Capturing mental illness in song is a dicey business. When somebody does it right, you feel like you’re getting to listen to the most poetic case study ever written. When they do it wrong, it’s like being accosted on the street by an actual mental patient who wants to sing you his very favorite tune. Which he just made up.
Suffice it to say that prog- metalers Derev get it right on their new single, “Room 9.” Very right indeed. Harrowing in all the best ways, the song chronicles the inner torment of an inmate in a mental institution who feels as if he’s trapped within his own mind as well—that his thoughts keep racing around and around on an “endless trail” that leads nowhere but back into the thick of an impenetrable maze.
“The intention behind writing this song was to illustrate the struggles of schizophrenic individuals dealing with symptoms of psychosis, hallucinations and disorganized thoughts and actions,” the band says. Just don’t mistake it for simple exploitation, though, because the point here is empathy, not a freak show:
“In our everyday lives, we come across people that society calls ‘crazy’ or ‘mental.’ We often overlook how they ended up there, what circumstances led them to that point, and what they suffered to become who they are. This song serves as a tribute, encouraging the listener to step into their shoes and get a glimpse of what they feel and experience.”
Mission accomplished, especially when you wed the song’s unsparing lyrical sentiments to its vaguely unsettling, Middle Eastern-inspired melodic and harmonic modalities and its almost mathematical, rat-a-tat rhythms that are hammered out in 7/4 time. (Suffice it to say that fans of Tool will feel right at home in this sanitarium.) Beneath the surface, there are subtleties that reward repeated listening and careful rumination: The title “Room 9,” for example, doesn’t just refer to the cell our harried protagonist occupies; it’s also a nod to Japanese culture, in which the word for “nine” (“ku”) sounds like the word for “pain” or “suffering.” There’s even an accompanying animated video that uses highly stylized imagery to dramatize the main character’s fantasies of escape and subsequent frustration at realizing he’s perpetually stuck at Square One.
The entire project is proof of concept for the collaboration that childhood friends Armando Bablanian (guitar) and Michel Karakach (drums) struck up in Kuwait a while back. Since then, a move to Toronto and the addition of bassist Stan Kamarovski and keyboardist/synth player Ran Zehavi have made Derev a full-fledged band. “Room 9” finds that core unit augmented by guest singer Adel Saflou, whose suitably tortured lead vocals will also be featured on the group’s forthcoming album, the thematically of-a-piece Troubled Mind.
With that document already complete and about to be unleashed on the world, Derev continues to move forward at a determined pace. Singer Mike Symons has been brought aboard to work the mic full-time, and he’ll be front and center when the band undertakes a blitz of concert appearances keyed to the new release. Dates announced so far are as follows:
Thursday, Oct. 17—The Supermarket, Toronto, ON
Friday, Oct. 18—The Smokin’ 116 Bistro, Belleville, ON
Saturday, Oct. 19—Overtime Sports Bar, Kingston, ON
Tuesday, Oct. 22—The Tumbleweed Fry House & Bar, Bathurst, NB
Wednesday, Oct. 23—Avon Valley Lanes, Windsor, ON
Friday, Oct. 25—La Cale–Pub Zero Dechet, Montreal, QC
Saturday, Oct. 26—Live on Elgin, Ottawa, ON
Sunday, Oct. 27—La Maison Tavern, Cornwall, ON
The name of this intensive, frenzied little jaunt? The “Out of This Mind Eastern Canada Tour,” of course. When these guys hit on a concept, they stick with it to the very end. But that’s the kind of obsessiveness any psychotherapist worth his salt would heartily approve of.
