Track By Tracks: Endonomos - Endonomos II - Enlightenment (2024)

1. Inversion:

This was actually the first song I had finished for the album, so I could see that this album was going to be more eclectic from the start. We were pretty much sure this would be the opener very early on, too, despite it might appear over the top to some people starting an album with a song that goes intro-riff-bass solo- guitar solo before the vocals even set in. Lyricwise it's more or less about the story behind our band name: intrinsic moral vs learned wickedness.

2. Atheon anarkhon:

We have played this one live a few times already, it's safe to say it's gonna have a definite spot in our live set for the indefinite future, it's just too much fun to play. I used a primitive vst synth for the intro and then another bass synth from my helix on top for that slithering and crackling sound. I was able to emulate the low synth on my FX pedal as well, but it sounds more extreme than on the album, which is fine for me 😬

The title is ancient Greek for "No God, No Sovereign". The track "Atheon Anarkhon" deals with the inseparability of atheism and anarchism, and how their counterparts, theism and autocracy, corrupt the human mind.

3. Resolve:

This is the first Endonomos song that was not completely written by myself alone. Our guitarist Christoph came up with many killer riffs, we recorded them, and I arranged the song, added some riffs, soli, and so on until it became what it is now. This song blooms with the vocals in particular. Once I had the vocal lines finished the song really burnt itself into my brain.

The speech sample is actually from Star Trek, what better utopia to quote when it comes to true enlightenment?

The lyrics are particularly bleak on that one, it's basically about mortality.

4. Entrapment:

Probably the meanest song on this album and very heavy. It's dark and unforgiving from beginning to end, so the lyrical theme had to transport that as well. It's about totalitarian leaders joining forces with their national clergy, as they usually do in fascist regimes. A match made in hell. I had plenty of very recent examples in mind.

5. Hostile:

A very melodic song with a smooth flow and the wonderful guest vocals of Daniel of Ahab. I wanted his voice on a song since I started this band, it made sense to do it on the second album, and I was very happy that he agreed. His voice is so different to mine, it almost brings a sacral kind of feeling to the song and adds weight beyond what my rather soft vocals on that song could have brought. I sent him the song with my vocals as a guideline and just let him do his thing in a studio of his choice. When I got his tracks back and imported them into the session, hearing it for the first time I actually had to laugh for joy, it was just so good. Also, the engineer did a very good job capturing his performance, it sounds great.

In the beginning of the song, there are a few chords that demand a serious finger stretch and I cursed myself for it when recording those. I warned my guitarists that the intro might sound quite a bit easier to play than it is, and they showed up to the rehearsal playing it like it was nothing.

The lyrics are about a topic that reoccurs in many of my songs, the world being a hostile environment for its creatures while it wouldn't have to at all. And I'm just left with asking myself why?

6. Kafir Qal'a:

Another very heavy one with strong DeathMetal influences before the song resolves in its highly melodic and tragic finale. Kafir Qal'a can be translated as "Heathen Fortress". I used it as a metaphor for enlightenment, knowledge, compassion, and benevolence to shelter each other from the wickedness and horror of totalitarian ideas (like religion), so lyric-wise it's on the more hopeful side, which goes along with the melodic closure of the song.