Paralysed Age
Into the Ice (Dancing Ferret)
by Wa
Into the Ice is the sixth official release in an expansive career from the yummy, but relatively reclusive German band Paralysed Age. I don’t exaggerate when I suggest that Paralysed Age may perhaps be one of the top five Gothic/vampiric/darkwave bands in the world today. Each recording on Into the Ice is a masterpiece compositionally, while also achieving dance suitability admirably. This is one of those records that you can pop in and dig after just a few listens.
Give credit to Dancing Ferret Discs owner Patrick Rodgers for discovering the recordings of Paralysed Age while on a 2001 Dancing Ferret Discs promotional tour in Europe. Available in Europe for years, their music was never formally exposed to North America. Rodgers has assembled a formidable Dancing Ferret Discs lineup that reads like a who’s who of the Gothic subcultural underground, featuring franchise favorite The Cruxshadows as well as Neuroticfish, Seraphim Shock, The Last Dance, The Dreamside, and Nosferatu.
Ice and the solid inability to change one’s emotions, even in the face of brutal self-honesty, forms the context of Into the Ice. The lyrics of the title track seem to refer to an internal struggle with emotional confusion, depression, and anxiety (as characterized by all encompassing ice). Other favorites include “My Sweetest Return” (which features the violin work of labelmate Rachel McDonnell of The Cruxshadows), “Your Coldest Smile,” “Darkened Skies,” “Dawn of Life,” as well as the elegant cover of “Self Control,” once made a hit by ’80s legend Laura Branigan.
Paralysed Age released their first album, Chirstened Child, a rare 45-minute cassette, in 1991. After several incarnations with different members, the band finally was scaled back to the husband and wife team of Michael and Andrea. Very little is known about Paralysed Age, and members do not reveal their last names. The albums stand on their own, with very little promotion.
In prior interviews, the duo admit freely that they’re very large fans of ’80s music, and that their music is inspired greatly by vampires and particularly the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker. This influence is clear in tracks like “Berenice,” which opens Into the Ice, and is very reminiscent of Poe’s account of a mourning, and desperate lover in his poem “Annabel Lee.” Each song forms an acoustical painting of tasteful ambiguity. Into the Ice is a must-have album for the discriminating Goth fan.
(www.paralysedage.de)
