Track By Tracks: Ophidian Memory - Carrion Lord (2024)

About the album:

Carrion Lord is the most ambitious and brutal Ophidian Memory release to date. The lyrics portray themes of deception, sacrifice, undreamt horror, and war. Musically the death and black metal notches have been turned all the way up, while the progressive notch has been turned down greatly until late in the album, giving a reprieve to the listener for a slight moment until the record ultimately closes with a ripping epic finishing track.

Track by Track:

The Mausoleum is an essential Ophidian Memory song and one of the more balanced tracks on the record. It is also a berserk opener for an unyielding album. Deception is on full display as the main characters of this story are unknowingly sent to another continent to be the pawns of ancient gods.

Hunger of Your Deceased Deity is the most blackened track on the record, feral in nature. The first ancient god, The Crow, is introduced, as it begins to feed on the populace of this strange land, feasting for the first time in centuries.

A Jewel In Grocinia is the mid-tempo brute of the record, leaning heavily into blackened territory with a searing solo section and epic closing. One of the main characters, Ghale, is chosen by The Crow to become its entrusted servant and lead it’s army of soulless Lurkers

Fleshbinding Ritual is a thrashier riff salad song that is constantly evolving. Ghale becomes the first human to ever receive direct power from an ancient god, and an incredible cost to herself and her followers.

Carrion Lord is another song with great levels of balance, acting as a solid title track that encapsulates the theme of the album. Ghale has begun a form of colosseum combat to create warriors for her legion while providing food for The Crow. The Stag makes its appearance to take the souls of victors, pledging their corpses to The Ghalean Empire.

The Murder On Warforged Soil is another essential Ophidian Memory song and one of the heavier tracks on the record. A solid foundation of death metal with blackened melodies, eerie clean sections with the inclusion of a didgeridoo, and even a core-esque breakdown. The Ghalean Empire begins its warpath on the first settlement in the east ending in a massacre of the human population.

Hollowed is the heaviest and most unrelenting track on the record, full stop. The Crow could not keep its hunger in check, as it moved on to devour the next settlement dedicated to The Stag for soul harvest. This leads to The Stag prematurely harvesting the souls of the inhabitants while The Crow feasts on the corpses of its own army just to satiate itself.

Sculptors of Seraphic Tributes is the epic long song of the record and will please fans of Our Shattered Garden. It is The most expansive Ophidian Memory song to date, digging to some of the heaviest depths of riffage while simultaneously reaching for emotional acoustic guitar work with guitar and bass solos. After the continent has been ravaged by The Crow and The Stag, no human but Ghale is left with a soul to rule over an empty continent of soulless lurkers. The cycle of suffering is explained; how the final ancient god, The Leviathan, uses humans to manufacture these instances to birth new seraphs upon Existence in order to bring back the Tyrant Creator and destroy Existence.

Kept From Dust is the first fully acoustic/clean song from Ophidian Memory. It is an experimentation in sound and is a complete 180 from the other tracks on this record. It is here to act as a respite to the prior listening experience. Lyrically, it is the beginning of the epilogue, told through the eyes of soulless lurkers left alone on a dark continent.

Bloodborne is a ripping track combining aspects of groove and black metal to end the album in an epic fashion. The Third Seraph is released to existence and is surprisingly more atrocious and dangerous than the ancient gods or The Tyrant had ever expected. Their future victory is less uncertain now, as they know they must be more careful with their creations in order to achieve their goal.