If lockdown had any positives, it was providing the space for artists like Anne Bennett to create great rock songs like ‘Heavy Hand’. Fierce and fueled by deliciously overdiven guitars, its old-school steadiness provides the stable platform for which her emotive lyrics can take hold of the listener.
Bennett wrote the track during a road trip down south, smack bang in the middle of the pandemic. On the way to a memorial service for a family member who was killed in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident the singer-songwriter described the trip as ‘a sort of escape for me, because all year I felt like I was losing my mind, having no choice but to stay in one place… It pushed my depression to places it had never been’.
It’s safe to say Bennett has perfectly captured the anger and defeat she was feeling in ‘Heavy Hand’. The wonderfully crunchy guitars marred with her heartfelt performance makes the song as much an example of Bennet’s skills as a songwriter as an exploration into her own psyche. Hailing from Salem, Massachusetts, its hard not to wonder if Bennett’s uniquely ethereal vibe originated in her hometown, notorious for its witchy past.
Previous works, such as ‘Deep in the Shadows’ house a similar emotion but there’s an unflinching maturity to ‘Heavy Hand’ that truly shows Bennett’s individuality as an artist. Working alongside UK-based producer Rory Carlile it’s plain as day, Bennett worked diligently to get this track exactly how she wanted it. In her own words ‘I’m defiant. I want to be remembered as someone who refused to take no for an answer’. Her struggle with mental health has never deterred the quality of her music and Bennett’s passion for her craft has helped define her art as melancholic and hauntingly brilliant.
Photo cred: Courtney Brooke
Reviewed by Ciarán Coleman
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