Track By Tracks: The Altruist - AEGIS (2019)

1. No Guiding Light:

With No Guiding Light, we wanted to express the necessity of going through darkness to emerge into the light. It's a song about the necessary suffering and the impossibility of avoiding it. Some of the variations in the different styles of voices are used to show how sometimes we have to force ourselves to fight harder even when hope is gone and rely on our capacity to adapt and overcome. Musically, this is one of the first songs ever written for the band. We wanted to have much contrast in the music by having a very clean and ambient intro, a heavy band introduction and a catchy & colorful chorus. We also wanted to experiment with electro elements to add to the heaviness of the breakdown riff. 

2. Schopenhauer:

Schopenhauer is named after a famous German philosopher of the 19th century. He had that concept of describing humans as always going from boredom to pain and the song is a lot about that, but the real message of the song is about forgetting those negative feelings, having some perspective and being able to count our blessings. The song was written with a nu-metal approach in its structure and vibe. We wanted simple riffs to convey the mood and leave space for the ambiance surrounding the band. From the bridge to the end, we wanted to have a nice build up going from something very calm to a very simple but colorful riff to the last riff that just melts your face off. 

3. Unyielding:

Unyielding is probably the most aggressive of the bunch, it's an angrier song with angrier lyrics. The song revolves around the idea of feeling betrayed when someone lets you down, it's about the feeling you have when you realize that ultimately you are the only one to blame for making yourself suffer for others without any positive outcomes. But there is a positive message behind it as well. When you lose everything you can sometimes feel empowered when realizing that with nothing left to lose you feel unbreakable, unstoppable, unyielding. We wanted that song to be the slap in the face of the EP. Being a more traditional metalcore/djent song by its riffs and vocals, we wanted to convey great energy and intensity. By having the electro layer on top of the build-up through the break, we wanted to have this mechanical vibe that sits really well on top of the build up.

4. Droplets of Sun:

Droplets of Sun is a more abstract song. It's about how small everything is in the grand scheme of things. The idea of Droplets of Sun describes the small particles that rise from a fire to burn up and disappear in a second. The idea for those lyrics came to me while I was on a trip in the woods of Sweden. These tiny particles were once trees that took ages to grow, but even those trees are insignificant in the vast timeline of our planet. It's a lot about accepting and realizing that we are a very small part of a huge ecosystem. In its structure, we consider that song to be the most pop song of the EP. It's a bit of an homage to catchy-ness in popular music and the bouncy-ness of djent. Nothing too crazy in its execution, but it works well for a laid back song that is easy to listen to and sticks with people.

5. God of Creation:

God of Creation isn't a Christian core song as I saw some articles speculate. It's actually not about religion in particular. The song is more of a hymn to the religious and sacred feeling we have inside. It talks about how overwhelmed we feel when contemplating how vast the universe is. The chorus is inspired by a quote from Nietzsche and the nihilism he described with it. The song's main idea can be summarized with one of its sentences, « if creating is divine, there might still be some god in us ». We are our own gods in creating what we believe in and shaping the world with our ideas and this song is a tribute to that capacity. That last song of the EP is actually the perfect example of what the band is becoming musically. When the band came together, this song was still unfinished, and everyone added something to it. We're very proud of the arrangements and very happy to have collaborated with Ludovick for the piano parts. It's definitely our more complex song to date in terms of orchestration, voice arrangements and melody layering.