Track By Tracks: WHYTHRE - Impregnate My Hate (2023)

1.SCORCHBREATH:

Lyrically- Adam: I wrote this in an airport terminal after a trip to Bogota (Colombia) and Chicago. It’s about having a rad time…but specifically, it’s referencing when Carolina (my wife), Shon, and I went to Movement and hit up some afterparties…Just wall-to-wall sweat, people tripping balls…it was everything we hoped it would be. We went with friends we made that very day at Movement…a beautiful experience with lovely people and I’m smiling right now just thinking about it.

Shon: Musically this song has some punchy/ thrashy verses with a big carnival vibe of a chorus. All while incorporating some fun shred moments. This song is our single because it kinda displays all the elements of the album in a very condensed way. This is the song that kicked off the inspiration to start this album. We felt like we found something here that was worth exploring.

2. IMPREGNATE MY HATE:

Lyrically- Adam: Modern times! Most folks are jumping down each other’s throats, willing vessels to the online projection of what modern entertainment and communication should be. My friends showed me an old TV series called ‘V’ that deals with subtle mind control and mass hypnosis…while I watched the series after writing the lyrics, I was like ‘yeah! This is it! This is what I’ve been trying to say’

Shon: This is our most thrashy song…it’s not really the most melodic tune at all. When writing the song an old-school vibe kinda just appeared here and we ran with it.

3. CAN’T ESCAPE THIS:

Lyrically- Adam: It’s about the choices people make at ill hours of the night while celebrating after months of hard work. Then those celebrations happen after weeks of work…then days of work…then after no work at all. Fuck.

Adam: Musically, Shon’s ending solo on this song is my favorite on the album. It’s ALL feel dude. And he almost went with something more shreddy! The outro on this song serves two purposes…It’s a moment of mellow reflection and also makes a great contrast for ‘Scorpions of Sinai’ to hit that much harder.

Shon: This is a mid-tempo, slow, very melodic piece. It’s a bit of a different approach to songwriting, with a two-part song structure. There’s no revolving arrangement…it just keeps building.

4. SCORPIONS OF SINAI:

Lyrics-Adam: Sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail. Sometimes you think you’re one but you’re really the other. The art of gifting false confidence to lead someone to their own destruction…that’s the focus here. Based on a short story from the ‘My Uncle Oswald’ collections.

Shon & Adam: This is our fastest song by far and always leaves Steve sweatin’! There’s a lot of underlying repetition in this song, which was a first for us. Each instrument here has its own texture, and there are lots of synths…honestly, the track is heavily inspired by underground techno vibes. The last chorus pulls from each of these textures to finally bring it all together.

5. C SECTION S1URPEE:

Lyrics- Adam: Always wanted a tongue-in-cheek metal song title a la Metalocapyse. Here it is. “A Mindless libation from you I now tear!” Cherry flesh slushies for all!

Shon: Definitely a death metal element to this one here. That middle section drum/riff thing is probably the heaviest part of the album.

6. DEATH FRONTIER:

Lyrics- Adam: This tune was originally called ‘Annihilate the Proper.’ It’s about being yourself and celebrating the filth you live in even if it means being alone.

Shon: The triplet song! Has a waltzy feel with black metal elements and time-signature surprises in the middle. You know a time signature change is gonna be fun when it just flows and doesn’t call too much attention to itself.

7. TANTRIC ASPECTS OF THE CROSS:

Lyrics- Adam: Originally called ‘Malicious Compliance’- parts of this were written while I worked 12-hour shifts 7 days a week at a shipyard. Paying off loans is no fun. I fucking hated that job.

Adam & Shon: Another thrashy song with an old-school vibe. We built out the middle section of this song the weekend after we opened for Hypocrisy & Fleshgod Apocalypse.

Adam: Technically, the transitional soundscape at the end of this tune was really fun to design. It was made on an outboard synth with 3 oscillators and a couple morphing LFO’s/filter sweeps…the intention was to create a sound that changed from TAOTC ending pitch to the starting pitch of Immanence. Besides the pitch shift, we also had to imply a tempo change. The soundscape was recorded in real-time with some knob turning / dialed in LFO’s that come in at the end to imply the new tempo and sync up with the intro to Immanence.

Immanence is a bit of a slower, psychedelic-influenced tune and we wanted to differentiate the lead-in with something a little different compared to the rest of the album.

8. IMMANENCE:

Lyrics - Adam: This sums up the collective experience of a group of friends that went to an event called unter x second nature. This one is for all the friends and interactions that happened that night. There are references to you all. Thank you. I love you.

Shon & Adam: This is the oldest song on the album, by far! It was originally called ‘Black Forest Rain Dance’ and was rewritten a couple times and nearly left for dead. We wrote maybe 4-5 choruses for this song and they all sucked…then when we wrapped up all the other tunes we gave it one last go.

Shon: There’s a lot of Hans Zimmer influence on this one. It took time to explore this vibe and I’m more proud of this song than any other on the album.

9. RUN IT RED:

Lyrics- Adam: More underground techno shoutouts here. This was from going to a Kremfest after-hours in 2019. Woke up at 8am and met a bunch of friends on the dancefloor then partied hard til noon. After that ended, went to Shon’s spot and recorded guitars for C Section S1urpee. Spent the afternoon trying to nail the rhythm guitar's sixteenth notes while my entire body was like ‘yeah, nope’. Thank God Shon has a sense of humor and we just joked about what a terrible player I am the entire session. Eventually, it got tight.

My favorite memory of that afternoon was taking naps every 20 minutes and playing Sasha’s track ‘Xpander’ while I dosed off. Shon was like ‘what song is that?’ And when I replied all he heard was “Sausage Expander”. We still bump some Sausage Expander every now and then…I think that’s now the name of the USB stick we use to pass ideas back and forth.

Shon: It’s a minimal/ dance/industrial-influenced tune that was written/demoed in one night. Very straightforward song, but is a different sonic arena for us to explore. It makes for a fun end to the album. There’s more focus on the vibe than instrumental prowess.