Track By Tracks: Last Retch - Ergotism (2024)

1. Scalped En Masse:

This song is about scalping your enemies to imprison them in their corporeal shells for eternity. No mercy. Inspired by Nazi hunters in WWII, this song is a hammer to crush the resurgence of far right/fascist political views. As such, we wanted to play something fast and punishing with a lot of blast beats. The end section was heavily inspired by late era Bolt Thrower.

2. Heaving Pieces:

This song is about a cannibal who gets food poisoning from eating rotten humans. He has an abundance of human meat and cannot keep track of the various degrees of decomposition. By the time he realizes his mistake, it's too late. He will eventually succumb to his morbid habit. We wanted to write a song that was groovier and heavier than the opening track. The odd time timing of the opening riff gives it a churning or pulsating feel.

3. Doomrider II:

Musically, Doomrider II is our attempt to make a more d-beat-influenced death and roll song. We wanted to match the music to the lyrical themes and make the listener feel like they’re being mashed in the gears of a machine. Lyrically, the song delves deeper into the themes of societal collapse and drug addiction as discussed in the original Doomrider from our debut album. We live in Hamilton, Ontario Canada, and like many cities in North America, there is a serious homelessness problem fueled by drug addiction, mental illness, and socioeconomic factors. We are lucky enough to live comfortable lives, but we recognize the harsh reality faced by many of our community members. The Doomrider is death incarnate, watching silently as we succumb to our addictions and mental health struggles.

4. Ergotism:

The title track was inspired by cases of mass ergot poisoning in Medieval Europe and 17th century America. After reading the book "The Immortality Key" by Brian Muraresku, we were interested in the idea that certain historical events may have been influenced by the presence of ergot fungus in the food supply. In addition to using ergot in religious rituals to induce a psychedelic state, people may have inadvertently ingested Ergot from rotten grain, leading to chaotic events and even mass hysteria. This is the slowest song we’ve ever written, and the feel of the music is meant to reflect the disorienting effects of ergot, a fungus from which LSD was first synthesized.