ø Rishloo’s Freaks and Animals: A Recommended Song

Rishloo’s Freaks and Animals: A Recommended Song

18 November 2008 471 views No Comment

Artist: Rishloo
Song: Freaks and Animals
Album: Eidolon

Ever since A Perfect Circle broke up, I’ve been on the lookout for a band that that combined elements of hard rock and progressive rock with heavy effects and melody. Tool, while very different from APC, ventures into artistic realms largely unexplored by mainstream hard rock, and it was a major plus that the two bands shared a vocalist, but it still wasn’t enough….

Lightweights such as 10 Years and Evans Blue emerged, but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon the Seattle based Rishloo, that I felt I had found something closer to the mark.

Rishloo has a great amalgamation of styles and techniques: tempo changes, vamping, and subtle atmospherics which all set the ‘artsy’ tone. In fact, the criticism most often leveled at the the band is their similarity in sound to Tool and APC.

The band acknowledges their many influences, but defines themselves in their own way:

“For the Seattle-based AMPH (artistic, melodic, progressive, hard) rock band RISHLOO, music is an adventure without a destination, and the only wrong course is backwards. Starting with a sound reminiscent of artists such as Dredg, Tool, and The Mars Volta, RISHLOO layers their music with the emotional depth and beauty of Tori Amos, the furious honesty of Rage Against the Machine, the soul, songwriting, and social conscience of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and the sonic deviousness of Mogwai to create an aural experience that pushes Rock’s envelope while staying true to the genre’s roots.” (from Rishloo.com)

Song:
Rishloo – Freaks and Animals

Freaks and Animals is the standout track from Rishloo’s sophomore album Eidolon. The song’s subject is unique: a carnival sideshow where nothing is as it seems. A mad barker gathers a crowd together and urges them to come into his world and witness “freaks, fools and fire”. The band’s frontman switches from narrator to flamboyant ringmaster as he promises the audience the “vision of their lives” and finally delivers it to them in an unexpected way.

My favorite element is the vocal morphing: cronelike urgings and whispers that later give way to the soulful highs that round out the song. And unlike most 1-D mainstream songs, the lyrics are able to evoke strong imagery while telling a story:

Under this canvas he hides a dream
A trick of the type too cheap to be free
makes your burgeoning inquiry
more easily answered
Oh a sight they have come to see
we shan’t disappoint, they’ve paid for a scene
And a scene they shall have indeed
This dark, dark evening.

Join us inside, that’s the way here
Come now, just step right-up in line!
It’s freaks, fools, and fire!
Come nearer, come closer, it’s nearly time!
You there, and you there, come one and all!

It looks better in Red my calico friend
Let us brood on the hue of need
What finds your favor?
No, the show must go on instead
With hundreds of eyes at two to a head
and the blindness is thrice complete
When all stand watching.

Step aside make way for the stars’ presence!
Better beware, there’s lights and glittering!
Gaze deeper, stare harder, it’s nearly time!
You there, and you there, come one and all..

So plain…

So have you ever wondered where were the demons they told us of?
Be patient, they’re coming, shortly revealed to you
and I do think you’ll find a dead-ringer
much still hides you curious minds
There’s no hurry.

Now where are my manners?
Round and around..
Why, I believe they’ve all arrived..

Out, out, from the wings.
Set all the props in place, lower the lights and wait.
Now, bring them in, let them watch, let the spectacle rise.
Hold your breath, this suspense lead the arrogant dead eyes.
More than them will you spend for the vision of your life.

Let the curtains fall down
Look now, and see, that’s quite the motley
disguise you’ve borrowed.
My friend, it seems quite odd
but you are the show you’ve paid for!
Step through the mirror and now the circus spins on and on so,
come one, come all, tonight…