Track By Tracks: ANTIROPE - Amnesia (2023)

1. Is This The End:

This song was written during a jam session a few years ago, and we almost forgot about it. But luckily, Patrick didn't. When he played us the opening riff to remind us, we just picked up where we left off. It starts off really heavy until the verse kicks in. That's where things get a bit quieter, and you can really focus on the vocals. There's a big contrast between the soft, warm verses and the heavy, rough parts in between. Everything is just a prelude to a single chorus that really tells the whole story of the song. After that, there's just pure energy coming from the instruments, combined with a lot of layered backing vocals, creating this huge bulldozer of sound coming your way.

2. Black Or Two:

This is maybe the fastest track on the album or at least one with the fastest verse. But it definitely has the strangest name. Black Or Two starts almost immediately with a verse, backed by some pretty straightforward double-time drums and dry, kind of stoner rock guitars. Until it gets to the chorus, where things slow down a bit. The drums play a half-time beat with an odd time signature, without the snare drum. When I told Patrick that I wrote a song without any snare drum in the chorus, he couldn't believe it would sound good. When we first played the song, it just made sense. The guitar solo at the end is just pure emotion.

3. Dead Sun:

One of our older songs that feels new every time we play it. Dead Sun is simple but honest. It starts off pretty heavy and then dives into a verse that feeds on vocals. The whole song is really just one riff, from start to finish. It ends with a massive guitar solo and huge drum fills that wrap up the song perfectly.

4. Beautiful Liar:

The original version of Beautiful Liar that I wrote a few years ago was a pretty fast alternative rock song. It wasn't until Patrick had the idea to really slow the song down that it became what it is now. A pretty heavy, gritty, dark, and very rough song. The layered backing vocals in the chorus paint a pretty haunting picture and really fit well with the doomy chorus. The ending of the song is just an apocalyptic mix of huge drums and roaring octaver.

5. Ropes:

Ropes is another piece with an odd time signature. The drumbeat is quite special and has some ethnic influences. It starts with a short but dreamy guitar intro that goes almost through the whole song, only to be interrupted by the chorus. It's also a very emotional song, which you can hear in the vocals, especially in the chorus.

6. Give Me More:

It starts like a 70s song, with singing birds and clean guitars. Once the chorus kicks in, it transitions into the 90s without ignoring the 70s vibe. One of our more melodic songs with an odd, strange time signature that the listener doesn't notice, maybe at the end when the solo closes the song.

7. Passenger:

Everyone in the band plays something different, even different time signatures, without making the verse sound strange or wrong. Saner Ariduru - a great singer who has played in many bands with Patrick - sings the backing vocals in the chorus and gives the song his own touch. Passenger is also one of our more melodic songs. It's different from the others, but they're all a bit different because we just did what we felt at a certain moment without worrying about whether a song should be on the album or not.

8. Time Is A Killer:

Tobi, who played guitar in his previous bands, came up with the idea and we made an Antirope song out of it. It's a heavy song, with a lower tuning. This song is very important in our setlist because it is different again and makes our set more colorful. This song is maybe more "metal" than the others on our album.

9. Everything You Are:

Everything You Are is the oldest song on the album. Much older than Antirope. I wrote it 20 years ago and we recorded it in 2011, with our former band "Helen Was Here". Patrick loves that song and he wanted to remix it for our debut album because he thinks it fits Antirope better than Helen Was Here. It's the "ballad" of the album.

10. Amnesia:

Amnesia starts more like an industrial song. The guitars have a lot of effects and sound like samples or keyboards. The soundscape fits perfectly with the vocal melody. When the drums kick in, it becomes a melodic, emotional mid-tempo song with a depressive, but also hopeful vibe.

11. Utopia:

One of our older songs. It was composed in real-time, at a jam session during a rehearsal. We played it again shortly after the jam session to remember what we did. We never tried to arrange the song. When we recorded the song, we just did another jam session. The ending is dystopian and has a post-metal style. It closes the album perfectly. It's also the last song on our live setlist. (Slaven) (Patrick)