The perfect 3-minute pop song but... it's metal?

Every now and then the algorithm really knocks it out of the park. Like that time I was buying a t-shirt online and the website asked me if I'd like to buy a mini blowtorch fuelled by ordinary cigarette lighters (why yes, I would, thank you!). As I described in an earlier gig review, it was the YouTube algorithm that first piped Voyager's "Promise" into my ears without me asking for it.

Promise is so good it shocked me: I couldn't believe what it achieves in just 3 minutes. It's arguably formulaic in some ways, but then there's hardly any music that isn't somewhat formulaic when you really analyse it. The trick is to work with the formula and balance novelty with familiarity, comfort with shock. Voyager have done that, and composed and recorded (and will hopefully perform) a perfect example of the 3-minute pop song... except it's metal.

As a metal fan myself I was obviously biased towards liking it, but it clearly has appeal beyond the musical niche of prog-metal, as so many reaction videos on YouTube demonstrate. I am amazed to discover that, for the first time, I completely and unironically love a Eurovision song*, and one which other people also seem to like too. This post is an attempt to explain why!

Here's a rundown of how it goes, together with a little analysis (timestamps refer to the video here):

Promise: been there, got the T-shirt.

 

00:00 Intro (4 bars) - Syncopated synth sounds make you think maybe it'll sound like a New Romantic band from the 1980s. Maybe more modern EDM. Finger snaps on the 2nd and 4th beats reassure you it's not going to be completely abstract or avant-garde. There is just one note to start with - G natural. Two beats before the verse we get a B-flat and therefore an indication we're in G minor.

00:07 Verse 1a (8 bars) - a repeated question appears in the vocals, and limited harmony appears in the syncopated synth line. Stabs from the kick drum and toms lead into the second half of the verse.

00:22 Verse 1b (6 bars) - continuous, floaty synth sounds appear and spell out the harmony more clearly. The drum stabs continue, building tension. No indication yet of where the song is headed, style-wise.

00:36 Bridge 1 (9 bars) - the intensity suddenly backs off a little, we lose the drums and are left with just vocal and synths. One synth part still floats out the harmony, the other synth busily marks out the 4/4 tempo with semiquavers. A second vocal line briefly harmonises with the lead. This is the crossroads, as this song could go anywhere from here: maybe more finger clicks and synths? a deep EDM track? Something else?

00:53 Chorus 1 (8 bars) - the big reveal, and the moment that hooked me: the distorted guitars plus bass have arrived and this is now a metal tune. A syncopated one-note chug accompanies, using the same rhythm as the synthesised sounds at the very start. (Want to start an argument with a metal fan? Ask them if this bit is "djent" or not!) The main musical material is wordless, with a few words functioning as fills between phrases. A huge downward slide on the bass leads into Verse 2.

01:11 Verse 2a (8 bars) - the intensity reduces a little as we lose the guitars but the combination of kick drum and bass guitar, co-ordinated and syncopated, keeps the groove moving forward. The lead vocal line picks out an unexpected top A on the word "touch".

01:25 Verse 2b (4 bars) - instead of another 6 bars of verse material like in the first verse, we get a sort of a mini-bridge section, just 4 bars long, introducing a snippet of new melodic material ("cross my heart..."). There's a seasick feeling as the drums go into a half-time feel and the bassline slides around.

01:33 Chorus 2 (8 bars) - back into 4/4. The wordless melody is slightly altered in the second half of this second chorus, accompanied by altered chord changes.

01:48 Breakdown (8 bars) - an abrupt change back to a half-time feel starts with a minim's worth of complete silence. A gutteral growl ends the pregnant pause, and starts 7 and a half bars of brutal metal breakdown. Uncountable reaction videos use a still from this moment as their thumbnail - mostly showing the look of shock on the listener's face.

02:04 Bridge 2 (10 bars) - over piano arpeggios this time, still continuing with the half-time feel from the breakdown, the bridge returns. This time we get an extra bar of exhortation ("promise me...") delaying the lead in to arguably the climax of the piece:

02:24 Chorus 3 (8 bars) - back into 4/4 and almost all rhythmic interest disappears, directing the listener's focus to a completely instrumental version of the chorus, played in a sustained manner instead of the chopped-up 1- and 2-note chunks we heard before. Just 4 bars of epic guitar solo, followed by 4 bars of epic synth (played on a keytar). The harmony features G major prominently, which on repeat listening was actually subtly present in the previous 2 choruses, it's just this time the soloists really highlight the B natural of the major chord. The sustained keytar line disintegrates into fast arpeggios, sextuplet semiquavers, for the last bar before the final straight:

02:39 Coda (10 bars) - the melody and lyrics from the mini-bridge in Verse 2b return, this time supported by a different harmonic progression, but underpinned by the same rhythmic chug we heard in Chorus 1 (which in turn used the same rhythm from the very start). Euphoric G major fills the final 4 bars, the uppermost vocal part hitting a high B natural for extra emphasis.

