Janel was arranger and curator at the Issue Project Room for a residency with Susan Alcorn as well as joining several residencies at The Stone playing the work of Eyvind Kang.
All is a haze of red and through the battlements walk the shadow, the bane of mankind as faces turns to see the ill omen burning in the heavens, the calm before the storm, a cry before the slaughter.
Although Caspar David Friedrich was a deeply religious man when he crafted the paintings in which these songs are based, the underlying themes of loneliness, melancholy, and despair are hard to deny.
They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty.
Nekrogoblikon play amazing melodic death metal with a fixation on goblins and bears, Slugdge do the same here with an angrier, progressive death metal lens to express the joys as well as sorrows of the world of slugs.
It reflects one of the first times in many years that my lyrics were not very realistic, direct, or to the point.
We decided to rerecord this song for IATC because the lyrics play right into the concept, and it never got a proper release.
My favorite part of this song is the textured layers that really slam on you when the verses and choruses hit, as we purposefully reduced the panning of the guitars on this song.
CD: Gatefold case, including lyrics (special booklet) and artwork by Virginia Francis Sterrett (see picture).
It was the only logical way we could end the album with the lyrical concept that shaped I Am the Curse.
Our emblem is the serpent, the wisest of creatures; our house colours are emerald green and silver, and our common room lies behind a concealed entrance down in the dungeons.
Another one of the later tracks on the album, we wanted this track to be aggressive and smashing, almost like a nod to our older sound but still being mindful of our progression.
Rick and I wrote the lyrics one night, centered around the final line which I had written along with the riffs back in 2005.
These are the last tangible thoughts that hang in my mind as the life and the soul gently drain from my body and spill into the sea.
In doing so and then painting over the top of it with our leads, we found the chorus worked better without heavy riffing and just doing a combination of melodic riffs.
The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.
December 2008 as we were getting ready to start touring, we wanted to get together one more song that could really unify our sound and I knew I had just the right song.
Less sludge and more death metal, anchored in a progressive metal framework, with even more hilarious lyrics about slugs than ever before, what we have on Esoteric Malacology is Slugdge at the peak of their songwriting powers.
But he sent me his lyrics based off a few lines I had written and I had told him the concept of the song, and his lyrics blew me the fuck away.
Download the album in any audio format youd like, get the official lyric and liner note inserts, and the lyric video for Graveyards Adrift.
The Infernal Sea have proven themselves on the live circuit supporting the likes of Anaal Nathrakh, Gaahls Wyrd, 1349, Vreid, Napalm Death, Akercocke, Rotting Christ and Tsjuder.
