The Banality of Evil | Music Video by Fido

‘The Banality of Evil’ which sets the overall theme of the album unambiguously. Banality is a dark song about exactly that which the title suggests, a phrase first coined by Hannah Arendt to describe Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust in WW2, at his post war trial in Jerusalem.

The song is musically schizophrenic, varying from a metal theme in the verses to a sweet melody in the choruses to reflect this very trait in the characters it describes; we have further emphasised this by Matt singing the verses (in character) and Amy the choruses. The verse music employs semitone shifts which give metal its distinctive dark feel; we have also included tritones, known in mediaeval times as ‘Diabolus in Musica’ (the devil in music) or the ‘Devil’s interval’, once banned in church music. The ascending scale employed to link each verse to the chorus is reminiscent of that used in the song ‘Jessica’ written by Dicky Betts as a tribute to Django Reinhardt and popularised as the theme tune to the BBC’s Top Gear. The name Jessica first appeared in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and is an adaptation of the biblical name Yiskah which means ‘foresight’. Additionally, Django, one of the greatest acoustic guitar players of all time, was famous for playing with only 2 fingers, his other fingers badly burnt in an accident. 2 fingers can also be considered meaningful in the context of this song!