Live Review: What a 'Chrome Halo' costs according to HTMLflowers and Banoffee

14 September 2017 | 7:53 am | Lloyd Crackett

'Chrome Halo' is the lead single from HTML Flower's upcoming debut album, featuring the vocals of Banoffee, it's an honest look into HTML's private life

If the production of this track feels somewhat off-putting, then don’t worry – it’s working. The synths are metallic and ringing, they’re sharp sounds that pierce through everything so they should You’ve got to be paying attention anyway. Sure, it’s music that has been made ultimately to be enjoyed but there is a little more to HTMLFLOWERS’ new single (other than featuring BANOFFEE) – it’s the start of an immensely personal and oft swept under the rug tale. It’s the start of the story of how you get a chrome halo and what it costs.

‘Chrome Halo’, the lead single and also title of HTMLflowers’ debut album is referencing the round metal fixtures above the lights in hospitals, more specifically, in a hospital Grant Gronewold has spent a lot of time in. It’s not a sneaky grab at an aesthetic combination of words- it’s honesty. It’s what Gronewold takes every time he leaves the hospital, a shining reminder above his head of the sterile life inside a hospital.

‘Chrome Halo’ as a track deals with this, the way in which HTMLflowers’ life has changed due to cystic fibrosis, and how, as he describes "When you go in and out of hospital as much as me you're not the same anymore, being alone changes you, people recognise you less and less, you feel love less and less. It’s these feelings of isolation that have been channelled into his track; it’s about disability and how it is treated, both by medical professions and the general public. It’s a track that explores what it means to be deemed unhealthy and to be systemically denigrated and disrespected. Ableism is often one of the forgotten social issues, it’s swept away for a multitude of reasons, be it if not the toxic idea that if someone tried hard enough they could be healthy or that modern medicine somehow is perfect.

Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter

HTMLflowers is an important voice, he has experienced what it is like to be under the American health care system, he has experienced the Australian health care system and most of all, he’s managed to put together an album detailing his experiences. With a history of emotionally raw and well-produced tracks, it’s no doubt the upcoming album will be an absolute triumph but it's important to know that Chrome Halo isn’t a vanity project, it’s an untold story of a man more than capable of telling it.

Keep updated with HTMLflowers on Facebook before his album drops on the 17th of November via Wondercore Records 

SEE ALSO