Track By Tracks: IN CHASMS DEEP - The Wind And Her Lament (2020)

1. The Wind and Her Lament:

The title track is centered around the ever shifting energy of the wind. At one moment she is calm and gentle, and the next she is terrifying and destructive. 

As an opening track, I wanted this song to offer a little bit of everything that is to come for this album. It opens with soft mournful piano that morphs into clean guitar with a solo section over it. It quickly speeds up into a faster metal section that eventually leads into another clean guitar part that echoes riffs that were previously heavy distorted electric guitar. So the track begins calm, and increases in intensity until the final section where it returns to softer post-rock. 

2. Beneath the Weight of an Endless Sky:

Track two is vaguely inspired by Midgar from FF7, and how corporations are so quick to drain the planet of its natural resources, all for the sake of profit and power. 

Musically, this track is the closest to shoegaze on the album, opening with a pulsing drone guitar that increases in volume until breaking into a metal section. I used a heavily distorted tone here with a couple of different flange and tape echo effects added for that wall of sound effect. The middle section of this song is almost a sort of mid 80s goth rock interlude, with repetitive rhythm guitars and a clean echoed lead tone laid over top. The song ends with a short blast beat/tremelo picked section that melts into a soundscape of distorted guitar effects in reverse. 

3. A Suicide in Paradise:

Track three is the first song I wrote for this album, I wanted to go for a dream like atmosphere that slowly morphs into a nightmarish vision of death. 

Completely instrumental, A Suicide in Paradise begins with a dark piano section, quickly joined by clean guitars and a string section. After a brief pause, the clean guitars take over lead duty and rise in intensity and volume until breaking into a heavily distorted black metal solo section for the majority of the track. It returns in the end to clean guitar and piano that eventually drops into just piano before softly ending. I wanted to paint a sort of musical journey without any lyrics, a dream that ends in nightmare. 

4. Abyssgazer: 

Abyssgazer is the most relentless track on the album, representing fire and hate. It is heavily Lovecraft inspired, and is about being haunted by an invisible entity that attaches itself to a host, slowly causing insanity. 

Track four begins with a bang and a short organ section that leads into relentless melodic black metal complete with tremolo picking and blast beats galore. There is a middle section that slows down a bit, before breaking back into melodic black metal shrieks and blasts. After 6 or so minutes of violence, the track abruptly changes into a post-rock sort of mid paced harmonic section that slows down even further with clean dual guitars complimented by ocean waves. Musically, I wanted this track to stand out as the most similar to my previous album, so the majority of this song fits in quite well with the melodic black metal of The Realm Between. 

5. Fading into Rain: 

This track is about the sky opening up and the rain killing all human life on earth, sort of a reset and restoration of earth before man existed. 

Track five began its life as a short instrumental piece that eventually evolved into being longer, with the addition of drums and vocals. This is another shoegazey type track for the majority of the song. Its filled with layered effects heavy guitar at a mid paced tempo, before ultimately switching over to a faster black metal section. The track ends with rain, washing away all life and ushering in the final instrumental. 

6. Mourning Glory: 

I thought of this instrumental as a continuation of the previous track, a mournful cry and swan song for all those who perished during the flood. 

I originally intended this last track to be just a small part of a longer song, but I think it fits nicely with the previous one and once again ends an album of mine with piano and rain that fades into silence.