by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan)
Chicago’s Wretched Blessing won’t be pigeonholed anytime soon. The duo make heavy music, but beyond that, all bets are seemingly off. With ten toes in ten different inspirational pools, the band bring a unique approach to their sound, blending extremes in a way that feels alien. With traces of death metal, black metal, grindcore, d-beat punk, and “alternative metal” (like nu-metal but less goofy), Kayhan Vaziri and Rae Amitay are working with familiar pieces yet reforming them into shapes without a mold. The rules have been rejected, and their impulses are free to fly in all directions. Occasionally that path leads toward unexpected covers, as the pair followed up their debut EP last year with a set of Deftones covers, playing it close to the source material with an uptick in brutality and depravity.
Wretched Blessing are back with another cover and this one feels a bit more left field as they take on Calvin Harris and Disciple’s decade old mega pop hit "How Deep Is Your Love”. In case you’re not familiar with Harris (it’s okay, neither was I), he’s a Scottish based electronic musician who can sell out stadiums worldwide with ease. The song was originally written by Ina Wroldsen and Disciples, whose vocals are the throughline with which Wretched Blessing connect. Sure it seems like an odd choice (the song has also been covered live by Mitski), but seeing as Wretched Blessing are adept at damn near anything they try, it works. Together with tour mate Genital Shame (aka Erin Dawson), who contributes both guitar leads and a minimalist solo, the band take a desolate shoegaze approach to the song, pulling it down into a place where beauty and dread feel balanced.