Track by track
August 19th, 2009English (Danish version below):
To put it short, our new album, ”Our Kingdom of Decay” is about Denmark, and the title is chosen to underline the fact that not everything is perfect in our little fairytale kingdom (cf. the English pronunciation of ”decay” as ”DK”, the Danish ISO code).
There are plenty of layers in the music and the lyrics that point to different possible interpretations of the theme, but below I give a short introduction to each track so that you may get an impression of what it’s all about.
1. Ghost Song
The opening track of the album is one of the more energetic tracks with ”duga-duga drums” and everything. The lyric is relatively abstract and can be interpreted in many different ways but the ”ghost” concept may refer to the many cultural and historical traditions or repressed episodes that still matter in Denmark today, for better or worse. Thus the lyric can be seen as a thematic introduction to the album as far as each of the other songs are examples of these ”ghosts”.
To be honest, Ghost Song surprised us a bit when we did a pre-recording of the album in our rehearsal room, but that was actually quite appropriate as we could promote it to be the first track, which makes sense if you consider the fact that we had already begun working on an intro for the track. In the end this intro then turned out to be both an intro for the song, for the entire album and even for our live shows. By the way, part of the intro is placed before the first track so you have to rewind in order to hear it all…
2. Arusia
Arusia is mainly about Aarhus, our home town, which is for instance emphasized by the keyboard that plays part of the melody from the tower bells (In Vernalis Temporis).
Along the way references are made to various geographical sites and historical events, not least Aarhus’ origin as a viking village.
As far as I remember, Arusia was one of the last tracks that we finished but the simple song structure this might have brought about actually fits the catchy character of the track very well. And as far as the style, I might as well reveal that the working title was ”In Flames” for some time…
3. 44th King
This one is actually written by Ken before he officially joined the band in 2006 and it’s a pretty compound track, in which you can hear the inspiration from as diverse bands as Iron Maiden and Illdisposed, however weird this might sound.
The lyric is about King Christian VII, who ruled the country in the second half of the 18th century, but who was schizophrenic, and who had quite a few scandals on his conscience. Furthermore people around him took advantage of his mental illness, resulting among other things in the decapitation of his personal physician.
Both Rune’s fine intro sound-scape and the changeable and sometimes almost playful character of the track are meant to further emphasize the atmosphere and the king’s mental state.
4. In the Garden of the Dead
The most ”doom-like” song of the album also features some of the oldest material to be found on Our Kingdom of Decay. Part of the track was composed already before the recording of Gehennesis but for some reason the last details wouldn’t fall into place at that time so we had to wait until we could finish it in its present form.
The slow tempo makes room for a whole lot of action in both guitars and keyboard so I allowed the boys to let themselves go with delay, piano and wind in the hair, haha.
The lyric is about Assistens Kirkegård in Copenhagen, and in my opinion the atmosphere on this combined graveyard and public park is quite fantastic and mysterious. A lot of famous people are buried here (H.C. Andersen and Soeren Kierkegaard among many others), even though it was originally just established as a spare graveyard when the graveyards in the inner city were filled up.
5. White Cut, Red Blood
This track follows in the footsteps of Downfall from Gehennesis and is almost entirely written by Ryan so he has really let himself go with the theoretical approach that he has worked in through his education on the music academy. There is plenty to say about the song but as far as the music goes, I will stick to mentioning that the first riff is developed from the last keyboard melody in Downfall, the modulations are descending minor thirds (inspired by the second movement of Carl Nielsen’s fourth symphony) and in general there are a lot of musical – and lyrical – references to the old track from Gehennesis.
The lyric is about lobotomy (which is also called a ”white cut” in Danish) and the reference to the album’s theme is grounded in the fact that Denmark was maybe that country in the world that carried out this ”treatment” the most in the previous century – and it wasn’t forbidden until 1983. In general we actually have a tradition of being pretty rough towards mental deviants with forced sterilizations etc., so I guess that subject was obvious for Our Kingdom of Decay.
To be honest, with this one we tried to write a plain and simple song with a ”hit structure”, and I personally think that we did quite well. Especially because Lady’s Bower nonetheless contains some really great melodies and atmospheres so it hasn’t turned out uninspired even though we wanted it to be easily understood.
The lyric is about the provincial conventions and Jantelovskulturen (the ”who-do-you-think-you-are attitude”), which is often at work in Denmark – sometimes everything just gets so stuffy, intolerant and repressing. And even though I will maintain that this goes for the entire nation, we should know about it, having grown up in Vojens, Glamsbjerg and Ørding (provincial towns)!
