A New Single and Music Video from Dullahan
A new single release from Dullahan brings out an excellent and heavy-handed, hard rock and grunge-influenced banger with robust and almost anthemic vocals, along with melodically driving guitars and a full-bodied approach with some extra surprises around its corners.
The single breeds a cross of many heavy rock sounds, and you can hear the slew of influences that have inspired it, from classic metal to alternative rock, along with that grungy undertone that seems to stick throughout its course.
The song is called "Made of Stone" and comes from a pretty personal and honest space that, upon paying attention to the lyrics, you can really pick up on.
Now, I feel like others may interpret this differently because songs in general are up for different interpretations depending on whoever is listening; however, for me, this feels like a song that focuses on being a little uneasy, nervous, or vulnerable in a sense.
Waiting for someone to come save you until you realize it's you who will save yourself.
This was a sentiment that connected with me a lot, and I enjoyed picking up on these factors throughout the songs unfolding.
The guitars are awesome here. The heavy guitar tone is really where the grunge attributes come in. They put a lot of attention into the fact that they wanted those guitars to come through thriving and heavy, but also bringing in a certain level of progressive undertone.
During the verses, you have this almost plucking effect of coming from those guitars that adds a little bit of a different texture to those verses, and this is also where you hear other influences coming into play.
The song also boasts quite a pop-rock style chorus, which is very big, and the vocals get way more intense during these sections as well, and the guitars become full-bodied and lush.
I love how the vocals follow suit with the energy of the track itself because it really helps everything push forward with great momentum.
The drummer and it's such a perfect dynamic to the track, letting the heavier sections come through with a pungency, utilizing the ride for the first part of the chorus and then into the crash symbols for the second part.
This definitely helped those choruses come through with a heavier edge while remaining very melodically coated.
You also have an amazing guitar solo that sort of crosses boundaries in certain ways. It's not your standard ripping solo, but instead is more intelligent in a way. It's got a certain elegance to it, and you can tell that there was a lot of time put into how that guitar solo contributed to the balancing of the heaviness in this song.
It flows right back into the next verse just as the rest of the song does but helps lead the way there.
There's also some awesome sort of halftime sections where everyone really hits harder, and you can actually hear the way the guitars are being played. They're sort of getting slammed. That energy comes through in the guitar performance alone enough so that you can feel it in your body.
The whole thing does boast some ridiculous riffs as well. There are a couple of riffs here that are just super heavy and do balance between alternative rock and grunge really well, while hinting at metal influence too.
This track comes with a great music video that features a young boy growing up in what feels like the '80s based on his room. He wakes up, goes downstairs, and sort of fights boredom for a while. He goes out to the backyard searching for things to do, digging up a guitar.
The young boy in the video is representative of the band's singer and guitarist, Allan McGreevey, who also explains that the title of the song comes from a Motorhead lyric from a record he bought when he was 13. So, you can see where rock music has changed the man's life, of course.
After digging up a guitar in the hole in the backyard, he's not really looking for things to do anymore.
So, the sentiment of the song is a little bit separated from the sentiment of the video, for me. I definitely love how the video comes across with this young boy finding the guitar buried in the yard.
That was such a cool element to the video, and the kid was amazing. He did such a great performance that was borderline whimsical when he found the guitar, and it just made the whole production more entertaining.
This was a single that put together some of the best elements of alternative, grunge, and hints of heavy metal, while blending a pop-rock effect into everything so that it actually felt slightly spirited and almost inspirational in a way. You get even more of this when you watch the video.
I also love how they are afraid to throw in some really heavy riffs in this track.
This was driving but also really fun, and something that sort of stuck around with me for a while after I heard it.
The best way to listen to the song is to watch this video, which we've embedded below, and you should definitely just do this right now.
This is for anyone who loves that great blend of pop and alternative rock coming together with smart guitar work and songwriting.
