A Haunting New Soiree from damn!escape Just In Time For Halloween
A new single drop from damn!escape comes through with this thick, almost theatrical haunt that bases itself on Halloween night, and the song is bursting with character, simply because these guys can tell this story with such great lyrical detail that it actually paints a picture in your head as the song unfolds.
"Midnight Masquerade" depicts all the ghosts and creatures that come out on All Hallows' Eve, and I love how they combine that sense of actual monstrous fiction with the fact that everyone's dressed up in those costumes on that night as well.
It's the celebration, and it does such a great job of blending those two worlds together, just the way Halloween night does.
The song starts off with more of that theatrical backbone, featuring clean guitars and these sort of animated, robust vocals that start telling you the story.
As the singer gets into those details, you start to get a feel for the nuances that the song is about to deliver.
Soon enough, it bursts into a heavier metal vibe, but it's not over the top. Everything is very well balanced dynamically, and that's one of my favorite aspects of the track as a whole.
The bass guitar tone, for me, is almost everything. A lot of times, bass guitars can be somewhat buried or just have a sort of thick bottom end, but here, it's a little different. These guys have a bass guitar tone that feeds into the aesthetic of the song further. It rattles a little bit; it's got an edginess to it that you don't always hear aside from maybe in punk rock songs.
Anyway, I feel like that bass guitar tone really helps push the song forward and helps drive that element of alternative underbelly further to the surface.
The progressions are awesome, and the guitars definitely trudge with all kinds of great notes in the mix, giving you great little melodies and hooks throughout.
I love how, during the verses, the song sort of ascends with its progression. The notes get higher and higher until it hits that chorus, where it stays in one spot but still has a really closed-fisted approach.
I have to say, one of the things that I've missed in heavy music for the last few years is a good guitar solo. For some reason, I haven't heard a real guitar solo in a heavy rock song in some time. Or at least, it feels that way.
Well, I'm happy to say that these guys definitely pulled that off super well. The guitar solo here is great in terms of its technical ability, but it's also super melodically thriving. There are layers to it, and they come together like puzzle pieces.
I definitely feel like this track pushed boundaries but also managed to pull off the aesthetic it was meant to. It was meant to have that midnight haunt feel: the celebration of Halloween night blended with the sentiment behind it.
For me, this whole thing was nailed. It was boisterous and had all the bells and whistles that I could possibly ask for from a song like this.
After the guitar solo, the song sort of opens up and goes into this bridge section where the progression changes, and you get more of that theatrical or even cinematic backbone coming through once more.
The vocals have a really cool hook here, and you hear a bit more of the almost Gothic inspiration behind things during this section of the song.
It almost brings you back to the beginning of the track itself and where it opened up. I love how they connect those two aspects together, both in the beginning and at the end once more, and it just goes to show you how the band pays a lot of attention to the arrangement of what they're doing.
Then again, there is a lot of attention paid to all those little details, nuances, and themes that this song thrives on.
It's not every day you hear a song that sort of gives you a music video in your own head while you listen. This is one of those songs. When you listen to the track, you can picture all the things that he's singing about, and the instrumentation sets a perfect mood for those lyrics.
This is heavy and has a damn near perfect sonic presence to it, blending the alternative, metal, and theatrical elements together seamlessly.
I also really dig the drumming on this because the drummer really gives a lot of electric energy to the song. He gives a lot of flavor to the song while keeping the drive alive, but also not just sitting in the pocket.
The vocalist also does an outstanding job of being able to pull off these sick melodies while still having a roughness or raspiness to his voice because he's kind of belting out.
A lot of how the vocals come across feels almost flawless, in a sense.
This guy is definitely a powerhouse. But then, the whole band sort of is.
This is one of those songs where it almost feels like it was recorded live on the floor, all at once. There is a certain kind of synergy fluctuating between the band members, and it just gives you the air of a live performance.
Of course, I wasn't there when they recorded it, but either way, it definitely makes you want to go see them perform it live simply because they can capture that kind of energy and aesthetic on record so well.
This is a song that has just as much color as it does edginess, pulls the theme off without a hitch, and delivers loads of character doing it.
All of this just in time for Halloween, as it's just around the corner now.
This is definitely one to add to your Halloween playlists.
So, turn this up and get into the spirit of the holiday because, if anything's going to kick things off, it's "Midnight Masquerade".
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