The last time I encountered a fictitious character that didn’t sleep it was Samara Morgan, the restless evil entity that climbed out of videos being shown on TV sets in order to mutilate victims in The Ring movie franchise.
So a title like ‘Eliana never sleeps’ was always sure to catch my attention.
It is the latest single from åhm, a duo that hails from Linköping in southern Sweden with backgrounds in bands like Roswell, Interlace, Frozen Still Life and Circle Six, and which owes its existence to “the vibrant hardcore and indie scenes of 1990s Linköping… channelling their roots into a sound that is both hard-hitting and hauntingly melodic,” according to socials.
They also describe their work as being “somewhere between alternative rock, a bit of grunge and darker indie, heavier in parts but still quite melodic.”
In other words something for everyone. Nothing wrong with that.
They certainly come in heavy, with a sound not dissimilar from that of Carter USM’s rock heavy tracks, guitars exploding and reverbing like IEDs. The intro is relentless and I’m not surprised Eliana is having trouble getting some shut-eye.
But by the end of the first minute it swiftly changes gear into what could be a different song altogether, a typically mildly melancholic, tuneful Swedish pop song that embraces you.
Thereafter these styles alternate through to a barnstorming ending that must have blown the amps and put the lights out in Linköping, the one feature common to both being the unremitting thrashing of hi-hat and snare drum in common time as if to emphasise the passage of consistent sleepless phases, in the manner of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time after time’, but LOUDER, MAN!
Let’s turn briefly to the subject matter here. As I understand it Eliana is no demon. On the contrary she is their concoction of a being that is fundamentally good, an eternal light in the wilderness, and which presides over us like a guardian angel and is based on Greek and Hebrew notions of serendipity that are personified as flower scents.
It’s all very smart and worthy of your further investigation lyrically.
I didn’t appreciate how such wildly diverse styles could be brought together in a single piece like this. They certainly opened my eyes.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahmsweden/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahm_sweden/
