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Angels, vampirism, and Ivan The Red?! Our dear friends at In Crooked Wonderment have once again graced us with a deliciously executed single, which will feature on an upcoming EP due to be released later this year. 'Ink Angel' landing in our inbox was a lovely treat, as is all of ICW's works.
Since Burn the Heretic, In Crooked Wonderment have been a beautifully reliable little gem of mine I've had snugly nestled in my Spotify playlist, their dedication to themes of dark fantasy, the occult and macabre history lending themselves to many a gaming session, writing spree and, more recently, I managed to Sleight of Hand 'Burn the Heretic' into my DnD group's session playlist. Having 'Beaten by the Witch' outro our absolutely gruelling final boss fight, in which my own character died, was equal parts devastating and incredible.
Somehow, ICW just keep getting better and better, as evidenced by the stellar performance in 'Ink Angel'. With a nicely-paced beat and primarily acoustic backing, 'Ink Angel' allows space for you to absorb the lyrics. If you're like me and hold a candle for warped religious undertones and explorations of death, evil and the darker sides of faith, then 'Ink Angel' will be a little slice of Heaven.
Or Hell, depending on how you see it.
Vocalist Conor Price comments:
Ink Angel is a spiritual sequel to our song ‘Full Moon’ on our debut EP ‘King’. The track is told o from the point of view of Ivan The Red (myself) and tells the story of our bassist Azazel The Fallen Angel falling victim to his former nature as a demon in the midst of a night in which a Blood Moon has risen.
The song delves into the psychology of Azazel in this moment and asks the question “What happens when an angel suffers from Vampirism?” It deals with themes of regret, contemplation surrounding one’s nature and the question “Do I keep trying to be a good man? Or do I succumb to Azazel’s feeding as a vampiric angel and become a creature of the night and breed war. Is that what my destiny is? If so, so I accept it?”
The song was never intended to be a single however with the 14th March being a blood moon, and the song itself dealing with themes of unbound blood, the mythology of the moon and also taking place under a blood moon in the fictional world of our music, it seemed like the Gods were sending us a sign to release this song as a single.
Since first hearing In Crooked Wonderment, it's been clear to me that, lyrically, they make very intentional, strategical choices. 'The Devil said I'm his favourite still' is a line that stuck with me so much, I made it the ethos around which a character was based, and now they're hitting me with even more incredible lines like... 'clean yourself with what's left of your father's love', 'my throat burns from harmonising with your growls' and ' I look over your shoulder to see the ink you've spilled / You say "It's just a little regicide."'
And, to wrap up another incredible performance, the closing, muffled, discordant notes were just enough to unsettle me. This entire song felt like an epic-dark-fantasy ballad that kicked up post-bridge into the culmination of Ivan and Azazel's growing madness, to fall away into those melancholic, almost delirious notes as though all sanity had bled out from the song, leaving behind the echo of something evil, something wicked.
Thank you so much to In Crooked Wonderment for not only another momentous single, another addition to my growing playlists, but also for sending this to us to review!
For more content, find In Crooked Wonderment on Youtube / Spotify / Apple Music
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