Scarlet Stories, a progressive metal band from Tilburg, The Netherlands, impressed me very much with their debut album in 2019. Musically (inventive and dynamic) and vocally (spellbinding), but also because the anger within that music is real and relevant: what are we doing to our planet, how are we treating the creatures around us? When Lisette van den Berg sings "You hunted, gunned and broken, forsaken, raped, betrayed, unspoken, wronged, suppressed, muted, ill-gotten, cut and hanged, hurt and forgotten" - you can't do antyhing else but take a long good look in the mirror. This song, 'Necrologies', is a newly recorded acoustic rendition of the closing song of their debut of the same name, especially recorded for this compilation.

This is what they said about it:

"Scarlet Stories started as a semi-acoustic duo, where Bram and Lisette could translate our love of progressive rock/metal into acoustic music. To make it more dynamic and diverse, we've grown into a full band, with next to Bram, Sophie and Lisette (the trio who made this acoustic version), Tim Kuper on drums, Maarten Grimm on bass and Robin van Poppel on guitars. For Necrologies we wanted an epilogue that would encompass the whole concept of the album. It is an homage to all people and animals that suffer or have suffered by the hand of other people. It is also a reflection on humanity: we are capable of such beautiful and good things, but power, money and greed destroy the world. Racism, discrimination, misogyny, destruction of ecosystems, exploitation, abuse, oppression, the extermination of complete nations and species - I just don't understand. It's a pessimistic song."

Scarlet Stories is:

Bram te Kamp - guitars
Sophie Ansems - violin
Lisette van den Berg - vocals & lyrics