7. Infinite Fire
As regards the lyrical theme, Infinite Fire is about some of the same things but the mentioned fire is a metaphor for the opposite to all the repressing phenomena, namely fantasy, creativity and cheerfulness. I see the lyric as more positive than Lady’s Bower, insofar as the commotion and the excitement are more emphasized here.
The music is some of the fastest, most thrashy and energetic on the entire album, and the outro is inspired by Machine Head (on Claus’ initiative).
8. Mermaid Decapitation
Mermaid Decapitation differs from a lot of the other material on the album and even though it’s not the slowest track, it is probably the most subdued. Before going into the studio we actually didn’t know what to do with the vocals in the quiet verses so we experimented quite a bit in Holsted, after which we decided to keep Christian Bonde’s (the producer) looovely masculine voice.
As suggested by the title the lyric is about the several assaults that The Little Mermaid has had to experience during the previous century – even though the statue is probably one of the most well-known and beloved things about Denmark.
9. Butcher’s Bench
Once again we are dealing with some of the old stuff as parts of Butcher’s Bench are also written some time before the release of Gehennesis. Even though it has since been re-written to its present form, I think that you can still hear the ”old school” Compos Mentis sound, but whether that also goes for others than ourselves, I am not sure.
The lyric is about the final episodes of the war in 1864 (”The Second Schleswig War”) and expresses among other things the dissatisfaction that many soldiers felt regarding the withdrawal from the fort of Dannevirke.
By the way, the quotation in the middle of the track is taken from an English correspondent and suggests the tough circumstances and weather conditions that the people were exposed to while fighting – I can really recommend reading through some of the diaries from the war as they are pretty interesting and awe-inspiring in my opinion.
10. The Angel Maker
The tempo is taken back up with The Angel Maker, the fastest track of the album. Ken has written most of the music (apart from the outro, which he would never be able to think up, haha), and as he is a sucker for simple melodies, thrashy Swedish riffs and ”duga-duga drums” in a high tempo, he should be pretty satisfied with the result.
The lyric is about Dagmar Overbye who killed almost 25 infants in the beginning of the 20th century, even though she was actually paid to look after them. She was called ”the angel maker” by the press in that time and up to now she is the worst serial killer in Denmark, so of course she delivers some of the most obvious material for a death metal record about Denmark.
11. Kingdom of Dania
The final track asks how much our common history actually matters to us as individuals and how justified we are in identifying ourselves with those people who immigrated to the area that was later to be known as Denmark. Even though there are about 5,5 million different interpretations and weightings of our past history, we nonetheless stick to the nation’s history as a source of a common identity, which can be rather puzzling when you think about it.
The music, for which Jesper bears the most responsibility, is filled with contrasts and alternates between energetic passages on the one hand and some very grandiose and sad passages on the other hand, including the long outro solo that Ken threw together in the studio.
And thus we got through all the tracks from our new album, on which we modestly try to sketch a profile of Denmark with more or less equal amounts of love and derision – this is ”Our Kingdom of Decay”. As mentioned there are way more layers to be found in both the lyrics and the music and if you have acquired a taste for it, I wish you a good time exploring it!
Andreas / Compos Mentis
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Dansk version:
”Our Kingdom of Decay” handler kort fortalt om Danmark, og titlen er valgt for at pointere at ikke alt er perfekt og rosenrødt i vores lille kongerige (jf. den engelske udtale af ”decay” som DK).
Hvis man kigger efter, er der masser af lag i både teksterne og musikken, som muliggør forskellige fortolkninger af temaet, men nedenfor giver jeg en kort introduktion til hvert nummer, så man kan få et indtryk af, hvad det hele drejer sig om.
1. Ghost Song
Åbningsnummeret på albummet er et af de mere energiske numre på skiven med duga-duga og det hele. Teksten er relativt abstrakt og kan tolkes på mange måder, men begrebet ”ghost” kan f.eks. referere til de mange kulturelle traditioner, historiske overleveringer eller fortrængte episoder, der på godt og ondt stadig spiller en rolle og ”spøger” i Danmark. På den måde fungerer teksten som en tematisk indledning til albummet, for omdrejningspunktet i de resterende tekster kan hver især ses som eksempler på disse ”ghosts”.
