Nikolaus Wolf – “Brother’s Fist”

Siblings fight. It’s a universal truth, one Nikolaus Wolf pulls from for their latest single, “Brothers Fist”. A violent altercation spiraling out of control that resolves in a familial way, “Brother’s Fist” projects the chaos and the control that comes from those moments.

Michi Rieder, the musical mind behind Nikolaus Wolf, wanted the track to rumble. From the dirty guitars that set the mood to the wild saxophone solo at 1:57 blasted by Florian Riedl (of Dreiviertelblut), the energy ramps up and stays there the whole way through. Even the lyrics need a moment carved out from the clash to puncture the harmonic texture.

“The demons rumble. The demons groan. The demons wait behind the door,” Rieder explains. The violence, the pain, and the trepidation housed in one home don’t mean the chaos is untamable. As raucous as the instruments are, they all still conform to a progression. Rieder sings, “blood is thicker than wine or water.”

The action peters out, quite literally, as the song ends. Everything collapses, falling apart in a mixture of exhaustive release and relief. Siblings fight, but at the end of the day, they’re still siblings.

Stream “Brother’s Fist” below.

Ben McCoy

Ben is an advertising Madman who spends his days with words and music. When he’s not writing for his supper, he’s eating it at some of NYC’s most interesting restaurants.