Track By Tracks: Melehan - Immaterial Eden (2024)

1. The Cost of Being Alive:

It is an initially intense death metal song that suddenly switches gears with a more lyrical Spanish guitar-inspired chorus in 11/8. Its solo section becomes more classical sounding before a reprise of the chorus, this time in a death metal style and in 12/8. The lyrics explore social anxiety, the moment when you disengage from people and you are alone, relentlessly analyzing every move you make and every word you say with more scrutiny than you would ever afford anyone else.

2. The Intimate Hell:

A little less progressive and a little more brutal than the previous song, this track explores how a human can be built to do so much, yet feel so numb.

3. The Product of the Masterflesh:

More atmospheric, sinister and subtle than the previous tracks, this track explores the relationship the human race has with itself and the value we put on things that last beyond our own lifespans.

4. The Manacles:

Probably the most reliably brutal song on the album, this track tells of man's struggle to ascertain meaning and the inevitability of death.

5. The Dark Prince:

Directly inspired by Carach Angren, with more orchestral and choral elements, this song modulates chromatically upward 16 times. It tells the story of the Italian Duke, Murderer, and Composer, Carlo Gesualdo.

6. The Cathedral in the Sand:

The least 'death metal' song on the album with mostly clean vocals. It opens with a haunting piano melody as the lyrics explore losing one's religion, but not from the perspective of triumphantly stepping away from faith, rather the despair of coming to terms with a meaningless life.

7. The Giants' Gaze Pt. I:

This is a moment of reflection, a melancholy yet intense instrumental, that features a solo from the French Horn. I originally considered beginning the album with this to mirror the return of its theme at the end of the final track but ultimately felt it fit better here.

8. The Giants' Gaze Pt. II:

The longest song on the album features a tumultuous piano solo intro that gets rapidly consumed by the intensity of the guitars. There are many moods throughout this song, but the final passages echo the theme from the previous track as the album reaches its conclusion. The lyrics of this song focus on the feeling that everyone may be judging you, watching you, knowing your inner thoughts and feelings while you are helpless to step out of their gaze, but while most other tracks are pessimistic in tone, this song optimistically fights back against those feelings in each chorus, 'it's time to live, not to die'.