Track By Tracks: Disorientation - Survival Mode (2023)

1. Dissociation:

This song starts with a fury. The oboes and voice can’t stay pretty when it’s time to express the detachment from yourself and your circumstances. The fast riff keeps the confrontation going, but keeping a hard stance to face the pain is a draining process. The ternary passage that follows shows that slow disintegration, which will lead you to a chamber oboe passage where the real frailty is exposed. A moment of doomy misery follows. The tempo picks up a bit, just like the process of getting back up slowly after a hard hit, and then the song goes back to the start, to shutting down and forcing yourself into amnesia. The forgetfulness can’t be permanent though, and the soft outro reminds you that pain remains.

 

2. Jaded:

A cyclical song with a slower tempo. Vocals start clean in technique but not in intent, with their irregular timbre changes, they create tension and discomfort, then follow a dissonant oboe choral that will make you physically uncomfortable. The tempo picks up a bit. There are starts and stops, just like the process of building an insensitivity to feelings. The 1st riff of the song is repeated with more pronounced timbre changes, leading to a burst of craziness where the vocals and underlying music go in all directions. Pain comes in many hues which can change or combine at any moment in a way you can’t explain. The song ends where it started, but with a resigned vibe to show that the process of deadening of emotions is complete, with the voice dying down at the end.

 

3. Dark Side:

A soft English horn intro will make you believe that not all is entirely gloomy and hopeless. Even in the darkest moments, you want to believe that there is some goodness to be found. Pure people with good intentions. The contrasting fast and straightforward riff that follows and stays constant until the end will remind you otherwise. An in-your-face hardcore-style approach to vocals makes a harsh statement about those who worry about your well-being and make a big show of it. Why do they care? Is it their genuine intention to help you? What is their primary motivation? Could they be in it solely for their own gratification? At your expense? Short and sweet, this one ends abruptly with a bang.