Track By Tracks: Sorrow Enthroned - Thelemic Grimoires (2020)

1. Sins of the Carnal Man:

Musically for this track I was going for a death metal vibe, the verse riffs inspired by Morbid Angel with a little bit of Black Dahlia Murder for the chorus. Lyrically/conceptually this song is about the soul of a man being reincarnated through millenia leaving a trail of atrocious acts in his wake. This could be the cause of bad karma in current lives. 

2. Winter Winds Weep:

I love 90s black metal, and this is my tribute to that era. It has a cold depressive feel, and the lyrics explore the idea of looking at one’s own dead body after suicide. I thought about this a lot as I spent a lot of years suicidal and recovering from drug addiction. 

3. … and it Was Night:

This song is directly influenced by Crowley, the Vision and the Voice, Aethyr 18. My personal interpretation of the beginning of this chapter is that the story of Christ did not take into account the passage and decay/rot of time, or how every single thing in this realm is subject to “night”. Over the centuries the fable continued to fade and lose authenticity as there is a greater truth than this. The Latin at the end of the song was supposedly uttered by him on the cross and translates to “my god my god, why have you forsaken me?” There is a bit of a deathcore feel with chugging in the verses. 

4. Black Horned God:

After an evening walk in the woods in Connecticut, I sat down to write and kept seeing what seemed the be horns in my mind’s eye as I played these riffs. There is a dark melody and thick atmosphere with some heavier sections. My own experience with the black horned god is he is the supreme (even divine) masculine energy of our universe, a bit of a trickster with a sense of humor. To me he is The Devil tarot card, Cernunnos from the Celts, Pan, Satan of old Jewish folk tales, and obviously ones own self as there is no god but man. This image of Baphomet, the unity of light and dark beast and man, male and female is the image in which we were created, and the full spectrum of human personalities is displayed there. 

5. Inutterable Darkness:

This is a bit of a mixture of doom death with a deathcore style breakdown in the middle. There is a lot of channeling when it comes to making music I believe, and this came after realizing that the great and horrible darkness that lives in every facet of this existence may go away sometimes or temporarily, but there is always a part of it that remains. Since the beginning of time these events have been building and encroaching on every single individual and their childrens children. The atmospheric section at the beginning was intented to invoke a feeling of primal energy, and also this song was written during the loudest thunderstorm I ever experienced. 

6. Artem Satanismus:

There is a lot of melodic parts to this song, mostly inspired by Dissection and The Black Dahlia Murder. Conceptually it is about the idea that Satan has been the source of light and inspiration for humankind, and essentially “God” and “Satan” switched places. Satan is the fiery spirit of the sun which created our solar system and our selves, and lives in the midst of every atom and cell. Rituals for our Whore – From this point on in the album the Thelemic theme is much more prevalent. Rituals for our Whore brings back some doom elements and is a bit more of a mid paced song in general. To briefly sum up the lyrics, the primal darkness before the big bang is the inverse of life (Qliphoph) or the womb of creation. The big bang is her lover which is the single point of creation or an idea. From their intercourse comes Matter and Motion, or Understanding/ Wisdom. Babalon is Matter and Understanding and the beast she rides is Wisdom. This is the foundation of our universe as opposed to superstitious ideas of an invisible unproveable trinity. 

7. Hand of Aiwass:

There is a poem in Liber 440 called “Mother Hell” worth reading that I drew inspiration from. This was the most challenging song to compose, and is a bit on the faster side with a couple tempo changes and a decent amount of melody. It talks about the relationship between the lovers Hell and Lucifer. 

8. Congress with the Demon:

This song is more mid paced with a nice solo and a rhythmic almost deathcore chug for the verse riffs. The lyrics are based on the idea of conversing with ones primal self or demon, which is sentient. This demon/angel (there is no difference) leads us wherever it wants and resisting only causes more pain, it is important to be united with our deepest innermost selves to be happier. There is a ritual called Liber Samekh which is good for this although risky and if I remember correctly it is based off the inverse of an old anti-possession ceremony. 

9. He who Devoureth Abyssal Wanderers:

This is the slowest, grittest track on the album with the death doom vibe returning. Brutal death metal comes in as well with a nice little slam riff in the middle. I drew from Incantation with the brooding, evil sounding guitars and Stillbirth or Devourment for the heavier parts. This is a personal favorite of mine, and it is speaking from the point of view of Choronzon, who id rather not discuss. In The Vision and the Voice by Crowley, he is evoked in Aethyr Ten. 

10. Thelemic Grimoires:

This could be fashioned into a ritual. I wanted a different feel for the closing track and the spoken word/synths that introduce the song set the pace for the most diverse track on the album, with melodic death metal, slam, clean guitars and fast riffs making their appearances. The inspiration comes from personal experience with magick, I believe there is no reason to do rituals outlined by other people verbatum, there is a ton of wiggle room. All of the godnames/barborous words come from channeling and the subconscous mind. “Every man must carve his own way through the jungle”. This can be applied to daily life, as no one knows us better than ourselves and it is dangerous to follow the ideas of others. Every man and woman is a star. My favorite moment on the album is the slam riff for sure. I grew up during the Myspace Deathcore era and it is in my blood to create breakdowns, I cant help it.