Did anybody know that Michael Gira and Coil had an unborn child, named him after a biblical version of a “historic” madman, gave him an organ, a female side-kick with an eerie voice that would set Lake Michigan on fog, bought them a trillion candles, a wonderful note book to write down his sinister messages of hope and even booked them a recording studio to bless the world with a bunch of musical melodies and seemingly psychotic psalms? Enter Nero Kane. Enter ”For the Love, the Death and the Poetry”.
Nero Kane – a combination as haunting as Marilyn Manson, but with the difference that here two murders are combined (although modern historians are not so sure about Nero’s connection to the fire of Rome, there is a lot of evidence pointing towards him as one of the mass murderers of early Christians). The biblical reference of Kane should be obvious and self-explanatory (think of the homophone, huh?). To point this out is important to me, because I didn’t do it in my review of Nero Kane’s last record Of Knowledge and Revelation and also to clarify them as a possible reference for Nero Kane’s sound. This music has some “old” feeling, as if Woody Guthrie had reincarnated in Nero and tries to tell stories for those who suffer from The Great Depression and all its psychological effects including the feeling of complete and utter hopelessness. The way that he uses his guitar picking to resonate on the air towards the listeners and then within them. There are folk tales in his music that might be taken from Mark Lanegan’s and Greg Dulli’s work as The Twilight Singers – introspective but also having a commonality that the audience can share and empathize with.
Listening to the tracks on this new record makes me wonder how good (or bad) of an idea it would be to introduce Nero and his fellow musician Samantha Stella to Kjetil and Karin from Årabrot. Both duos share a sense of love for the Gothic in the Birthday Party sense lyrically and an intense way of communicating through chords and notes – something one cannot teach and even though both duos have a distinctly different palette of soundscapes and reference points within music history of the 20th century a collaboration seems like a great idea; mind you the combination of Årabrot’s Post-Punk based style and Nero Kane’s Drone Folk music full of mellotrones, hurdy gurdy’s and organs would be perfect to be recorded at Årabrot’s church. The similarity between Karin’s voice and Samantha would also surely result in some amazing vocals.
Throughout the nine songs and 48 minutes of For the Love, the Death and the Poetry we get hauntingly eerie moments, during which the fog of an old Sherlock Holmes movie adaptation rises over London’s streets or the Devon moors. One can see Jack the Ripper running along Roman piazzas trying to escape Interpol and Mussolini. Sometimes a single streak of sunlight might be found in the Scottish Highlands or the rolling hills of Umbria. And then again Nero’s vocals talk about ”all the blood that rushes in Hell”, his lyrics include many religious symbols and elements, although he sure as hell does not try to preach to us, he rather makes us think about our position. In life, in love, in poetry. Yes, I have to drop the Nick Cave reference again, because his lyrics have a very similar quality and lineage – and because I am sure that the opener ”As an Angel’s voice” is not an incidental hint at Cave’s book And the Ass Saw the Angel! Nero Kane and Samantha Stella once again give us a record full of Dark Folk, Droney Psychedelic stories of nightmares and dreams. Dive deep thou heathens, enjoy immensely thou believers!
And here is Samantha’s video for the opening liturgy “As an Angel’s Voice”:
