The Below featuring Jesper Hanning share “Knives and Heights” b/w “Grind Me Down”

The Below’s new single “Knives and Heights b/w Grind Me Down” featuring vocalist Jesper Hanning, is released via Accelerating Blue Fish today. The first track on the single “Knives and Heights” evolved from a driving rhythm created by noises from scrap metal, a plastic can, and other found objects. Thereafter layer upon layer of sounds was added to build up a dark and intense soundscape. The equally ominous, and uncanny video was directed, filmed, and edited by Jesper Hanning. You can watch the video below:

Even though both tracks could be described as dark and experimental the addition of Jesper Hanning’s powerful voice has given them a more accessible flair, making them almost catchy. Hanning describes the lyrical themes as follows:

““Knives and Heights” is all about the intensity of fear and the traumas it can cause. The verses are just little snapshots of eerie things. The chorus was inspired by something actor Cary Grant’s grandmother once told a reporter about her grandson: “He was a nervous child with two primary fears: knives and heights”. Then we just added one more fear: fluorescent lights.”

The second track “Grind Me Down” uses the same set of tools but is instead a slow, grinding song based on a distorted bass line.

““Grind Me Down” is a very straightforward text about how we live in a time where people tend to ‘find the truth’ in filter bubbles where they seem to lose all common sense. The conclusion is always the same: the rest of us are misled fools who need to ‘educate ourselves’. The filter bubble grinds these people down while simultaneously winding them up. A dangerous combination.”

“Knives and Heights b/w Grind Me Down” is the follow up to “No Place Is Safe (feat. Aaron Sutcliffe)” – an anti-war song, with stark criticism of Israeli politics, that was supported on social media in Palestine and by Pro-Palestinian organizations. The acclaimed and horrifying video for the track includes authentic images from a war-torn Palestine – those images are just too familiar to what we are seeing in Ukraine today.