00:00As a rock fan, knowing where a lot of hard rock in the 80s was played and how some bands
00:10gained
00:10a lot of attraction because they were basically songs that they were stripped to.
00:19Stuff like that, that got an additional spread. I'm not talking about that spread.
00:33What do you want to know? Beginning track of the album. Always important to open up a ghost record with
00:44some sort of tone setting epic.
00:50That is Peacefield. I wanted the record to start with a... because the
00:56the record is going to slalom a little bit, zigzag, into darker subjects, if you will.
01:08I wanted to set a tone of hope in the beginning, even though it's addressing very contemporary,
01:21tempestuous issues. I wanted to sort of add a hand to the listener.
01:30Like, it'll be all fine, but we're going to go sideways now and go on a little trip.
01:41Lachryma does open with a more of a, you know, what I would refer to more like a riffage.
01:53And I guess it now comes off as somewhat of a typical ghost mashup where it's heavy on one end
02:05and then
02:06that is met with a big, bombastic, melodic chorus.
02:16Yeah, that's a song about, I guess, self-deceit.
02:22And definitely one of my favorites of the record. I, I, I, that's, that's one of the, the songs that
02:29throughout the recording, I, I always sort of fell back on as like, even if the rest turn out to
02:36be
02:37mediocre shit, this, I think this is going to be, this is fine. This is, this is cool.
02:41Lachryma aside, I mean, I knew I also had Satanized that, that also had spoken to me
02:48since a few years back, actually, because the, the, um, what ended up being Satanized and the
02:54ground basics of, of the basics of that song with the melody,
03:00and the melody and, and most of the things that you hear in the first minute were song, were, were,
03:07were already recorded. They were already demoed. It was like a fleshed out idea.
03:12that I had even before. It was, it was put into, into the mix of Impera.
03:19Uh, but it just simply wasn't included. And, um, I felt strongly about that song. That felt
03:28unique and, and, and cool. Uh, and since I knew that the, the, um, that's the subjects of the record
03:35was going to be very basic of, you know, hope, um, self-deceit and now love because Satanized is a
03:42song
03:42about love, not being possessed by a demon, but the idea of coming off as being possessed by a demon
03:49because you're in love. So it felt like that was going to suit the, the, the record really well.
03:55Guiding Lights is, I guess, the, the, the, the more traditional hard rock ballad of the, the record.
04:04Uh, even though I, I, uh, it's, um, it's disguised as a rock ballad where, where parts of it is
04:14probably something that could have ended up being like one of the
04:18now missing instrumentals on it because it, parts of, of, of, of what, what drove me to write the song
04:27the ideas were recordings of, of one was the chorus.
04:35That was like the first thing I came up with. And then the line that they're older and leaves
04:40in nowhere. Okay, great. That's, that's the hook. And then a chord change, a chord progression,
04:44like one of the most used chord progressions ever, but it sounded cool. But I had this other bit
04:56which was like, that's 1982 horror VHS beyond Suspiria. That's that sort of horror flick music
05:09that I and so many others like. So that could have easily have been one of the
05:14more the, the, the, the big instrumentals instead of the record. Uh, but it, it sat really well
05:21with the chorus and transformed into, you know, pretty effective, uh, ballad about, um,
05:31I don't know if there, if there's one word for it, but it's basically the, the ability, the, the,
05:39the non-ability to, to be able to speak to someone next to you who you know is going the
05:47right direction.
05:48But you don't dare to say it because you know that if I say this, we will not even be
05:55friends anymore.
05:56It's as a, um, uh, it, it's not called that because of, because I am up on Latin. It, it,
06:02it, it, it's because I am
06:03interested in, in, in, in books and, and music and, and art. And, uh, I think it's, it's, it's a
06:10fairly well known that,
06:11that Oscar Wilde wrote a letter that he called the profundus. And so that means from the abyss, I guess,
06:23from, from the depths, um, I guess interpreted as, um, from, from the other side or yeah, from the depths.
06:33And Borealis means Northern. So for all you black metal fans here, it's, it's one of the most immortal-esque
06:44titles really, because it means from the Northern abyss. Um, the song was always intended to
06:53sound, uh, I guess in a, in a way, uh, kind of like a black metal song. I know it's
07:02not a black
07:03metal song, so you don't have to fucking get going. But the idea was for it to resemble
07:10the, uh, the, the, the feeling of like a snow storm, like something that's sort of just
07:18brutally, just relentlessly, it's just, uh, sort of, uh, covering all sight with this just whirlwind of
07:26snow and ice. So that, that, thus the, or hence the, um, uh, the sort of, uh, uh, hectic sort
07:36of just,
07:36uh, gallopy, uh, continuation through this sort of quite, uh, endless attack of, of just
07:46chugging.
