“Boss Fight” - Doom Scroll
Doom Scroll played Compost Heap 2026 (annual all-day music event at Seventh Circle Music Collective). I sadly missed this show. I write “sadly” because Doom Scroll fucking rocks, and they’re personally a top-three I’d-do-sick-shit-to-be-in-a-moshpit-live-to-this-band for me. I can hear the high quality musicianship and experienced authentic songwriting in every record. I’m also bias for a tasteful punk-y washboard.
Song Review: “Boss Fight”
“Boss Fight” is a single by Doom Scroll released in 2023, and what a killer song. It makes apparent Dark Souls and Elden Ring references in an optimistic tone with beautiful intertwining vocal melodies encouraging you to keep going through life’s toughest moments and societal bullshit even when “[you] can’t take another hit.” I love the vocals and screaming but precise high-fret-playing bass fills. For those of you that haven’t played (i.e., arn’t masochists), Dark Souls and Elden Ring are popular single player video games where you attempt to crawl through dungeons of unjustifiably overpowered, massive, intimidating monsters. To me, there’s no identifiable plot line except “don’t fucking die,” I usually need to play in the morning time to keep myself feeling optimistic, there’s no easy route to completing the game, and every time you die, your character responds at a bonfire.
I have played over 100 hours between Dark Souls Two, Dark Souls Three, and Elden Ring without ever beating a single game. I guess there’s nothing more relatable to “real life” than getting brutally demolished but retaining the courage and optimism to say, “I’m going to slay that asshole” on the next try. That’s what this song is for me. It’s my conscience’s boombox on repeat when life seems like a grind day-after-day-after-day-after-day but you still somehow wake up to face it and fight this proverbial boss. Some of my favorite lines:
And as the dream of new world dies
Please don’t give up.
The only option is to shred
Concussed and bruised, but
never dead.
…
But I’ll fight the boss.
We’re still going forward.
And when you fall,
collect you soul and start again.
…
We can always make our way
back to the bonfire.
The vocal melodies are fantastic between both singers. They nail the emphasis on the best words, the instrumentation feels like it keeps moving (I can’t get enough of the bass in the verses), and the overall tone parallels the optimism needed to play a Dark Souls or Elden Ring game. After the second chorus, there’s a well-timed rhythm transition to an outro (post-chorus?) that I love. Every line is something to yell with your chest, like to “[h]old onto to the ones who mean most to you.” It’s a thoughtful ending to a high-emotion, amazing song that for me, ultimately represents a toast to unconquerable optimism in the face of seemingly unfair, artificially-created challenges.
Slay the boss.
Find and follow Doom Scroll here: Doomscrollband.com