Behind The Tracks: Autumn Kings - Hellbound (Single) (2024)

"HELLBOUND" lyrically speaks to the story of an individual who is fighting their demons, and is digging to discover the root cause of the psychological bleeding they are experiencing. After digging long and hard, they realize that the solution is right in front of them — to wake up, cut out the victim mentality, and utilize the gift of choice that we each possess to do what is necessary to improve our lives. The song came together between Nashville, Detroit, and Windsor, ON, Canada. From the time we started the song until we finished it, it was about 16 months. The lyrics fell into place immediately as we came off the back of the pandemic and there was a palpable feeling of helplessness in the air. We wanted to champion the fact that these mental obstacles can absolutely be overcome with the right mentality and actions.

 

Musically, the initial idea was very bluesy and dancey, which turned us off so much that we almost didn't finish the song, until we threw around the idea of incorporating worldly musical scales into the song. I drew inspiration from my upbringing, where my Dad would blast Lebanese music in the car. I was always intrigued by the complexity and strangeness of the chords and melodies that arabic music had, and wanted to tastefully incorporate that same uniqueness into this song. It ended up making the song heavier, darker, and "cooler" overall. It turned a "maybe" into a "hell yes" for us, and we believe this is the most musically unique song we've recorded to date. There are elements of rock, rap, reggae, trap, dance, and metal infused into one.