Track By Tracks: Rebel Souls - Dawn Of Depravity (2022)

1. Dawn of Depravity:

The title track of the record was written by Stefan. He started to compose it around 2010 or 2011 and it was originally thought for his other project Dead Entities’ Realm. However, at a certain point he hit a dead end with the composition and left it unfinished for many years. After the reactivation of Rebel Souls and the “The Forces of Darkness” campaign, he thought it would be much more fitting for what he envisaged for Rebel Souls’ second record. With this focus in mind, he was able to finish it and most likely produced the most technical song that was ever written for Rebel Souls. The lyrics were also penned by Stefan and sketch what we thought would be a dystopian futuristic society but is becoming reality a lot quicker than we could think. Killer guest vocals were provided by Pablo Coines of Lapidated.

2. Trophonios:

This song is from our second demo “Estrangement.Disillusion.Frost” and was originally composed by Thomas, who is no longer an active member of the band. When we were recording the demo guitars for the later drum tracking, Alex added some really cool ideas to several of the original riffs and phrasing and really took the song to the next level. For the lyrics, Thomas was inspired by Nietzsche’s “Daybreak”, referencing the Greek deity Trophonios and his labor in the underground of moral prejudices.

3. Poisoner of the Harvest:

The third track is also from “Estrangement.Disillusion.Frost” and was -at the time- our first slow song. Music and lyrics were originally written by Stefan, but once more, during the recording of the demo guitars, Alex significantly altered several riffs of the third act and completely composed the new mid-section with the solo. This was perfected and rounded up by Arnau’s proggy, almost Opeth-like drumming in certain bits, which he came up with in the studio at the time of recording. It’s deliberately placed at this point of the album, to give the listener some room to breathe after the rather bludgeoning first two tracks. The lyrics, which were written by Stefan, are another nod to Nietzsche, who described the Christian church as the poisoner of the harvest of humanity’s past achievements in “The Antichrist”.

4. Corrupting the Lambs:

Another one from the “Estrangement.Disillusion.Frost” and probably the only one that wasn’t altered from its original form of 2003. Back in the day, the opening riffs and the completely insane mid-section were conceived by Thomas, but Stefan felt that the song needed a little more structure and added the bits which would become the verses and bridges, giving the song a logical flow and dramaturgy. A slick, yet slightly technical death hit, which has the first and -to date- the only use of hyper blasts in Rebel Souls’ catalog. The lyrics were written by Stefan and are a sort of stream-of-consciousness from the point of view of a child-molesting priest.

5. Sea of Crises:

This one is probably one of our most brutal songs, also stemming from the aforementioned demo. On one hand, the music was completely inspired by Brazilian gods Krisiun, but they are also the reason behind the name of the song: Krisiun got their name from the moon crater “Mare Crisium”, which means “Sea of Crises” and we thought it would be absolutely fitting to give the song that name. The title is therefore a double entendre as it is a nod to Krisiun, but lyrically also deals with the critical humanitarian situation in the Mediterranean. Both music and lyrics were written by Stefan, and an awesome guest solo was provided by Sergio Álvarez of Krypticy.

6. Three Thousand Screams:

This song is Alex’ first contribution to Rebel Souls, at least in the form of a complete song. Stefan felt that the record needed another slow groover after the frenetic fourth and fifth track, so he asked Alex if he had any ideas. Alex quickly got back to Stefan with “Three Thousand Screams”. The lyrics are inspired by an incident from Chinese warfare in the 6 th century, when the Wu and Ch’u dynasty were about to initiate combat. The viscount of Wu lined up 3000 prisoners that had been sentenced to death, facing the enemy, and ordered them to slit their own throats while screaming ferociously. When the Wu army saw that they fled in sheer terror.

7. Nihil Infinitum:

“Nihil…” was written sometime around 2003 and was one of the last songs to be composed for Rebel Souls before the band was put on hold that year. Unlike most other songs, which are usually written over a period of at least a week (or longer in many cases) this one was written in an extraordinary fit of inspiration by Stefan in one afternoon. It was never recorded in any way, shape, or form, but both Stefan and Thomas have always liked it very much and thought it should end up on “Dawn of Depravity”. It never had any lyrics until pre-production and Stefan came up with this rather abstract theme of absolute nothingness we’re heading toward as humanity. It was once more rounded up by Alex and this time also Tornay’s contributions who made some very cool modifications to the riffs and added harmonies to the melodic bits.

8. Beneath the Veneer:

The largest part of “Beneath…” was composed by Thomas and was, albeit under a different name, on our “Estrangement.Disillusion.Frost” demo from 2003. For this iteration of “Danw of Depravity”, Stefan re-worked the arrangement of the song, by adding some new riffs which enhanced structure and flow, scrapping others that felt redundant, and adding a completely new mid-section that gave space for two sick guitar solos by Alex and Tornay. Alex also reworked some of the riffs and structure, and Tornay added epic harmony over the second repetition of the chorus riff towards the end. The end result is a really epic, yet technical and brutal song which we totally felt should be the first single off the album. Stefan also wrote completely new lyrics, which deal with the incompetent political caste of modern Western society.

9. Rebel Souls:

Not much to say on this one, this is our take on an homage to the song that gave us our name. A cover version of Damnation’s “Rebel Souls” from the album of the same name, which was released in 1996. An absolutely amazing solo was contributed by Raul Muñoz of Chaos Before Gea.

10. Virulent:

Definitely the most epic and blackened song on the record, which serves as a closer and is the newest one to be composed for Rebel Souls. It is inspired by Agent Smith’s monologue in “The Matrix” about how the human being doesn’t act like all other mammals but rather like a virus. Stefan had the inspiration for the music on a holiday, while hiking through some remote landscapes in Laos, and literally hummed the opening riffs into his phone so he wouldn’t forget them. He completed the composition once back in Spain, with yet another finishing touch by Alex to some of the riffs. After touring with Grabak we have built a really good relationship with them, and given the blackened nature of the song, Stefan asked Hellthroat if he would provide some lyrics and vocals to the song which he accepted. Hellthroat recorded his vocals at Echolux studios in Leipzig, engineered by Andy of Disillusion.