Nummeret overraskede os i øvrigt positivt, da vi havde lavet præ-indspilninger af alle sangene i øvelokalet, men det var meget passende, for så kunne vi uden skrupler forfremme det til åbningsnummer, hvilket giver god mening, når man tænker på tekstens introducerende karakter. Derudover havde vi i forvejen leget lidt med en intro til nummeret, og den endte så med også at blive intro til pladen og samtidig live-intro til vores koncerter. En del af introen ligger i øvrigt før skæring 1, så man skal spole tilbage på cd’en for at høre det hele…
2. Arusia
Arusia handler om først og fremmest om Århus, hvilket bl.a. understreges musikalsk i mellemstykket, hvor keyboardet spiller en del af melodien fra rådhusklokkerne (In Vernalis Temporis). Der refereres undervejs til diverse historiske begivenheder, ikke mindst til Århus’ oprindelse som vikingeby, men byens provinsielle karakter får også et par ord med på vejen.
Så vidt jeg husker, var det et af de sidste numre, der blev skrevet færdige til pladen, men den relativt simple sangstruktur, det måtte have medført, passer ganske godt til nummerets catchy karakter. Og hvad angår stilen tør jeg godt afsløre, at arbejdstitlen en overgang var ”In Flames”…
3. 44th King
Dette nummer er faktisk skrevet af Ken, før han officielt kom med i bandet i 2006, og er et ret sammensat nummer, hvor man kan spore inspiration fra både Iron Maiden og Illdisposed, hvor besynderligt det så end måtte lyde.
Teksten handler om Kong Christian d. 7., som regerede landet i anden halvdel af 1700-tallet, men som var skizofren, og som stod for en del skandaler, bl.a. i kraft af sit voldsomme temperament, og samtidig blev hans sindssygdom udnyttet af folk omkring ham.
For at understrege historien, lavede Rune et meget passende soundscape som stemningsintro (tænk på halshugningen af livlægen Struensee), og nummerets skiftende og til tider lidt legesyge karakter er også med til at understrege kongens sindstilstand.
4. In the Garden of the Dead
Pladens mest ”doomy” nummer indeholder vist samtidig noget af det ældste materiale, der er at finde på skiven. En del af nummeret havde vi allerede skrevet inden indspilningen af Gehennesis, men de sidste ting ville ikke rigtig falde på plads, så det fik lov at vente en omgang, før det blev færdiggjort i sin nuværende form.
Det langsomme tempo giver plads til en del lir i både guitarer og keyboard, så jeg gav drengene lov til at folde sig ud med delay, piano og vind i håret i det lange midterstykke.
Teksten handler om Assistens Kirkegård, hvor der i mine øjne er en ret fantastisk og mystisk stemning, eftersom den på samme tid er en gravplads og en park, og en masse berømtheder er begravet her, selvom den i udgangspunktet blot var en reserve-kirkegård, da byens indre gravpladser var overfyldte.
5. White Cut, Red Blood
Dette nummer følger i fodsporene på Downfall fra Gehennesis, og det er næsten udelukkende Ryans værk, så han har rigtig fået lov til at boltre sig med sin musikteoretiske tilgang. Der er masser at sige om nummeret, men mht. det musikalske vil jeg holde mig til, at det første riff er en videreudvikling af den afsluttende melodi i keyboardet fra Downfall, de tonale modulationer er i nedadgående spring af små tertser (inspireret af Carl Nielsens fjerde symfoni, anden sats), og generelt er der i det hele taget er en del musikalske – og for den sags skyld også lyriske – paralleller til det gamle nummer.
Teksten handler om det hvide snit (som titlen med en bevidst fordanskning også antyder), og referencen til pladens tema bunder i, at Danmark i sidste århundrede var det land, der praktiserede denne ”behandlingsform” allermest, og metoden blev først forbudt i 1983. I det hele taget har vi faktisk en tradition for at være ret hårdhændede over for psykiske afvigere med tvangssterilisationer osv., så det emne var jo næsten selvskrevet til at komme med på Our Kingdom of Decay.
Med dette nummer forsøgte vi – for nu at lægge kortene på bordet – at skrive en letforståelig sang med ”hit-struktur”, og det synes jeg egentlig, vi har ramt meget godt. Men alligevel rummer Lady’s Bower i hvert fald for mit eget vedkommende nogle rigtig fede melodier og stemninger, så det er såmænd ikke fordi det er helt idéforladt.
