Behind The Tracks: Riotous Indignation - Wheel Of Misfortune (Single) (2024)

We gave Mike Repel from Riotous Indignation an opportunity to give us the background on their new single "Wheel of Misfortune", including what his influences were in writing the song, here's what he had to say: 

“Wheel of Misfortune” takes the worst possible outcomes of heroin addiction, lyrically arranges them over some well-thought-out musical compositions, and delivers a bold, disturbing, and unapologetic jab at heroin use. Is this a very, very, anti-drug song? Yes, absolutely. Is it a militant straight-edge hardcore song? No. The song is actually a mash-up of a few genres of music and is probably one of the most interesting song compositions I have ever put together.

The entire song is built solely off of the blues major pentatonic scale with the thrash metal riffs that are prevalent in both verses being written first. However, I was noodling around one day with this scale structure and this hillbilly-sounding riff came out that I liked and wanted to use. That riff evolved into the old-timey country/Americana section that starts the song. This works well within the context of the overall song arrangement as it lays the foundation for a build-up that hits the listener unexpectedly when the electric guitars, drums, bass, and metal vocals kick in hard and fast. There’s a few breakdowns in the song as well to get a pit moving. The crescendo/decrescendo kind of writing in this song really keeps you guessing as to where it’s going and it keeps you engaged. This song allowed me to mash up two completely different categories of music that traditionally don’t blend together. I knew I was breaking some unwritten musical rules by doing this, but I said fuck it, let’s see what happens.” After all, innovation never happens by staying inside the confines of an existing formula.

As far as influences are concerned. Let's begin with the lyrics. Over the last several years, the rampant heroin abuse I have seen in Chicago has become so blatant that it is beyond disturbing. For years I have watched the same people on their daily soulless journey to buy dope and have seen over time how their flirtation with death has turned them into walking corpses. These people died years ago, but they just aren’t aware of it yet. Unfortunately, there have also been some casualties of this drug who are no longer here with us. Some of which were a long time in the making.

It’s really sad to see someone’s child end up at a point where they think that being homeless, standing at a red light with a cardboard sign, or defecating in public embodies some sense of normalcy. This is a place that their families never wanted for them, but when someone gets to the point that they are cooking and preparing heroin for intravenous injection on the top of a garbage can, they are pretty much beyond reach.

So, I basically took the worst of what I had seen and used it to paint a picture of what the final stages and end destination of a junkie’s life journey will look like. Furthermore, I didn’t conceal the true meaning of the song with some creative wordplay like some artists who write around a topic rather than directly writing about it. I’m blunt, and very clear about what I am talking about in my writing.

Locals may pick on the geographic Chicago references in the lyrics. Specifically, Heroin Highway and Holy City; the second of which is an area on the west side of Chicago known for a high concentration of storefront churches, and a high concentration of heroin trafficking as well.

Musically, the influences for this song are all over the place.

The country/Americana intro section originally began with just a really low-fi guitar in the distance that had this staticky 72 rpm gramophone record player effect playing while the wind blew in the distance. I had lyrics to go over this section but I had not committed them to the song at the time. Then, during the timeframe that I was mixing down the track, I heard “Man of Constant Sorrow,” for the first time while I was watching “O Brother Where Art Thou” with George Clooney. My jaw hit the ground when I heard this song because I knew right away that I was going to reconfigure the entire beginning of this song into a section that would now include the unused lyrics that I previously mentioned. Hearing “Man of Constant Sorrow” immediately opened up a whole new vein of musical thought processes in my head and I soon added intermittent background vocals to accompany the lead vocal track. Then I added an underlying southern gospel/spiritual texture with multiple voicings in the background to compliment the guitars and main vocals.

The “no-fucking-around and right-to-the-point” delivery of the thrash metal part was inspired by A Lesson in Violence and Bonded by Blood by Exodus. The stabs in the first verse at the “spin-that-wheel-now” part before the tension gets raised up in the verse were likely inspired by Hatebreed’s Not One Truth from their Satisfaction is the Death of Desire album.

During the first breakdown, I added acoustic guitars over a lead to add some texture and experiment a little, and the bridge from the breakdown to the song’s standalone chorus is honestly inspired by Pinball Wizard by The Who.

There's also a subdued background vocal in the chorus that I added on a whim that croons out “You’ve lost at the game of life.” that came from some Beach Boys or Bee Gee’s sound bite that was stuck in my head. I added this oddball vocal part to make the track a little more fun. This may sound like a non-starter for many of you readers, but the idea came from somewhere, and it sure in the fuck wasn’t from listening to Suffocation.

My lyrical delivery in both verses is in the pocket, this vocal style has historically had people saying that we sound like Suicidal Tendencies because there’s that Suicidal Maniac kind of rhythmic delivery that didn’t necessarily inspire the song but is how I sing most of the time. I think that as a vocalist who is also playing guitar, there’s a certain timing association that leads you to syncopate your vocals over chord patterns or the pulse of the song. Well at least for me that’s what I do.

As a lifelong fan of Hardcore music, the last breakdown in the song after the second verse could honestly have come from anywhere. However, as this is a mostly metal song, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that Slayer’s Altar of Sacrifice didn’t play some part in what influenced that section either. The single refrain or sing-along part in this breakdown came from attending either a Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden concert. This was kind of a combined influence of the crowd participation you hear in Iron Man and Fear of the Dark at a live show.

For the benefit of any songwriting musicians who are reading this, I don’t consciously start making connections between influences while I am writing, you just end up knowing where they came from. Sometimes it’s immediate, sometimes it takes an opportunity like this to actually make the connection. I would like to add that all the different vocal textures and techniques in the recording are all mine. There is no second background vocalist on this track. Imagination and effort will take you wherever you need to go. 

Thank you, Jon, and everyone at Breathing the Core. I am really happy to have an opportunity to discuss this song with another media outlet after its recent premiere on Decibel Magazine's website on July 3rd. We have a lot going on with this song and I love to see the fact that it is getting some press attention.

In closing, I would like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read this. I hope you find the backstory of Wheel of Misfortune interesting enough to give the song a spin. If you do, please check out the rest of our music.