Raging Depths of creative output brings a heavy conceptual introduction to Chapter Two, the second album, of this uniquely human, metaphorical journey. The intention is to represent an inner battle with rage, a personified story of anger; the beast you keep locked away. It’s bold and evocative, and as an opening chapter, Lock & Key is both beautiful and fiercely gritty in topic.
Presenting as a kind of 1950s vocal and piano single at first, later becoming unpredictably theatrical, anthemic, playful, and passionate, Lock & Key appears on the surface to be directing its scorn towards a significant other. It’s only as we listen to these lyrics, the angst of the arrangement and performance, that we realise the true and smart personification of rage, and the relatable ache of anger that’s so familiar yet newly captured.
The style is completely unprecedented, and the lyrics more than meet the needs of that performative charm and bravado – a complex poetic confrontation that’s both intriguing and unignorable. Not for the faint of heart, nor the younger listeners, Lock & Key is scornful, explicit, and striking.
Next we lean into The Monster’s Victory, something like theatrical pop in essence, with another worthy use of contrast as the intricacies of this next personified story rain down. Things get more vague and challenging, perhaps confused and hazy, as per the weight of this rage, the caged beast, but it’s also a notably revealing song – a diary-like back and forth relaying rage’s comfort and hatred combined.
This push and pull dynamic leads well into the more characterful and perhaps mellow musical charm of The Warden Contained. The deeper you fall into these self-scornful reflections, the more frequently you find yourself wanting to head back and replay lines, moments, even entire songs, to fully envision the rage arc in all of its piercing glory. The lyrics here in particular prompt you to think back, to consider the arc of rage, the changing emotions, and this beating drum of fury that keeps giving chase.
Finally, haunting piano and intimate vocals unsettle and engage, as Rage’s Regret lures you into the strings and sentiments of an inescapable darkness. From delicacy to devastation, anger, hatred, cursing, confrontation, violence, desperation – this track is again dynamic in set-up and sound, in lyric and performance, and so the highs and lows, the builds and the drops, are near euphoric, as they scream out on behalf of the relentless anger that can become so consuming in the wrong headspace.
It’s a huge and crucial conclusion, and musically quite impeccable – rightfully drawing thousands of streams already in its short time online. This personification of the damage and weight of rage is powerful, original, and perfectly framed for impact. Raging Depths is a focused artistic project, and album two is everything listeners will hope for and more.
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