Track By Tracks: Chaos Over Cosmos - The Silver Lining Between The Stars (2021)

1. Violent Equilibrium:

These were the first lyrics I wrote for Chaos Over Cosmos as their new vocalist. As a fan of great singers who focus on storytelling, I felt this album was full of stories to tell. Rafal (the main composition writer) does an incredible job at building musical, detailed soundscapes so I needed to make sure I worked within the feel and the grooves he put together. To meet this compositional demand and kick the album off to a great start, I figured writing a post-apocalyptic story about an insecure, self-indulgent serial killer murdering everyone around him and ultimately escaping justice by rocket ship would be the way to go! This song, like all the songs on this album, take place in the first-person. I wanted to tell the ironic story of how this killer’s cognitive dissonance leads him from one isolated lifestyle to the next.

2. The Last Man in Orbit:

To continue and end the story of our serial killer, who is now in space and residing on a space station, the story resumes with the same pattern of self-justification; ultimately ending the lives of everyone on board. As he tells his story to his final victim, he notices something suspicious about this person and has a grand realization that ultimately sets the stage of his undoing.

3. Eternal Return:

This is an instrumental song and the title comes from the concept that assumes that the world has repeated itself and will continue to repeat itself in the same form again and again - infinitely. It was part of the written philosophy of the Stoics, Nietzsche, and Albert Camus. Eternal Return also appears in some religious beliefs and pop culture. It's not something I believe by any means, but it's a fascinating concept.

4. Control ZED:

This song is written from a first-person nihilistic perspective that criticizes the vultures and profiteers who sell false hope under the guise of populism and redemption. Every century or so there are new grifters out to sell snake oil, magic tonics, and hollow promises to ultimately take advantage of those less fortunate but well-intentioned people. I sing about a desire to undo the damage done by these monsters by unplugging these victims who are caught in these systems. Unfortunately history is cyclical, and we may not be able to save any of them. Ultimately, there really is nobody who can save you but yourself.

5. The Sins Between the Stars:

This song is definitely my favorite on the album, and the final thing I needed to write to tie this album in a nice bow. The song is a larger metaphor for destructive relationships and how (no matter what one does to try to change it) they inevitably do not get any better and remain toxic. Keaton Lyon, my brother, is featured on this track providing some deeper screaming vocals and I did that for a reason. On the surface, this track is about brother killing brother. The killer discovers he is becoming a cryptid found in Native American folklore: the wendigo. The wendigo is a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a creature with human-like characteristics who can possess other humans. The wendigo can have feelings of insatiable greed/hunger and the desire to cannibalize other humans, as well as murder those who fall under its influence. Even when the brother attempts to “unbecome” this evil spirit, he finds himself unable to break the spell he is under.