Here’s to love, the sickness
The great martyr of the soul
Here’s to life, the vice
The great herald of misery…
Nothing like a sweet love song to get the heart a-tittering, right?
Metal band Agalloch created a most chilling neo-folk tune with their 2003 track A Desolation Song. And could any song title be any more apropos than this one? If bleak, hopeless heartache could come to life and cut a single, it would be this song.
Every second of A Desolation Song bleeds with agony. John Haughm’s vocals aren’t just haunting; they’re long since cold and dead, buried somewhere deep underground. Inconsolable lament carried by an indifferent wind to nobody who cares. This is pure despair, maybe a little too on the nose with its cavernous oblivion, but perhaps that’s the point. This darkness never ceases.
Maybe A Desolation Song isn’t necessarily a Halloween song, but it will nonetheless chill you to the bone. Grab a blanket, build a fire, drink some brandy, but there’s no way to evade the frozen abandonment of this void.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Matthew Millheiser
