In 2015, we called Crywolf’s debut album, Cataclasm, “an album for the post-EDM era.” Though we’re still firmly within that era, strictly speaking, many artists have similarly used electronic music to push past the fragile boundaries of the umbrella term, including AWAY.
Now, AWAY, with Crywolf and Roniit, three close friends in real life, have created “Parasite.”
“Parasite” is a wholly unique, ominous and foreboding song that draws upon a darkness inside us all. The structure of the song is also jarring and unusual, more closely resembling a black metal song than anything found in dance music. It begins with a subtle melody and beat beneath Roniit’s crooning voice and drops into a heavily textured drop section. But the way it’s composed, it almost feels like the song ends around the 1:30 mark… until it doesn’t. The little-more-than 5 minute track has a couple of these sections, a fake out that isn’t a fake out. AWAY explains it best himself:
“Parasite” is about the subconscious, unsettling allure of self destruction within us all. The parasite is the darkness inside that tells us to numb the pain, to self medicate, to run full speed toward instant gratification. This song is about the daily battle we wage inside ourselves against dissociation, addiction, and the forces of annihilation.
As far as the how the track came to be, before ending up as a curiously perfect super-collab between the aesthetic minds of frequent co-conspirators AWAY, Roniit, and Crywolf, “Parasite” initially began as an experimental private writing exercise for Roniit. Her goal was to make a song in one night with absolutely no boundaries, standards, or regard for external factors or branding. What came out was raw anger – an emotion rarely heard in the writing or production of Roniit’s typically ethereal music. After hearing the scratch track, AWAY immediately heard the potential and asked to work with it, bringing his mastery of his signature dark and distorted style, quickly developing it into a full track that blew away both of their expectations. Feeling like something was missing from the end, AWAY and Roniit brought in Crywolf, who helped perfect the writing, and jumped in to craft an ending section that takes the last portion of the song into his own dark world, a final plummet into the void.
Without a doubt, “Parasite” is one of the most singular tracks you’ll hear coming out of the EDM world this year, spurred by the intense emotions and fear that 2020 has brought out in even the best of us. Listen below.
