Featured Artist Friday: Gabrielle Ornate ‘Nine Lives’ Review
Jagged and juddering whip cracks of pure power prickle against the speaker with such scintillating force that it leaves a tingling sensation that lingers long after the track is done; this is raw, pure electricity, and it feels divine.
Gabrielle Ornate is somewhat of a mainstay at this point. We have previously covered the kaleidoscopic ‘Spirit Of The Times,’ the explosive ‘Rewrite The Rules,’ and the epic ‘Free Falling.’ With every release, we dig deeper into the primordial powers that fuel this powerfully empowering sound, and it is no surprise that this latest offering might be our favorite yet.
A Visceral Sonic Experience
Nine Lives smashes into existence with feral fervor. The guitar is already wailing with industrial menace, the vocal vamp twirls majestically in the maelstrom, and the drums pound with groove and gusto. The intro is a vicious and visceral hook, dragging the listener into a pulsating heart of sound. This is how you start a track—with intent and immediate impact.
The cathartic chaos of the intro fades phenomenally into the first verse, where we are gifted a gratuitously groovy little riff on the lead guitar that wiggles and wriggles with a salacious sashay through the core of the track. This builds in strength through the pre-chorus, which possesses an almost theatrical tease to every line and lick that wouldn’t be out of place on Broadway. Primed for intergalactic travel, the chorus kicks in with rocket-fueled force, jettisoning the track into cosmic orbits.
Compositional Mastery and Metamorphosis
Just after the second chorus, the intro is brought back as a bridge, leading further down the rabbit hole into an instrumental freak-out that tugs at all the various riffs and lines that have come before. In this echo, recall, and rewrite, you can hear the themes and melodies born again and made anew. Not only does it prevent the track from becoming formulaic, but it also mirrors the central lyrical core of the song.
The overall composition and evolution of the song are breathtaking in scope and stature. The journey takes the listener from mountain peak to ocean floor; it is epic in the truest sense of the word. Beyond the expert construction, the passion of the playing and the emotive electricity of Gabrielle Ornate’s ethereal voice are what truly resonate. Lyrically, it is a song that offers the listener a friendly shove into the crystal chrysalis that will birth the most bodaciously badass version of themselves—a metamorphosis message made music.
