Corpse Flower
Shadows Remain
Paul Booth Brand
After a month or more of sugarplums and relentless joy, there’s something relaxing about this macabre collection from dark wave band Corpse Flower.
This female band hails from Connecticut and features a moody experience of creepy rhythm and ethereal vocals. We begin with the track “Crooked Moon.” Here, a slowly throbbing bass note keeps time as the vocals flit and fly like bats in a 1950s horror film. The bass behind it suggests a large foundry or prison camp with back-breaking work processing slowly but deliberately, and where the loss of any particular slave matters naught. I escape this work crew and now find myself in “Dystopia,” another dark wave “tune” with the slogan “I’d rather die free than a slave on my knees.” Let me know how that works out. Rhythm falls on its knees, as the throbbing intensity expands to encompass your entire world behind an ominous “omniscient observer” vocal that expresses the eternal tension between the rulers and the ruled. No one ends up happy with the result. Next we visit the the ever-cheery tune “Nuclear Winter.” The rhythm remains the driving pace of a work crew in hell, and the singer expresses illnesses, revulsion, and a dark side to any penitentiary you are to choose.
I’m still holding up — no suicide for me no matter how bad it makes me feel — but that’s just my experience. Yours may be darker or more painful, and when you enter this darkwave surf shop, be prepared to witness bad vibes and engaging and engulfing audio.
