Sigmund Freud, the world's most renowned psychoanalyst, has left a profound mark on music – a trend as baffling as his Oedipus complex theory. From 1960s folk collectives (The Gateway Singers - "The Ballad of Sigmund Freud") to progressive rock icons (The Alan Parsons Project - "I, Robot"), a history of artists seems to have been infatuated with Freud's ideologies. Who can blame them? His neurological advancements can act as blueprints for out-there songwriting. The newest act to translate his thoughts into metal is the Viennese collective FREVD, a band united by inner conflict and alternative influences.
FREVD is a masked group, identities kept hidden from the public. I did find their full names in the credits of their song, but for the sake of image preservation, I'll refrain from leaking their identities. FREVD rose to fame after joining eleven other Austrian acts in a race to represent the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, held ceremonially in Vienna. There, they performed, disadvantageously with playback, their debut single, "Riddle," a short track dealing with vulnerability and, ironically, identity.
Their performance, however, didn't convince the audience or the professional jury. They received five jury points and 2,725 public votes, which translates to three points. This situated them with eight points and a seventh-place finish. Despite topping public polls, they placed in the bottom half of the scoreboard. During their performance, the lead singer was consoled by the band on a therapy-style recliner, reminiscent of Freud's tactics to extract as much information as possible from his patients. Unfortunately, his vocals weren't as strong as expected.
The studio cut is better quality than their broadcasted effort, and its post-hardcore-slash-pop-slash-alt blend is concise and addictive, resulting in episodes where I can listen to it in increments of five run-throughs at a time. I appreciate how the lyricism–not necessarily by dumbing it down–tackles Freudian issues in a graspable manner. While "Riddle" may be the only song released by the band so far, by the looks of their social media, much more is to come. Pay close attention, all, as you'll never know when FREVD will drop their newest psychoanalysis-adjacent single.