Browsing Tag

Shadows

Daizie Darker’s ‘SHADOWS’ Bleeds Through the Cracks of Dark Pop-Rock Alchemy

Posted on 25 February 2025

The most spectral force in contemporary pop-rock, Daizie Darker, is no stranger to crafting songs that cut deep and leave a lingering mark. Raised in San Antonio, Texas, before making her way through Berklee College of Music and eventually relocating to Utah, she’s spent years refining a sound that merges raw emotion with sonic precision. With a voice sharpened by musical theatre techniques, courtesy of her vocal coach Darrin Newhardt, and an affinity for the powerhouse vocalists of the 90s and 2000s, Daizie possesses with her vocal range.

Her latest single, SHADOWS, is a testament to that intensity. Melodic 90s rock guitars angularly blossom through the moody atmosphere in the intro, building into a blistering chorus where Daizie’s voice mesmerises, whether tempered in quiet reflection or unleashed in impassioned melancholic catharsis. The track is a raw confrontation with scars, one that allows listeners to reframe their pain through Daizie’s poetically meta lyricism.

With one of the most affecting voices in the alternative scene in 2025, Daizie Darker is a siren in the form of a powerhouse, a poet in the guise of an unreckonable force. The momentum behind her is bound to catch up with the fervour she pours into her viscerally raw yet sonically cultivated sound.

SHADOWS is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

East Meets West in Koza’s Impassioned Inferno of a Drill Track, SHADOWS

Posted on 2 July 2024

Koza’s second single, SHADOWS is a fierily impassioned inferno of frenetic rap cadences that reach the pinnacle of rhythmic fervour; by embracing his cultural roots in the exotically produced hit, punctuated by hard-hitting drill beats, Koza couldn’t have been more authentic to himself in the soul-baring release, which delivers an unforgettable introduction to one of the hottest drill rappers on the UK scene right now. It’s only a matter of time before he teams up with GRM and goes viral.

There are few artists who can match his heat and do so with maximum conviction that spills straight through the soul instead of the ego; all the lyrics serve to viscerally make a statement of intent as they cut through the atmosphere laid out by the diaphanously ethereal Hollywood-esque backing vocals and delicate instrumental layers which contrast sharply with the bass-swathed beats.

SHADOWS is a significant shift from Koza’s debut track, KOHLI; by underpinning the release in his personal philosophy, modernising the East-meets-West production with ahead-of-the-curve beats and anchoring it in vulnerability by narrating themes of self-discovery, the breakthrough artist broke plenty of ground with this stormer.

SHADOWS dropped on June 28; jump on the track on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast