Track By Tracks: Next Time Mr.Fox - Sunken City (2019)

1. TOTTENHAM SWINGERS:

As the first track of the Lp, Tottenham Swingers is a tirade against that kind of people living in their own made lies, trying to convince others of their achievements and of their relevance in the social system without any virtue; as well as people giving up too early on their aspirations. It ends with a quote from the Bible, Proverbs 21:23, about those who should hold their tongue more often. On this first track, We can already find a lot of influences by the band, and the most interesting thing of the song: the feat. by Mattia Maffioli (Drown In Sulphur) with screams and growls on the final deathly breakdown.

2. HUMBOLDT:

The second track of the Lp represents the first glance into the abyss depicted in the whole story. As seen in the videoclip of this song, with Humboldt we've tried to represent one of the major plagues of the actual society: self induced depression. Seen as a new trend by a major part of young people nowadays, who try to justify it with external factors that actually do not exist; factors represented in the lyrics by the reference to Nyarlathotep, the sadic entity of the Lovecraft universe. Humboldt was the first official video from the album, released in November 2018, in this track We can listen to a lot of groove influences, and a rich and hopefull melodic opening at the end, including clean vocals as a special.

3. THE ALL OR NOTHING DAYS:

This is actually the first song written by the band years ago. It differs a lot from the contents of the other lyrics, but, with this placement in the track list, it can be seen as the final illusion of hope before the leap into darkness. This is the softest track of this album, but the band decided to include It cause considered worthy of a new record/remaster. Here’s the second and last feat. of the album with the presence of Gabriele Catoni (Let Them Fall) with clean vocals on the two chorus.

4. BEHOLDER:

The first song was written with our final line-up. This track depicts humanity how it would probably be seen by an external observer. Full of references about atrocities and crimes committed during the history of our species, it ends with a sentence of death for the "murderers of the murderers", a summary of what someone who has never seen a human before would think of us. At the end of the song, we have the first of the five unexplained sounds recorded in the oceans by the NOAA. Beholder is the first track written for the album “Sunken City”. It showed the change of the band and a detachment from metalcore pure genre. We can listen to the latest version, with new vocals, sound, and master.  

5. R'LYEH: 

An instrumental intro where we tried to artificially recreate the sounds and the sense of fear that we feel hearing something that never had a full explanation, like the unexplained sounds scattered in the whole Lp. It introduces us to the second and darkest part of the album.

6. MOTHER:

We've tried to approach to what we think is another diffused problem in the actual society: a too severe and pointless tendency to protect younglings from the world itself. By doing so, parents usually harm their children instead of defending them. It actually comes a time when letting go, someone, is a matter of fact, and cannot be avoided. If someone isn't ready to face our cruel world, maybe because he has been protected too much, the consequences will never be positive. “Mother” ‘s beginning is one of the more hectic of the entire album. With a catchy hardcore closing, It has a place as a 100% “breakbones” track.

7. DRAG ME TO YOU:

It's the short tale of someone obsessed with the idea of receiving answers in a world that only provides more questions. An obscure paraphrase of the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis, the protagonist of the lyrics calls for the four elements to satisfy his thirst for answers, receiving none. Only Water itself seems to be merciful towards him, but the promise of solace hides a more vicious fate. In this, Water, that hides darkness itself in its depths, represent the acceptance of fear and doubt in the ultimate stage of descent into madness. Second unexplained sound. Just another breakbones track.

8. IMAGE OF SIN:

This track describes how Faith itself, which could have been a powerful way to pierce the veil of mistery and immensity of our universe, became the most abused justification to subjugate others, losing its primary goal. Mankind lost its verginity so long ago by committing unspeakable horrors in the name of something above us. In the end, lyrics contain an omen for us to become a negative example not to follow for whoever will come after us. Third unexplained sound. 

9. GRANDIOSE DELUSION:

The last three tracks of the album compose a story. Taking inspiration by the theory of returning to the woods in order to find ourselves and avoid a major corruption of our soul, the first step of the story is about a kid who leaves his city, where everything is granted in order to find inner peace and self-realization. Wandering, in the end, he actually fulfills his desire to lose himself in the world trying to realize what he is truly able to do, but the major problem with desires is that sometimes they go way beyond themselves. In a wood, the kid realizes that things he took for granted were more important to him than he thought, and begins to hear strange noises and voices. In his search to silence his mind, he finds a tiny house. Fourth unexplained sound. Is possible to listen the southern soul of the band. In this song, the heaviness leaves some space to blues notes, clean vocals and groove parts.

10. VOLUMES: 

The second act of the story. Inside this house, the kid doesn't find silence or peace, but only more doubts. Noises and voices grow stronger, starting to address directly to him with horrifying messages as the walls around him change and revolve causing him a claustrophobic sense of confusion. Fifth unexplained sound. This is the shortest song of the album, with a full groove sound, djent rhythmical and despair plays, but the coolest thing is the breakdown. Just "WOAH".

11. SUNKEN CITY: 

The title track of the album and final act of the story. The sunken city represents the final stage of descent into madness, where there's no help by anyone or anything but ourselves to come back to surface, but most of the times that's not possible. In the house, the kid witnesses horrifying metaphors of the human condition and, destroyed by doubt and confusion, he tears his eyes apart to avoid them. He hardly flees in the basement, just to find it filled with water and hearing unspecified entities moving in it. Misled by their voices, he follows them down in the sunken city where, even without his eyes, he is forced to see a final and overwhelming horror. In the house and in the woods around it, now silence reign supreme. The only thing that often breaks is a supernatural voice coming from above, wishing goodnight to mankind, its children, its greatest achievement and its worst failure. The song who gave the name to the album, one of the heaviest of the album, but anyway balanced and catchy.

12. MISERY (Gallows Cover): 

A song originally performed by the British band Gallows. A song we loved to play

in years and that actually fits inside the theme of the album, as it speaks about depression and sensations it causes.