A complete contrast to last night’s dark, sultry Norwegian ballad, Denmark’s 802 present us with their personal take on what a ‘wall of sound’ amounts to in ‘Princess’.
The last time they paid us a visit, back in May, they took a deep dive into the year 1986.
Pitched somewhere between fuzzy, melodic heavy rock and metal the trio is making strides in their homeland, winning the ‘Most promising act of the year’ title at the Danish Heavy Awards (Den Hårde Tone) last month while playing big festivals like Roskilde and Copenhell through the summer.
Let’s face it, it isn’t easy to get disco and metal into the same sentence never mind the same song but they manage to do just that on ‘Princess.’
It won’t be long into the song until you can visualise Erasure’s Andy Bell and Vince Clarke punching away on their keyboards except that it’s Emil Sørensen and Kristian Holbæk doing the punching, on guitar and bass respectively.
And eventually you’ll hear a melody line amongst the cacophony that is equal to anything that Erasure ever came up with and which will imprint itself on your memory.
I say ‘cacophony’ advisedly because there is so much going on here – I guess it has been multi-tracked numerous times over – that’s it is hard to believe there are only three musicians and four instruments; the two guitars, keys and drums.
I watched a TV programme here in the UK last night featuring the film score composer Hans Zimmer and 70 musicians in concert. Those 70 musicians also went out of their way to create a wall of sound, shredding every instrument between them into pieces like they were working out at the gym. But they didn’t come up with anything that was more convincing than ‘Princess’.
There isn’t much of a bridge in it but wants to try to stop this runway train? You get the feeling they’ll collapse at the end of it when playing live.
There is a vocal contribution as well, from Andreas Asingh, and it sounds like his voice is just right for the material. But I can’t comment any further because I can’t hear a word he’s singing. He needs a megaphone. And that’s the only (small) complaint I have. The lyrics should always accompany songs like this, on Spotify and anywhere else that’s relevant.
‘Princess’ is the 4th single by Andreas Asingh (vocals, keys & drums), Emil Sørensen (guitar) and Kristian Holbæk (bass)
Speaking of Hans Zimmer these guys make movies, too. The short film ‘1986 Forever’ will premiere this month. Previous efforts have won awards and nominations.
This new one, directed by Casper Balslev, “is a dark and twisted postmodern comedy in which we meet the anti-heroes of an 80’s heavy metal band chasing the dream. Look out for some serious Kung Fu fighting and a certain Danish metal drummer, anno 1986, who might just be the key for 802 to unlock the prestigious major label record deal.”
Sounds like a Danish version of Spinal Tap.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/802Band/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/802band/
