Evestus - Happy Being Dead

Evestus is an interesting fellow in the industrial and gothic scenes. Outlandish in style like that of Masao Kakihara from Ichi the Killer, but also prominent in the Estonian music scene, he melds multiple genres into one and could care less if others found that strange. He even performed at Eurovision and announced the votes for Estonia for the competition. That's pretty dope for an industrial band to say the very least. Evestus as a band, then, has had an extremely steady career that started in 2005 with their debut album "Destiny in Life" and has since released multiple EPs and singles and two other albums which are"Wastelands" and "This Is Dramacore". Their latest effort in life is their anti-social media single 'Happy Being Dead' and I'm here to discuss that. 

'Happy Being Dead' is an extraordinary song that will find outsiders of Evestus' music confused, but will find fans of their works to be just right. Depressing, spoken word, almost too quiet vocals fit the anti-social media mood Evestus aimed when creating the song. The lyrics are read, "I won't add you as a friend / and I won't follow your accounts / won't like your daily selfie shots / won't comment on your articles / cause I don't fucking care". What we're given alongside those spoken word lyrics is a cabaret-like, solemn piano and percussion based work. That is until the first line of "cause I don't fucking care" is sounded out. Then we're brought into a warning; a synth line alarming us of a darker mood foreshadows the later bits in the song where we're thrust into a brilliant ballad of piano, synths, deeper percussion, and Evestus' attitude. Well done! 

The music video is worth discussing but holds no influence over the score. Various clips are melded together featuring people crying as Evestus' sings his song about not liking and sharing and commenting on your posts. It almost seems as if the point is driven home showcasing loners crying by themselves as no one is infatuated by them. It's later in the song when the more upbeat parts come along that we see people committing to coordinated dances as if happiness is not found isolated on social media sites. Rather, they're found in love with others. This is at least what I took from the video; art is subjective and should be dissected by everyone. Check it out: 


It's funny to talk about this single as it is one of those songs that grew on me the more I listened to it. At first I found it to be okay, but every time I spun it in my car on my way home from work or while conducting business with our record label, I found myself anticipating the heavier side of the song. It's a song that's a gigantic tease and once I hit the heavy synths my aural senses go bonkers. I suppose that's really the only critique I have of the song: the slower parts make me wish I was already in the second half of it. But, other than that, this is a solid piece of audio-visual work. You can purchase the single on Bandcamp and you can stream it on Spotify. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page. Feel free to check it out for review, interview, and premiere opportunities. 
Dec 07 2020