Teksten handler om den provinsielle omgangsform og jantelovskulturen, der jo som bekendt ofte er på spil i lille Danmark - nogle gange bliver det hele sgu så småt, intolerant og undertrykkende altsammen. Og selvom jeg vil hævde, at hele landet er med på den vogn i større eller mindre grad, så må vi alligevel om nogen kende til det efter at være vokset op i henholdsvis Vojens, Glamsbjerg og på Mors, haha!
7. Infinite Fire
Tematisk set er Infinite Fire inde på nogle af de samme ting, men den omtalte ild er en metafor for kontrasten til det undertrykkende, nemlig livslyst, kreativitet og fantasi. Jeg opfatter teksten som mere positivt ladet end Lady’s Bower, idet oprøret og den aktive handlen er mere i centrum her.
Musikken er vel noget af det hurtigste, mest thrashede og energiske på pladen – og outroen er (på Claus’ initiativ) inspireret af Machine Head.
8. Mermaid Decapitation
Mermaid Decapitation adskiller sig en hel del fra meget af det andet materiale på albummet, og selvom det rent tempomæssigt ikke er det langsomste nummer, så er det nok i hvert fald det mest afdæmpede. Inden vi gik i studiet, vidste vi ikke helt, hvad der skulle ske med vokalen i de stille vers, så vi eksperimenterede en del med det dernede, hvorefter vi besluttede os for at beholde Christian Bondes skønne manderøst.
Som titlen antyder, handler teksten om de adskillige overfald, som Den Lille Havfrue har måttet stå model til i sidste århundrede – på trods af at statuen vel er noget af det, Danmark er allermest kendt for ude i verden.
9. Butcher’s Bench
Igen har vi at gøre med noget af det gamle, for visse dele af Butcher’s Bench er vist også skrevet et godt stykke tid før Gehennesis. Selvom det er blevet omskrevet en del til den nuværende form, synes jeg også godt, man kan høre, at det er ”old school” Compos Mentis, men om det også kan høres af andre end os selv, ved jeg selvfølgelig ikke.
Teksten handler om de afsluttende episoder af krigen i 1864 og udtrykker bl.a. den utilfredshed med tilbagetrækningen fra Dannevirke, som en del af soldaterne følte. Citatet midt i nummeret er i øvrigt taget fra en engelsk krigskorrespondent og antyder de hårde forhold, folkene måtte kæmpe under. Jeg kan i øvrigt anbefale at læse i nogle af dagbøgerne fra dengang, for det er virkelig nogle heftige ting, soldaterne måtte gennemgå.
10. The Angel Maker
Så skrues der op for tempoet igen med The Angel Maker, albummets hurtigste nummer. Ken har stået for det meste af musikken (undtagen outrostykket – det ville han aldrig kunne udtænke, haha), og eftersom han er en sucker for højt tempo, thrashede svensker-riffs og duga-trommer, burde han være ganske godt tilfreds med resultatet.
Teksten handler om Dagmar Overbye, som i begyndelsen af 1900-tallet slog op mod 25 spædbørn ihjel, som hun ellers fik penge for at passe. I datidens presse blev hun kaldt ”englemagersken”, og til dato er hun Danmarks værste seriemorder, så hun var selvfølgelig noget af det mest oplagte tekstmateriale til en dødsmetal-plade om Danmark!
11. Kingdom of Dania
Det afsluttende nummer handler bl.a. om, hvor relevant den fælles historie egentlig er for os som individer, og med hvor stor ret vi kan identificere os med de folk, der for et par tusinde år siden vandrede ind i det, der siden blev kendt som Danmark. Ikke desto mindre holder vi fast i nationens historie som en kilde til en fælles identitet, selvom der nok findes noget i retning af 5,5 millioner forskellige fortolkninger og vægtninger af vores forhistorie…
Selve musikken, som Jesper har en god del af ansvaret for, er ret kontrastfuld og veksler mellem nogle energiske passager på den ene side og nogle meget storladne og vemodige stykker på den anden, herunder den lange og melodiske outro-solo, som Ken fik bikset sammen nede i studiet.
Og dermed nåede vi igennem alle numrene på vores nye album, der med nogenlunde lige dele kærlighed og spot gør et beskedent forsøg på at tegne et portræt af Danmark - ”Our Kingdom of Decay”. Som sagt er der meget mere at komme efter i teksterne og musikken for slet ikke at nævne coverets referencer, så hvis man har fået smag for det, synes jeg da endelig, man skal gå på opdagelse. Der blev i hvert fald sagt ”god fornøjelse” herfra!
Andreas / Compos Mentis
