Joshua Ketchmark “Death Trap”
Art blossoms in the crude, unlikely landscape, like a seed that fights to emerge from a gap of a rock, “Death Trap,” in its honest and humble form, tells a story about life that would resonate with so many others. “Death Trap” is too true. “Death Trap” is for everyone who knows despair and compromise, regret, hard work and dreams. It hits hard, right there in your chest, and then you know, you have found a real deal in folk/country genre.
Joshua Ketchmark’s performance in this song is very moving. You wouldn’t picture another singer, giving you the same kind of impact as he did. Being the fifth track out of his album Blood, the song is a solid introduction to Ketchmark. His road-worn voice paints the exhaustion and weariness as he sings, “you could only push me so far.” A reverberant guitar echos the theme of “death trap” with a drowning impression. There’s a certain eeriness in the background, a whirling sonic that haunts the track, like the impression of Titanic combined with ghosts towns, a glory yet nostalgic feeling.
“So give it all you’ve got. Try and take me apart. Never know when to start, you could only push me so far.”
Ketchmark’s lyrics work is really what’s drawing you deeper into his song. From a snapshot of a moment in life, stranded in the middle of a snowy road with no gas in the tank, to the life that trapped the dreams and ambitions, to going against all odds, his lyrics have depth, expanding further into many humanly relatable experiences that we all have been through and felt. It’s quite rare for a songwriter to cover so much ground within song form, but Ketchmark surely did.
It’s obvious when a musician puts his heart into his music, and “Death Trap” is one of those songs. You could hear how he bleeds through it, there is a rawness in his music, which made the song even more moving. Like the rest of the album, the song is based on his personal experience. Though the lyrics have passed a few dark places, the sonics were always warm. You’d wonder what makes a person still look forward to tomorrow when they go to sleep and then wake up the other day. There’s the pursuit of the mind and heart, that reaches so far beyond the physically limitation, which never really dimmed by anything.
A heartbeat of a drum pulses through the entire song, with a light touch of epics. A blend of strings (in the shape of guitars) swell and weave into each other, blending a sensitive, filmic atmosphere. It’s this aspect of “Death Trap” that really pushes it into a broader horizon, though it never leaves the fundamental folk and country elements.
