Track By Tracks: Helpless Agony - Absurd Populace (2025)

1. My Revenge:

This was the song that kick-started the idea to make a 3rd record. I found some video clips of me and an old acquaintance jamming from a few years ago. One of the clips was us playing what is now the first riff of the song. I decided to add some more riffs and create an actual structured song. The lyrics deal with my frustration at the time about a jealous coworker who started drama.

2. Final Destination:

This song was written in a very unusual way. I picked up a guitar, hit record on my phone, and just started playing. After a few minutes I hit stop and listened back to what I played. The result was the final song! I did not have to change anything. What you hear is the original structure that I created on the fly. The lyrics are about a daydream I had a few years ago. Divided World: I wanted to create a doom metal song with bends, pinch harmonics, and open strings. This was the final result. The lyrics are about how people you meet who seem cool can actually only be talking to you to gain something for themselves.

3. Impending Disaster:

It has been a trend for me to include a track that is keyboard based on each of my albums. My producer, Don Belch is a master of the keyboard. He and I worked together to create this song. I like keyboard-based tracks that are composed to tell a story. Don created a few short compositions, and I picked which ones I liked. We also found some sound effects that I liked. After making adjustments, creating new parts on the spot, and structuring parts, this was the final result.

4. Broken Spirit:

I wanted this album to include a track that was not metal and incorporated clean singing. Since most of my songs are riff based, I wanted this one to only be chords. I just picked some chords to play and created a simple drum beat. I am actually surprised how decent my clean vocals sounded as this was my first attempt at actually singing.

5. Vengeance Arise:

I don't remember much about the writing process of this song. I become very focused on songwriting and don't realize how much I end up doing. All of the guitar-based songs for this album were written in one day (Sep 12, 2024). I tab out every song I write. I was looking through the tabs of the new songs, and came across this one. I didn't even remember writing it haha.

6. Call from the Wild:

This song is where my Inquisition influences come out. I wanted this song to be more of a journey with a lot of atmosphere. The lyrics are also a bit different. Most of my lyrics are about having low self-worth, but I wanted to close the album with a more positive message. The song is about having the power to change your circumstances in life to accomplish what ever you want to do. That includes during times when people try to bring you down. It's a little cliche, but sometimes I need the words of encouragement myself.

7. Burial Commencement:

I love classical guitar. Even though I'm not proficient at it, my producer, Don Belch is a wonderful composer and can play anything on guitar. I asked Don to create an acoustic piece that incorporated classical playing, as well as other styles that I thought sounded good. I thought this was the perfect track to close out the album.