Of the bands that helped to cement the subgenre’s core features of growled vocals, maximalist drumming, and swarming, seething riffs, many of them - from Obituary and Carcass to Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Deicide, and even de facto death-metal forefathers Possessed - aren’t just surviving, but thriving well past the three-decade mark, regularly issuing new music and drawing die-hard crowds worldwide. But for many in that first generation, it’s turned out to be a marathon. Finally, the piano and strings slowly rise to surround and embrace a repeated chant of “That’s how the light gets in,” like sun breaking through the clouds-a hope of human lovingkindness shining through the broken cracks to illuminate a way forward.Death metal started out in the mid-Eighties as a mad sprint: a scrappy cohort of underground acts each looking to push the limits of speed and shock value. In the final chorus each member of the choir chants their own personal prayer under a quiet and brave last call to forget our perfect offering. For the last verse, a single still, small voice rises from the darkness. Things finally explode with dissonant, banging piano before re-forming and churning toward the second chorus’s cry of strength and desperation, urging us to ring the bells that still can ring. You will hear some of those rich sonorities arise through the first part of the song, but either over-the-top saccharine or slightly out of place somehow. I started thinking about the weird juxtaposition of that era’s lush, almost schmaltzy popular and movie music against the horrors that were taking place all over the world. As I began to write those parts in early August 2017, images of red flags from Charlottesville brought to mind the 1930s and '40s. Giving his melodies to a choir risks emphasizing prettiness at the expense of grit, so, to keep the balance in our version, I incorporated rawness through the instruments. The result is an unusual synthesis of beauty and rawness that is a perfect complement to his lyrics. Will says: “Part of what gives Leonard Cohen’s songs such power is the combination of his low, limited and raspy voice with relatively traditional sounding, and singable, music. The late Leonard Cohen’s is increasingly recognized as a profound, profoundly Jewish songwriter, and Will Robertson’s arrangement of his “Anthem” for chorus, strings, and piano goes beyond a mere cover to bring to life the vivid center of Cohen’s poetry.
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