Hailing from Fort Collins, CO, Race to Neptune is a powerful four-piece making music that touches various rock subgenres, including grunge, alternative, indie, metal, and psychedelic. Promoting their recently released (and very first) full-length album, The Dead Sea Sounds, Race to Neptune gifted us with ferocious single, “Song of the Siren.” Is this truly the stuff of assertive, energetic rock with a sound that properly expresses the scope of something vast and perhaps undersea? Let’s break it down.
Wait. Who does what?
Brian Maier – Guitar, Vox
Zach Berger – Guitar, Vox
Matt Petersen – Drums, Background Vox
Matt McNear – Bass
Let’s dive in.
When “Song of the Siren” opens, it’s a metal riff reminding me of the Smashing Pumpkins (and that melodic EBow guitar line solidifies the comparison). And when the verse hits, it’s spacious chugs with aching, emotional vocals.
The chorus is granted an ominous prelude – a repeating and swelling-in-agitation lyric: “I will consume it.” And when the chorus barges in, it’s a chain of staccato guitar hits around bigger growling chords and more desperately urgent vocals.
When the opening riff returns, it leads us to a brief respite (at about 1:45). The voice here becomes almost chant-like while those melodic EBow guitar notes paint the section in spacious, slightly delayed harmonies. With vocals again delivering that ominous threat – “I will consume us” – the song returns to those staccato chorus attacks.
At about 3:00, we leap into a sonic sea born from guitar-wrung white noise and a fuzzy, frothy distortion cloud. We’re led from our dark but temporary dive through another refrain of “I will consume it”– this takes us to a big, effect-laden electric guitar solo before the song crashes into a singular fuzzy chord.
But is it good?
Do you like powerful modern rock that also exhibits palpable sonics and instrument-driven atmosphere? Music that, beyond its melodic self, places you within a strange, dark place it carefully, but through a bit of experimentation, creates? Yes? Then you will LOVE “Song of the Siren” from Race to Neptune. I mean, we certainly did.
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BELOW: Listen to Song of the Siren and check out Race to Neptune on Soundcloud. Please support Race to Neptune by visiting them online and playing, downloading, and/or purchasing their music. And, as always, thank you for supporting real music.
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