Switchblade Symphony - "Clown"

I wish I wasn't putting quite so much old stuff and opinion pieces on here at the moment, but I do admit to maybe starting the site up at not the best time, being the holidays and all. Everyone is kind of in a holding pattern, and there just isn't tons of news to report. Once the first of the year hits, I'm sure things will start picking up. Until then, you will get a lot more pieces like these.

So, who remembers (and misses) Switchblade Symphony? Unfortunately for me, just as I began to even be aware of them, they were kind of on their last legs in regard to making new material, and I didn't really begin to appreciate them until the past couple of years. I look at the "Clown" video (above) and wonder where that flavor of goth music is these days. It's not the creepy, somewhat tinny goth tunes that are intended to quietly creep you out, and it's not so booming goth rock that tries to hit you in the face with its darkness. "Clown" is forceful and runs some wicked low-pitch percussion and synths, but it still tries to invite you within the story world. Switchblade Symphony knew how to pull the listener in without having to resort to the quiet approaches that most softer goth music takes these days.

Switchblade Symphony is exactly the type of band that makes me fall in love with the goth-industrial-electronica-etc. genre over and over again. The vocalist, Tina Root, had range that could be shown from her ability to flawlessly execute the prettier tunes, such as "Wallflower", as well as in the more forceful ones, such as "Mine Eyes". The band also knew how to adequately tell a story with every song. By the time you finished with a song, you were able to imagine a scenario in your head about what was going on, and you would feel like you gained something at the end. For instance, going back to "Mine Eyes", you should be able to clearly picture the hope for a divine miracle by the end of the song.

All in all, I wish musicians made more stuff like this, now.