07:47Um, and it's, uh, it's a song lyrically about regret. Cenotaph is a, I mean, a cenotaph is a, um,
08:04um, a stone structure, uh, posing as a grave, but does not actually in, in, in, uh, doesn't
08:16have a body inside. So it's technically an empty grave. So, which is, is a, um, but usually serves
08:25as a more, some sort of memorial plaque. Um, and, um, I thought that that was a nice, um,
08:35uh, it served as nice symbolism for, um, for the idea of, of someone, uh, dying. It isn't necessarily
08:46completely, completely embodied or, or this buried, um, uh, physical entity inside a grave,
08:55but more so a, um, a, uh, part of our, of our consciousness.
09:01Celia Mori is, uh, yeah, it does have a, a very sort of, uh, glam rocky, um, you know, almost,
09:12um, you know, as, as a rock fan, uh, you know, knowing the, where, where a lot of hard rock
09:19in
09:19the eighties was, uh, played and how some bands gain a lot of attraction because they were basically
09:27songs that they were stripped to, uh, pour some sugar on me, you know, stuff like that, that was
09:34sort of, that got an additional, uh, spread. I'm not talking about that spread, but, uh, just because
09:44it was, uh, you know, stripper pole music and, um, Celia Mori was definitely, that was sort of a joke
09:51when I wrote it. It was like, it almost has like a stripper pole, uh, because it has that
09:57you know, physical, you can sort of throw yourself sideways and, uh, and swerve around, uh, but, but
10:08lyrically that is, uh, you know, when, when love has, uh, started to, uh, appear as, as hate rather
10:17and, uh, the lust for one of one party to basically consume the other and forcefully take over
10:29that and disguise that as love. Whereas it's, I don't know what it is, but it's, uh, can be extremely
10:36unpleasant. I think it's more interesting focusing what the marks or whom the marks are, um, because
10:47marks of the evil one is not about a, it's not about the, it's not signs of the evil one.
10:56But, uh, marks in this case means something else. So, uh, lyrically it's a, uh, it's a very dumbified,
11:07um, interpretation of biblical writing, um, and, um, sort of, uh, simplified as something cool.
11:22And, uh, that, I mean, that's, that is, uh, there for a purpose. I don't know what, I don't know
11:29what
11:29to tell you, but, but, but marks of the evil one is a, is a song about something that I
11:34see. Yeah,
11:35you can almost hear Robert Plant, it's like, wow, yeah, uh, yeah, I mean, uh,
11:45uh, so where the, the album starts with, with, with the, the, the hope, hopefully hope install in,
11:55in, in installing, uh, peace field, uh, and you, you're taken through, through the, this minefield of,
12:04of, of human sentiment and love and hate and, and, and despair and, and, and acceptance and all that stuff.
12:13And, uh, there, there is this, um, main thing I, I think that most people can probably agree on.
12:21And, and, and this is, this, this obviously immortalized in, in a, in a very well-known song
12:26by, uh, um, you know, another, another British band in the sixties. But the message is basically
12:31all you need is love. And one of the, I think one of the core essential senses of purpose that,
12:42as humans, as we, as, as, as, as basic as you can get, um, is the idea of, of human
12:52touch.
12:53I felt there, there needed to be one coital song on the record because at the end of the day,
13:00that's one of the main driving forces that we all have. We can be, we can sit around and be
13:06all,
13:06intellectual all day and just hand out one, one tray of shots and everybody will be like,
13:17let's think about something else.
13:18Um, because it's the most fundamental urge that we have, except for breathing and, and eating and
13:27drinking, you know, but, but that it's such a basic thing. And most of us, uh, likes that stuff.
13:37Um, and, um, I wanted a song that was, as I said, driven by lust and, um, um, um, and
13:45that,
13:45that also musically painted a picture of, of lust and the hunt to parties.
13:52Again, there we go. Two parties, um, that are playfully seeking to hide, seeking hide and seek,
14:01but then they've, you know, come together in an explosion of, of, uh, physical delight.
14:07At points, I, I, I did believe probably that, that, that Umbra could have been like a last
14:13song and, uh, and then Excelsis as it existed felt like that should probably be the album
14:25encore, if you will. If that's the, the, the credit, uh, the credits in the film sort of music,
14:33uh, where Umbra was more of a, you know, that's the last action scene. And then Umbra comes as
14:39in sort of an afterthought as a commentary and, and, um, an epilogue, if you will. And the, the,
14:45the overall messaging in, in Excelsis, even though it's, it's very death, um, heavy, um,
14:54is simply that if you're listening to this, you are alive and you should live life as
15:09effectively as possible because death is inevitable and we can, we can big, you know,
15:22bicker all day about what's, what death is and what it means, but we're not getting any smarter.
15:30It's a fun subject. I love talking about it and, but I also hate talking about it because it, it's,
15:38it's, it's a great waste of energy and it does also make us feel, um, bad at times and, and
15:47scared.
15:49And, uh, since we really don't know what it is anyway, I think it's important to always speak
15:55more about life than death because it's, uh, you know, it's inevitable anyway. And, uh, I am also
16:03guilty of, of, of, of wasting too much time in my life pondering about death. So as part of my
16:12journey
16:14is also to try to live a little bit more by what I'm end up preaching.
16:22Um, and that is go live your lives. God damn it.
16:26God damn it.
16:28Yeah.
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