During a recent phone conversation with an old friend it was pointed out that I use the word “heavy” far too often when talking about music. While I see it as an apt umbrella adjective, I also realized that outside of a dictionary definition I was unable to describe what “heavy” actually means to me. In my mind the word can be used in reference to anything from the instrumentation in doom metal to the dark lyricism of some folk singers.
Obviously a barometer reset was needed before I could start using my apparent favorite adjective again. My personal quest for THE heavy song began. Before it started to sound even more like a plot to a terrible Jack Black comedy, it was ended abruptly with the news of yet another 90s indie rock dream reunion.
Codeine’s debut, Frigid Stars, is already recognized as one of the classic albums that launched the poorly but aptly named slowcore genre (hey, at least the 90s didn’t give us “witchhaus.”) A lot of reviews seem to miss the sheer brutality of the album. Very few records delved into the melancholia explored in full stark detail on Frigid Stars. “Second Chance,” which can only be described as a dirge, is the album’s centerpiece and one of Codeine’s most memorably bleak songs.
Slow and plodding, the only instrumentation is a piano thudding out some semblance of a rhythm while the guitar follows, providing a wall of feedback that bleeds into any spaces left open. The effect is a huge feeling of smothering weight; there is no chance of escaping this steamroller unless you turn it off. That doesn’t even cover the vocals. “I miss your smile/ it’s been awhile” is intoned repeatedly, sung with a lump in the back of Steve Immerwahr’s throat. Yes, it’s overly angst ridden, but Codeine wasn’t exactly a band concerned with metaphorical pondering in their approach to writing.
With its sparse instrumentation, wall of feedback guitar, bare vocals, and prevailing feeling of defeat, “Second Chance” is capable of dragging the listener down and holding them there. I won’t go as far as to call it “the heaviest song ever recorded,” but it certainly contains all the elements to be one of them.
