Carina Frantzen is a Norwegian singer who adds a dark, atmospheric touch to her rock and roll songs. She’s got a new album called Blacklist out later this year and we’re excited to premiere the video for the title track and first single, “Blacklist.”
The song’s crunchy guitars and chugging bass lines provide gothic sensibilities to Frantzen’s rich voice, which is full of melancholy. A dramatic string section provides an added touch of urgency to the track. While her sound is completely unique, she shares many qualities with artists like Chelsea Wolfe or Emma Ruth Rundle. While the instrumentals certainly make for a dramatic backdrop, the true star of “Blacklist” is Frantzen’s vocal abilities.
The video is shot mostly in black and white, with crisp imagery being contrasted throughout the song’s runtime. There are two horses and dark hooded figure trudging through a desolate forest. The dark figure disturbs the black and white horses’ peacefulness, eventually becoming their master and riding them off into the distance. The song itself came after an intense argument with a friend, which left Frantzen feeling traumatized but feeling the need to write a song to understand the perspective of herself and her friend.
Frantzen was previously the lead singer of the band Phone Joan, an Oslo-based alternative rock group. She recorded her first solo album Blacklist with Vance Powell, who is a six-time Grammy award winning producer and engineer known for his work with Jack White, Dead Weather and Chris Stapleton. She had also previously worked with Powell on Phone Joan recordings.
Photo Credit: Linnea Syversen
Leave a Comment