Track By Tracks: Varius - Concordance (2021)

1. Golden Crown:

This song represents something completely different as far as what our audience would expect of us. It is the album’s most straightforward track and is a mid-tempo wall of sound. It has a more classic-metal kind of sound, but with almost Amon Amarth-style vocals. The calmer intro gives way to a massive chord-based riff, and the song progresses into an epic guitar solo and dynamic build to through the outro. Lyrically, the song touches on themes of battle, loyalty, and brotherhood. The lyrics were influenced by the concept of ancient warriors who lived and died by the sword and battled for their brothers in arms rather than glory and wealth.

2. Concordance of the Legionfall:

This track dives back into traditional Varius territory with its chaotic but exciting structure. There are plenty of groovy riffs as well as several dynamic shifts and trippy moments. The guitar parts and vocals in particular shine on this song and keep the listener occupied as the track goes through its many movements. There are tinges of black and death metal in this track, with progressive twists and psychedelic-sounding transitions. The song concludes as it began, with raging guitar sweeps and brutal vocals. Lyrically, the song describes themes of evil and black magic. The concept was to tell a story of powerful warlocks defeating legions of demons by using their dark powers to “fight fire with fire”. This fictional concept was influenced by the video game World of Warcraft, which some of us in the band are great fans of.

3. Lament of Dissonance:

This song is a bit of a balance between a relatively straightforward groove track and an experimental piece. The song begins with melodic guitars before descending into a crushing groove riff in the verses. This song has the most traditional chorus part of any Varius song to date and incorporates a little bit of clean backing vocals. After the first few verses, the song gives way into even more crushing riffs and a strong guitar solo. The end of the song transitions into one of our signature Varius experimental moments, which takes the listener through a jazzy outro. Lyrically, the song describes a brilliant creative person cracking under the pressure of expectations of his audience. The song takes a personal perspective from this individual and describes the burden of living up to the demands of a hungry audience.

4. Gut Shoveler:

This track is almost structured as if it were two songs in one. It begins with furious death metal and thrash-influenced guitar riffs before transitioning into a lower-tempo, nearly-doom metal groove featuring church organ sounds. The song’s dynamics go through the motions from slamming metal to atmospheric, ambient and acoustic sounds by the end of the song as it fades out and concludes the Concordance EP. The lyrics discuss a potential dystopian future in which planet Earth is so overpopulated that cannibalism becomes a normality. In fact, the song is sung from the perspective of a hypothetical human-meat factory worker. Songs about fictional apocalyptic futures have been a theme on previous Varius releases, and Gut Shoveler stands out as the most brutal example yet.