03:00 End - 91 bars of 4/4 after it started, at a tempo of 122 beats per minute, it's all over, bang on the time limit.

Promise packs in so many of the things I love about heavy music into its 180 seconds. Voyager have chucked everything including the (metal) kitchen sink into this song, and yet they have also done it very astutely while keeping to the Eurovision brief, in particular the strict 3-minute time limit but also the popular television audience.

Thinking about the Eurovision contest itself and how the song works for that audience:

• It's got good melodic interest, showcasing both singers' technical ability and passion.
• It starts gently, ambiguous with regard to style, then builds. Nearly a third of the song has passed before it properly turns into metal.
• There's an obvious retro 80s feel to the synth work.
• There are several surprises, all of which serve as bait to draw the listener in: the heavy first chorus; the lead vocal high A on "touch"; the appearance of a new vocalist in Verse 2b; the crushing breakdown and accompanying growl; the suddenly-spacious Bridge 2; the guitar & keytar solos; and the final few bars of sustained major-key euphoria. These have all been positively remarked on by various YouTubers in reaction videos, crucially including people who aren't particularly fans of metal.
• The wordless motif from the chorus is catchy, and serves as a sort of call and response when the band are out and about in front of fans.
• 2 lyrics in particular from the song are memorable and easily worked into media interviews: "have you ever done anything like this before?" and "promise me it's gonna be alright".

Promise also includes so many of the things I normally look for in metal music:

• Truly heavy guitar sound: drop-tuned (i.e. low pitched), distorted, and played on 7-string instruments.
• Whole sections that contrast with the heavy guitar sound, so you feel the crushing heaviness when it comes.
• Cleaner-sounding melodic or chordal material heard at the same time as the heavy guitar sound.
• Bass guitar playing that has some rhythmic interest and some independence from the guitars, played finger-style or slapped (as opposed to picked).
• Strong singers who can confidently carry a pure, non-raspy, vocal line and keep it in tune, even if they don't do so all the time.
• Some growling or screaming to contrast with the pure vocals.
• Vocal harmony.
• Lyrics that are just vague enough: with strong metaphorical meaning but allowing people to interpret them very broadly.
• Syncopated rhythms within a strict tempo - ideally with some finesse so that even the heavy bits feel like they have a groove.
• Half-time and double-time tempo changes: swapping between a 2/2 feel and a 4/4 feel.
• Guitar (or other instrumental) solos: what can I say, I grew up with Vernon Reid and Angus Young, I have no idea why guitar solos became so unfashionable!
• Super-heavy instrumental breakdowns.
• Unexpected weak or silent first beats that catch you unawares, in order to make the second beat hit even harder in contrast.

Promise does miss out on a couple of things I absolutely love about metal, though, namely:

• Not just half-time or double-time tempo changes, but both in the same song! Some of my favourite metal compositions are mostly in 2/2, going into double-time (4/4) for some sections but also into half-time (so 1/1 I guess).
• Judicious use of time signatures other than 2- or 4-beats-in-a-bar. Bonus points for making a natural enough groove that it's not immediately obvious what the composer(s) were thinking. One of my favourite things is listening to music where it "works" when you count it mentally in multiple different patterns.
• Rhythms that are beyond just syncopation, to the point you could describe them as polyrhythmic.
• Brain-bending djent rhythms (like morse code but heavy)
  
• A vocal scream with a really well-defined pitch.

But frankly, what would Voyager have had to change about Promise in order to fit any of those things in? None of those extra things could be squeezed into the 3 minute limit without compromising the structure and development of the song, so that's fine by me. Not every song can have absolutely everything in it, and the rest of Voyager's back catalogue includes all of those extra aspects at various points (listening to Ghost Mile, Brightstar, Prince Of Fire and Submarine should cover all those bases if you're interested).

I feel like I could go on forever about how much I love this song and appreciate its musicianship, but for now, this is the end of my love letter to the perfect 3-minute metal song. Regardless of their eventual result at Eurovision 2023, this band, and this song, deserve their own little place in metal history. Vote Australia!

* update: I'm up to 2 now: Blanca Paloma's "EAEA" is synth-flamenco perfection.