Track By Tracks: Columbarium - The Morbidious One (2023)

1. Eyes Bleed Black:

The first song on the album, so needs to make a big impression… and it does! Eyes Bleed Black is all about the sadness we experience when someone dear leaves us. It was actually the passing away of a good friend of the band that inspired Pete to write the lyrics. The song is based around a slow, heavy riff that we came up with together during rehearsal. One of those creations that came very natural. But we figured the song was missing something and could not get that little extra to it… Until one day I came up with an old melody riff I had lying around, that took the song to the place where we wanted it to be, I remember Marc, Mille, and Pete were very happy with that addition. The middle part features some violins over the immersive guitar parts to be followed by an extensive solo, one that took me quite some time to put together... You’ll also hear some guest vocals by Esmee Tabasco, a befriended singer whom we just love for her eerie voice and who’s also featured in the band video accompanying the album single.

2. The Morbidious one:

The title track of the album, and composition wise one of our most complex songs. Starts off with an intro tune we put together with Pete whispering some ancient spells and then takes you in a heavy, dark base riff. Pete lays down a couple of bass melodies around the first vocal section. With the addition of some keyboard choirs, we’re taken it into the second vocal part with Pete grunting away around a faster, almost ‘catchy’ riff. Listen to the ‘Preacher’ in the last vocal part. That’s the return of the Preacher you can hear in our song ‘Save Our Children’ which was released last year as a ‘B-side’ track on our ‘Rivers Of Blood’ single.

This time we wanted some old-school alternate solos. Markie quickly came up with his Wah style part, and for my part, the guys asked me to stretch my inspiration into the Saint Vitus realms to come up with a somewhat equivalent piece…

We go into nine minutes with this one and want to end with a large Russian male choir, chanting that melody. But at the time, we were clearly out of Russians and had to do with some keyboards...

3. Rivers of Blood:

Our first ever single, we actually released already some time ago. With a piano-based opening riff, we find the song to be fairly open, almost a sing-along song… But mind you, as the title suggests, it’s not all that happy lyrically as it deals with the burden of hard addictions…

We actually recorded this song already in 2020 for the release of our first single. Taking the opportunity to check out the skills of Lander at Hearse Studio, to put together the sound we’d like. And clearly, he did. The single was released only in 2022 by Dust & Bones Records, old school: on cassette (with the ‘Save Our Children ’-song as a ‘B- side ’-track). We recorded all tracks again for our full album during that same time, so the album would sound consistently.

4. Redemption:

During our live shows, this is the intro in which Markie’s fuzz-driven guitar can really go for it. Pete’s growling away while Mille is bashing everything he’s got… Another song about Death, more specific how Pete got to deal with the passing of his own mother. The middle part of the song will take you through some of the emotions one can experience, balancing between good memories, anger, and grief… My solo just fits into these feelings really well, we believe.

‘Redemption’ is released as the second album single.

5. Barefoot On the Moon:

It is a short intermezzo song that originates in some improvised chords that I was playing to show off my new 12-string guitar to the band, haha! Pete completely fell in love with the tune and got the idea to contact the singer formerly of Bathsheba, Michelle Nocon, as he had some contact with her simply being a great fan of her voice and her different projects through the years and asked her if she didn’t feel like doing ‘something’ vocal on the guitar track. She actually put down a multitrack vocal harmony that we kept untouched and just put it on the record as it was. We are incredibly happy and thankful for her impressive performance!

6. Our Glorious Ways:

Is a song that was created during lockdown. It was Markie who shared a recording he had made during that period, which was pretty much finished including drums and solo. Pete only had to figure out some matching lyrics. We pretty much recorded the song as Markie originally conceived it. We did rehearse it during the lock-down, but completely corona- distance-proof: outside in the backyard, around a campfire with headphones and electronic drums. Hilarious, but highly effective!

7. A Cure For Everything/Get Back Alive?:

The last song on the album is an instrumental one, the title ‘A Cure For Everything’ refers to music, I believe that’s quite clear then. Also during the lockdown, Pete had come up with some riffing ideas on his bass and shared the tabs with the guitar boys who couldn’t figure out how to play that many notes in one riff haha… Turned out that Pete went back to his thrash metal roots and wanted to make a fast song to conclude the album. And yes, it did take Markie and me some time to get it up to speed… I lay down a gentle intro to get you in the mood and then, fury is unleashed. You can clearly hear both Pete and Mille rejoicing their youth, but providing a pause in the middle for guitars to wander off into some Western Cowboy set.

‘/Get Back Alive?’ finishes off the album and is like glued to ‘A Cure For Everything’. It is a story, narrated by the bass of Pete, about a young, beautiful female astronaut, flying her ship on her way home, but lost somewhere in space and time… Will she get back alive?