On Speak Daggers, devotion is a destructive force, likened to bolts, bricks, and razor blades. “I love you/I hurt you even better,” Rønnenfelt sings on “Mona Lisa,” the record’s most devastating and danceable track. It opens with a blitz of gunshots; sharply bowed violins cut through its chorus as Rønnenfelt raps about classic artwork falling into disrepair as a metaphor for descent into addiction. “Crush the Devils Head” is another slow spiral into the inferno, where the delusion that one is immune to evil is as seductive as evil itself. “Crush the devil’s head/Lord knows he’s made a devil out of you,” Rønnenfelt slurs. A syrupy drum beat underscores it all, occasionally sputtering out or jerking awake. “Love How It Feels” inches toward conclusions (“This generation’s not free”), but winds up too vague to feel complete. “USA Baby” is the stronger single; Rønnenfelt has said it’s sung from the perspective of a non-American watching their American partner suffer under the nation’s regressive policies. The clank of chains in the foreground feels apt for an apocalyptic love song about the death rattle of an empire.
The sexually and spiritually charged post-punk that characterized Rønnenfelt’s work with Iceage has taken a slower, moodier turn in his solo material. Chugging rhythm sections that once catapulted him through motormouthed choruses now snag and stretch, often punctuated by high-pitched “ooh-oohhhh” ad-libs. While his vocal delivery on Speak Daggers skews more Lil Peep than Nick Cave, his songwriting remains concerned with violence, corruption, and holy turmoil. “If this is a prison, then the world is one,” he declares on “World Prison,” the song that most resembles Iceage’s ragged punk poetry, now painstakingly stretched across Speak Daggers as Rønnenfelt carves out a niche in the gray space between folk, post-punk, and cloud rap. He’s Denmark’s resident bard of disaffection, but there are no winners here. Each death is a mercy killing, each victory pyrrhic.
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