Oh, the drama.
Ten years since the release of their debut album, New Brigade, Copenhagen’s Iceage release “The Holding Hand.” It’s the band’s debut single/video for new label, Mexican Summer. Throughout the track, romance and desire are feelings that stretch torturously — a race without a finish line. Elias Bender Rønnenfelt’s voice crawls over slow-marching percussion and glittering wind chimes, and as scorching guitar and Nils Gröndahl’s piercing violin layer in, the song rises to a noisey peak. Rønnenfelt’s lyricism reaches grand heights despite its classic opacity: “‘O limp wristed god, limp wristed god // Don’t you know I’m not at a fault in your weakened arms // Knocking on your window is a cavalcade // Pleading for relief, a call to aid.”
“The song lives in a slurred world, movements are elastically stretched out and strength is found in weakness while you find it hard to tell the difference between fume and matter,” says Rønnenfelt. “Gently the swaying intensifies, feel it escalate. Reach out for the holding hand, it seems almost within scope now.”
The song’s video, created by director/director of photography Anders Malmberg, captures dramatic portraits of Iceage: Bender Rønnenfelt, Jakob Tvilling Pless, Johan Surrballe Wieth, Dan Kjær Nielsenand new member Casper Morilla Fernandez. “The band has such an amazing and soulful presence, and my aim was to create a cinematic experience around image reflections that would tie in closely to the narrative and the emotional atmosphere of the track, and let the authenticity that the band radiates feel ever present,” comments Malmberg.
