The Muse to Sirens have created something truly disturbing and amazing in Glass Wings, a song that lies in that uncommon place between doom metal and airy haunting, between mental weakness becoming strength of rebellion. It is sirencore at its most suggestive, a genre-twisting experiment which cannot be easily classified or neglected.
The vocals of Vanity Ladner are undoubtedly the undulating highlight, hypnotic and out of this world and at once both primordial and shockingly contemporary. She delivers the old folklore using her modern experimentalism as the vessel of the melody, instead of merely carrying it. It is hypnotising and as every moment passes by you get sucked into the dark waters of the track.
Produced by Joseph Drenning, the piece makes it possible to experience the sense of controlled tension and minimalism. Delicate keys give a mysterious and movie-like background process, their harmonic dissonance giving an image directly of German Expressionist films, and Ozy Ladner distorts the guitar introducing a driving cadence, which essentially changes the dynamics of the song. This constant beat becomes stronger as the song goes on, and what started as a celestial flow turns into something more down-to-earth, more desperate.
The melodic line in itself is rather hesitant, adding to the mysterious nature that imparts the sound of the duo. The changes of dynamicity lead up to the scenes of controlled frenzy, with the balance between beauty and danger created at a stunning precision. Textures hang and develop drama, and tend to create a surreal listening experience, which captures the psychological breakdown Vanity is referring to, the sense of factors run out of control.
It is based on the golden years of Gothic music and the rich folk lore of the Deep South of America, but Muse to Sirens have made it look like one is on the crossroads, between vulnerability and power. Glass Wings is provocative, sensual, and completely demanding.
