Single Review: Sever Red - Afraid (2023)

For the past few months, Sever Red have been building towards the release of their EP – Sick and Tormented – on 26th January 2024. Releasing one song a month since September, the band have announced their arrival with a growing collection of incontestably intense material. Based on the life experiences of frontman Kevin Riner, each song tells of his struggle with addiction, the affect on himself and those closest to him, together with the aftermath of recovery and redemption. The order in which the songs have been issued allows the listener to follow the path that Riner followed himself.   

Following Forever Changed and Desperation, the single released in November (Gone - see my review here: https://shorturl.at/nAHZ4) dealt with the self-destruction that results from severe dependence. Afraid examines the realisation of knowing you have a serious problem, coming to terms with it and the prospect of the terrifyingly daunting, almost Sisyphean, journey ahead - if there is to be any chance of escaping. It's three in the morning / Waking up don't remember what happened / Reach to my side, grab the bottle as the panic creeps in The sweet relief takes a hold of me, oh I hate it. Would rather die than live another day feeling like this. There is a raw, bloody honesty to every lyric that Riner writes and he is clearly holding nothing back.  “It makes me very vulnerable putting all these life experiences out in song form. I do it though because it’s keeping it real, and if it can help others struggling then it’s all worth it to me.”

While Kevin Riner has been at peace with the emotions related to his experiences for some time now, the songs are intensely personal. Speaking to Caleb Henry, who acts in a managerial and consulting role for the band and has known Riner for many years, he understands how meaningful they are. “You’re not the only one who had gone through this sort of experience. You are shining a light and brining influence to people who may not have stepped off that path yet -  not knowing they are capable of doing it the way you did it. It definitely brought some of that raw emotion back up again.”

Sever Red consider every nuance of their music and production to ensure that it reaffirms the gut-wrenching lyrical brutality. With a sinister tone of remoteness, a solitary guitar opens the track, as if being played in an abandoned warehouse. The haunting, echoing quality eerily reflects the feeling of total isolation within the lyrics. As with Gone, the quintet understand the importance of dynamics within the story they are portraying. Verses are quieter – gloomy and darkly passionate. Choruses are traumatic and muscular, dragging us into purgatory. I'm afraid to feel again. I'm not okay, it never ends. Mind is racing all the time, I'm so damn sick of living this lie. Just over three minutes in, a formidable yet heart-breaking guitar solo takes flight, and as the band’s accompaniment crescendos majestically, it mirrors the moment Riner screams to the sky in torment, begging for help and freedom from the prison in which he has been living.

Embracing the sound of post-grunge and alternative metal of the early 2000s, they pay homage to bands from this period without ever coming close to appearing as pastiche. As the fourth part of a pentalogy that will make up Sick and Tormented, Afraid is another powerful, compelling track and further cements Sever Red’s ability to bewitch listeners. Thief - the final track from Sick and Tormented - is due in January and will no doubt add another layer of quality to the EP which will be fascinating to experience in sequence.

Written: 24th December 2023

Afraid is out now. Watch the visualiser video below.