Track By Tracks: Mythologik - Mythologik (2023)

1. Across Again:

Lyrics:

Joe: This song is about a person dealing with pain and taking matters into their own hands and what awaits them on the other side. Death relieves them of all the troubles of our world but now, they have to face the hour and reality of living in her world. Namely demons, etc.

Music:

Bryan: For this track, I went into it not having a specific direction or plan, I just knew I wanted it to kick off with a short drum fill and straight into heavy, and other than that just let the riffs flow and guide me. One of the funniest challenges was writing the piano/harpsichord section that comes in around the minute mark, which took a lot of deep thinking and was molded off the guitar part that follows it. It was also very fun to map out my guitar solo for the harpsichord backing that mirrors it, a very unique sound I don't think I've heard before.

2. Eroded:

Lyrics:

Joe: This one takes a serious look at our mortality. In the song, a man has a love/hate relationship with Time. It’s taken away his youth, his loved ones, and his ability to function. Towards the end of the song, he passes away and searches for the love of his life, his deceased wife.

Music:

Bryan: When I sat down to write this song, I had a pretty clear vision of wanting a really fast thrashy type song. I was in quite an angry headspace that day from a certain show getting canceled at the last minute that my other band had spent lots of time preparing for and needed to vent. The original intro was quite different from what you hear in this final version, but from the break right after the beginning when the real thrash kicks in, all the music was written in just a few hours span in one sitting. The inevitable intro change I absolutely love and that took probably longer to navigate to get just right than the entire song after it haha.

3. Todesgeist:

Lyrics:

Joe: German for Death Ghost or Spirit. A person’s number is finally up and is now pursued by a malevolent spirit. Unlike other bounty hunters, a Todesgeist transcends the laws of the living and the dead. It operates without any barriers and always gets its prey.

Music:

Bryan: For this track, I wanted something completely different out of myself, and since I felt a few songs I wrote around the timeframe right before this had a bit too much similarity, I decided to write this whole song using only Chromatic scales and Diminished harmonies. In my head, I had a lot of Bloodbath influence, although the result turned into something quite different. I also tried my best to step out of my solo style box on this one and do some weird whammy bar Kerry King Slayer-type stuff, maybe didn't hit the full mark on intent, but came out super cool!

4. Heir Apparent:

Lyrics:

Joe: A kingdom is in the midst of being overthrown. The king wanted to give his son everything but now it’s all gone. Like all fathers, he wanted his child to have more than he did. Later in the song, the son comes back to retake the kingdom and restore the family name. In the end, he tells his deceased father that he can now rest because he made things right. The struggle he went through made him the man he is today.

Music:

Bryan: The music for this was written in the days after Eroded was written, I had a lot of creativity flowing right then and one song just did not fulfill. So you can hear small bits of similarities between the two if you really dive in. This is another that the original intro written actually got scrapped altogether, about 2 minutes worth LOL. I ended up replacing it with the intro piano that is molded directly off the now first heavy riff and the result was much much better.