011 - ll nøthing ll - Death

 If anyone, anywhere, can hear me: please, please don’t let it happen… don’t let him die…

God if you can hear me, don’t let her die… I need her here!

Cries of desperation that all human beings have or will face.  Crying out to a higher power to spare the life of a loved one;to give us just a few more minutes, days, years with the person we cherish so much.  Ultimately death must come to us all.  How each individual handles the grieving process is entirely unique.  Some lose themselves in work.  Others may alter their lives greatly or try to honor those lost.  Others still may create art.

“I really consider Death my breaking away from vaporwave. I want to make music that screams what I’m feeling.  I want people to hear the stories I want to tell.”  As ll nøthing ll states, Death marks a huge departure from his previous vaporwave works.  It’s an album announcing an artist coming into their own style.  It shows ll nøthing ll ’s growth as both a composer and storyteller.  

The emotions presented on Death are chaotic and disjointed.  wounds and patient start the album out with asymmetric beats that try hard to find a groove. They never truly settle into one until the songs take drastic turns half way through.  cancer concludes the album with the highest tempo showcased of  the entire runtime. It evokes the feeling of an adrenaline rush well, and stands out as it recalls tones of the excellent Parasite Eve soundtrack.  

Every track brings something unique to the table and makes a strong case for its inclusion.  There is not a single moment wasted within these eight tracks.  While every track is strong, one is a clear standout.  A composition where the listener is taken down into the depths of despair and a desperate cry for help, screaming please god to a being that may or may not ever answer.

Sitting in a church, alone at night with nothing but the wind and rain outside to keep you company.  A church that we have never been in before, nor do we even know how we got here.  We are searching for anyone, anything that would answer our desperate prayer to keep our loved one alive.  That answer never comes and we are left alone once again.  This is the profoundly emotional imagery that please god brings.  

ll nøthing ll has created something truly extraordinary on this track.  It is rare for a song to touch me the way that this one did.  I connect to the desperation he experienced, hitting rock bottom and begging for help from an unanswering deity.  This is my favorite song that he has ever constructed, and the album’s price of admission is justified by this track alone.

Death’s story is an immensely personal one. It's the story of ll nøthing ll’s grandfather’s cancer diagnosis and eventual passing.  Each song represents a different time in his life, each capturing the intense emotions that come with such a series of events.  “The track orders are not to how one would expect because I wanted it to feel like my mind was racing. I wanted to give this a Tarantino-esque look when you just read the tracks themselves.”

Death marks a transformation in the way that I view ll nothing ll as an artist. Before listening to this I had heard various tracks casually.  After listening to Death my interest was piqued.  ll nøthing ll gave me a glimpse into an intensely personal tragedy through this album.  Having lost someone dear to me recently, I related deeply to the messages conveyed.  

From my exposure to this release, I have been watching and eagerly awaiting the next chapters that ll nøthing ll releases.  Every album has its own strengths and weaknesses, but they all showcase an artist that has come into his own.  No longer classic vapor, Death is something new, an album where ll nøthing ll plants a flag in the ground and defines his sound from this moment forward.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank ll nøthing ll for taking the time to discuss his album and the details of the story told here with me.  I would also like to thank Blissmonkey for editing and promotion.