Finland's Fall of the Leafe came up last year when I wrote about the related project Wait, Stone & Sure, and every time I hear this song I lose my mind, so I figured now's as good a time as any to give it some love.
Fall of the Leafe truly found their sound in 2002 on their third album, Fermina—having evolved from a blackened, folk-ish melodic death metal band into the far more creative and melancholic direction they ultimately perfected on Volvere, their fourth full-length.
"A Waiting Room Snap" represents one of the group's greatest vocal performances, boasting quite possibly the biggest sing-along chorus of any atmospheric metal song ever—its emphatic vocal harmonies delivering somewhat "random" lyrics with incredible passion. The band didn't include complete lyrics with their albums, just poetic "fragments" or "stories," only portions of which actually appear in the songs:
Awkward in the corner of a waiting room, right next to the old magazines. Uneasy, like a fish pulled up against the light. Black day, curiously attractive white light.
Just as comfortable as watching the well-oiled axis of rail cars ride by above. Maybe there is something outside the window, maybe not. Not. Ask the lady again for no particular reason. Hurting like a bitch and wearing a shit excuse for clothes. These stains are definitely staying. Suddenly a voice: "Snap out of it. No blood, can't hurt. Go home."
So, the singing is fairly hard to decipher, but I swear I think the chorus says:
In the corner of a waiting room
A stack of old magazines
Like a fish pulled up against the light
I mean, what the fuck!? It drives me a little insane that I don't actually know precisely what's being stated throughout the track—as peculiar as the lyrics may be—and yet it's so catchy and so powerful and so emotional that I've been singing along phonetically for more than a decade now!
