This being our 10th studio album we wanted to incorporate all of our collaborative efforts into something dynamic. Vast tempo changes and arrangement complexity has an enduring presence in all our material, but with a fresh approach. Be it production, lyrical content, art etc. The writing process comes so natural and easy for the four of us that we generate way more than is required. So much at times, we have excess enough for two albums or more. One riff can lead to a skeletal arrangement in a matter of a day. Other times complete songs can be submitted, revised and ready in just as long. The lack of ego amongst us allows for smooth writing especially since we all have the same taste. When it does conflict, for some reason that ends up being something more interesting then what was originally intended. Which was the case for ‘Profane Nexus’. The recording was tedious at times re-recording over tracks 4-5x’s each. Many snags, even a complication with the drums that made us fall behind schedule with another engineering. Was really late… so the material felt old to us by the time of its release, to be honest. Glad to see it finally surface and how it’s been received by those who like it…. made it worth the wait.
I do without a doubt. The exceptional artwork by Eliran is perfect for vinyl (the band’s preferred format). It forces the listener to stare into all the different visual aspects of the lyrics and allows you to be consumed in the experience. As the title, ‘Profane Nexus’ suggests the artwork and the material therein is the nexus point in which it rears its stories. Eliran and I worked in tandem with each aspect of the cover. I would present the lyrics and we’d add it to the piece itself. We all have sung many praises for Eliran’s patience and integrity, no matter how many amendments we had made he was always so accommodating and understanding. A testament to how willing he was to provide the best art exactly how we wanted. There are many stories incorporated within. I’ll only mention a few as to save the reader from boredom. The top left of the art was in reference to the song “Horns of Gefrin” which is about the Gododdin tribe in England glorified in a lament which is believed to be the oldest writing of the country. They flourished during the Iron Age in an area near Stonehenge what was known as “Gefrin” or hill of goats. The central focus is the “Messiah Nostrum” less historic but no less meaningful. The concept of theologians from all the world’s religions feeding an entity beyond our cosmos with the weakness of their desires and hopes only to be utterly destroyed by what they considered divine. The flesh of those being draped upon the newly born deity by locusts is in regards to the song “Rites of the locust”. The last reference I’ll mention is the corpses under the tendrils was for the song ‘Lus Sepulcri’. In the dark ages when pagan and Christian were a farms length from one another, burial practices offended the other. They called upon local magistrates to bestow the ‘Lus Sepulcri’ or right to bury your own dead. Christian texts of that time state that “they might have to live with these heathens but they don’t want to die with them” in more words or less, and so the right solved their qualms. I had thrown a twist on the concept and wrote it from a pagan perspective.
Way too many sources to pinpoint personally speaking. I wouldn’t presume to speak for anyone else in the band. Horror, ancient history, occultism, folklore, mythology and dreams mainly. All find their way into music and lyric.
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