Track By Tracks: Profanation - Into Cascades Of Blood And Burning Soil (2019)

1. Incantation:

The intro: In the past, we always had some samples from movies, which we arranged into album intros. This time we always had in mind to play the intro ourselves. During one rehearsal the idea came up to take the riff of „A place to pray“, slow it down a lot and our intro was born. Had the idea to start with some apocalyptic samples and then the drums kick in in a My Dying Bride-like style. Heavy as fuck. Really wanted to have some spoken words to sum it all up and inspired by some video game introduction, the words got into form. Like a red line, connecting all song titles and support the end time scenario. We instantly knew that a native English speaker was best for that, so we wrote to Dave of Lividity, who is a long time fan of our stuff. He recorded it and I‘d say, the whole thing just is a perfect start for the album. Surprising old Profanation fans and giving an impression of what‘s to come.

2. Into cascades of blood and burning soil:

The title track music is also a bit older and like most of our songs, had a lot of changes during the process. Most people seem to hear some Swedish influence here, really can‘t name it, but the title line also appears in a Vomitory song, so… Would say it‘s a typical Profanation banger, really fast start and lots of grooves while the song lasts. The lyrics are some of the last finished for the album. Maybe our first really socio-critical song as I just wanted to bring my thoughts about the climate change hysteria, comparing it to religious actions in the past – always preaching water and drinking wine. When Alex had the lyrics, he just told me that they fit perfectly to his lines for the song and hearing the building tension in the vocal parts to the end of the song just send shivers down, haha.

3. Seed of evil:

Maybe our most technical song, really playing with tempo changes and I‘d use Dying Fetus for reference. Lyrically the title says it all.

4. Silent God:

A more groovy song, the introduction with distorted bass and drums seems to hit a spot for many listeners. I often get great comments about the song by people not too much involved in death metal. The lyrics are by Vincent and it‘s a 3 page story about a plane crashing nearby some cultists. Really long, so we will need a teleprompter for Alex, performing this live.

5. Bloodbath in heaven:

One of my favorites. It starts off with a long intro, that doesn‘t seem to fit the rest of the song and then it‘s just raging chaos and destruction with blasting brutality and some dissonant sounding stuff. While the middle part is groovy as fuck, the ending is just awesomely returning to the madness from the beginning. Lyrics by our friend Matze. The title speaks for itself.

6. Der Gemütliche:

One of the most surprising songs, as it‘s a lot slower paced in the beginning. Had some Bolt Thrower comparisons by friends, maybe in some parts. But like every Profanation song, we can‘t write a song that‘s just slow, so the raging starts again. Luxl came up with the idea to keep the German working title and also put up a story of some fat guy coming home after work. So I wrote the lyrics as demanded and Alex fit them in. Would absolutely love to create a video for this one.

7. Unholy brutality unleashed:

Another really old school track, pure slow tension building riffing turning into an awesome Benediction tribute part in the second half. Playing this one live is absolutely great. Lyrics by Matze again.

8. The prophecy:

Another really aggressive killer track. Brutal with some hidden melodies in the middle part. Lyrics by Alex – apocalyptic stories.

9. Butcher‘s joy:

The second long lyrics song by Vincent. During writing, we started off with a standard crust/grind riff. Luxl put in 3 different styles to the drum part during one round and over time we would frequently change things. Still has a grinding feeling, fast forward but with lots of different riffs and chaotic changes.

A place to pray/ Ablaze for pray:

The oldest song on the album, grown over the years. Jeff really does a great job here, pretty different vocally to our other songs. The atmosphere this song builds is really thick and it nearly falls into the black metal category in some parts. Our longest track ever with a story dealing with the dark side of religion.