Track By Tracks: DISPLAY OF DECAY - Vitriol (2023)

The album as a whole:

'Vitriol,' was born of rage and spite fueled further by the chaos and uncertainty felt worldwide over the last few years.

The lyrical content covers a variety of topics ranging from pop culture references like Diablo & Mass Effect to darker undertones of the mainstream media's obsession with school shootings and other acts of senseless violence that are continuously looped for ratings evidently posing a risk of reproduction.

Track By Track:

1. Malicious Motorcide:

Malicious is a wild ride from start to finish. It’s a song about driving over hordes of people in a fit of rage, the elevation in tempo and chaos felt in the song flow together perfectly with the lyrical content which was based around real events a member of our band was nearly a victim of.

2. The Butcher:

The Butcher to me is the most dynamic song on the record. Its tempo fluctuates so much throughout to build up with the story behind the song. Initially, it started out as someone who was taken hostage and held against their will, soon to be burned alive, but we couldn’t help but draw reference to Diablo’s notorious Butcher who’s been featured in several of their games. The sheer heaviness of that intro and the catchiness of the chorus are guaranteed to turn heads and blow minds.

3. Legion of Doom:

We have songs about serial killers, school shootings, and otherwise brutal methods of dying. Deep down, we’re just a bunch of nerds who love playing heavy music and this song really captures that. We wrote this one about the ‘Death Knight’ in World of Warcraft, because it’s badass and because we can. Musically, this song was rewritten a number of times. I can remember a few minutes before a writing session, Brandon was on his way over and I was sitting there strumming along to warm up when I plucked the notes that would eventually become the chorus, and I thought to myself did I just write the best riff ever?!” Of course, I didn’t, but it’s a pretty damn great riff. This song is definitely more ‘progressive’ than the other ones perhaps, I feel there’s a definite nod to ‘Death’ in this one, but nonetheless, it’s about slaying monsters in Azeroth. FOR THE HORDE.

4. Familial Feast:

This was the last and most unexpected song on the record. We had another tune initially on the record we ended up scrapping late as we felt it wasn’t up to par, but we had been jamming even newer stuff between recording sessions. Familial Feast just fell into place seamlessly and unexpectedly became one of our favorite tracks to play so it was a no-brainer to throw it on the record.

The lyrical content was written about Katherine Knight, an Australian-born murderer who in the early 2000’s killed and cooked her spouse with the intent of feeding him to his children. It’s a pretty wild case that never seemed to garner as much notoriety as one would expect with such gruesome details.

5. Harbinger:

Harbinger is definitely one of the most technically challenging songs, if not the MOST technically challenging on the record. A frenzy from start to finish, this track features a wide range of dynamics stretching from sweep picking, and octaves, to full-on chaos!

Lyrically, it’s entirely based on Mass Effect and the Reaper invasion, because as previously mentioned, nerds.

6. Hot Lead Vengeance:

This track was written right as we came back from the ‘Decimate the West’ tour in 2019. It was based on the growing number of senseless shootings going on around the world at the time. Every time you turned on the TV, every news network was covering a mass shooting somewhere, or some other act of senseless violence. It’s definitely an experience to sit and listen through and certainly not for the faint of heart.

7. Vitriol:

The name of the track says it all. The lyrical content in this tune was written in a time of extreme rage and with that, the music just kind of followed. To me, it’s got the most powerful chorus of the entire record lyrically and musically because it’s simple yet effective.