Bran Reed – Salvation

When silence becomes torment

I listened to Bran Reed’s new single “Salvation” and was imme­di­ately cap­tiv­ated by its mel­an­chol­ic and min­im­al­ist vibe. The track comes across as an extremely sombre bal­lad that imme­di­ately draws you into a dysto­pi­an sound­scape. I find the open­ing par­tic­u­larly com­pel­ling: the first notes imme­di­ately reminded me of early Depeche Mode songs as I listened, I instantly had the feel­ing of “Stripped” or “Black Celebration” in my ears. That sounds incred­ibly prom­ising to me.

Lyrically and vocally, the track is abso­lutely top-notch. Bran Reed explores the pain­ful ‘deadly play’ of a tox­ic rela­tion­ship, where sal­va­tion lies only in escape. There is one slight down­side for me, though: I would have liked the song to build up explos­ively at some point. Instead, it remains stuck in this quiet phase through­out, which, in my opin­ion, is a bit of missed poten­tial. But still, I like the song some­how and hope for more dark elec­tron­ic tracks from Bran Reed in the future.

Listen to "Bran Reed – Salvation" on Bandcamp

Lyrics of "Bran Reed – Salvation"

Pain is your reality.
Now you give it straight to me.
I try to fol­low through the dark,
and there is no light, no spark.

Salvation… for me and you.
Salvation… will lead us through.

You crave curses in my skin,
and in my mind a thou­sand pins.
You give pain with sadly eyes,
but the calm inside you dies.

Salvation… for me and you.
Salvation… will lead us through.
Salvation… for you and me.
Salvation… means to let you free.

You can't leave, there's no farewell,
you cre­ate my dark­ness hell.
For you there is no release,
so you will nev­er give me peace.

Salvation… for me and you.
Salvation… will lead us through.
Salvation… means hide from you.
Salvation… your dark­ness grows.

Salvation… your mind goes wrong.
Salvation… I've tried so long.
Salvation… I must run away.
Salvation… from your deadly play.