Mary’sCreek (Sweden) – Childhood’s End (sample track from the album The Beginning of the End)

I’ve seen and listened to some depressing titled albums and songs but I have to say that Mary’sCreek’s ‘The Beginning of the End’ takes the biscuit.

You’ll assuredly go to bed with nightmares after listening to (and I’ll list them all) ‘Damnation’/’The Curse’/’Alone in the Dark’/Childhood’s End’/’Shattered Dreams’/ ‘In Darkness’/’Falling’/Fear the Panic’/’Scared’/’For the Brave’.

Not exactly light listening from the Linköping rockers but then they have set out to represent the dark and uncertain times we exist in and that allowed them to shape the mood of this album, although they add as a rider that “we believe brighter days are coming.” Always good to know. Praise the Lord.

This is their third full-length album and one they feel blends their experience with a renewed passion, melodic strength, and the unmistakable energy that has defined the band from the start.

There is melody a-plenty for sure in all of their songs, numerous notable hooks and their style – ‘genre’ if you like – is hard to nail precisely.

Fundamentally hard rock, I found it difficult not to hear glam rock, metal, symphonic metal and even a dash of Scandi pop in there. And while a traditional rock common time beat predominates, the hi-hat, snare drum and kick bass drum getting a collective beating, there is plenty of variety in the content here.

Choosing a sample track wasn’t easy but eventually I opted for #4, ‘Childhood’s End’, for its smart juxtaposition of sentimental ballad with gentle instrumental breaks, and a Europe-like chorus and guitar bridge, as the singer revisits what I assume refers to his hometown as he left it in the first rush of adulthood, leaving behind “My first kiss…my first everything” to move to the big city for work, study or whatever. (Hence the ‘end of childhood’).

The lyricism is quite clever to as he introduces us to ‘Weather Town’ and ‘West Mountain Street’ – places that exist probably in fact or in local slang and which would easily be identified by local band supporters while offering a fantasy vision to those not in the know.

Sometimes songs like this can be cloying and we’ve written about several similar ‘coming home’ songs quite recently, but this one never is never overly sentimental and those ‘brighter days’ really are in evidence here.

(Continues after the Spotify link).

‘The Beginning of the End’ has been released worldwide on all major digital music platforms and later in April the album will also be released on CD.

Find them on:

Website: https://maryscreek.com/