Track By Tracks: Red Cain - Kindred: Act 1 (2019)

1. Snakebouquet:

This track was born of an old Sumerian text fragment comparing the planet Earth to a snake goddess, which was a unique concept that we combined with Evgeniy's appreciation of space exploration and specifically the "Wild West" 50/60s era when the first human forays into space begun by incredibly brave men and women. The audio at the beginning and end of the track is taken from first man in space Yuri Gagarin's transmissions during his flight, and the track is meant to be a celebration of human achievement.

2. Midnight Sarabande: 

This track was written in large part by Rogan McAndrews, and explores humanity grappling with our mortality, our short years, and how one of the ultimate goals of self-realization is defeating the fear of death and turning our mortality into an instrument of achievement and glory. The form of the song is indeed that of a Spanish sarabande (a dance in triple metre), and has some strong power metal elements, as well as wonderful leads by guest guitarist Tyler Corbett.

3. ZERO:

This song was an idea Evgeniy had sat on for a long time until finally finding out a way to realize it into a finished track. The concept has to do with our interpretation of the myth of Osiris as not only the god of the dead, but as a vampire myth. We felt this was a very interesting concept to explore, and there is a story element there that's central to the album itself as well. We wanted to create a very cinematic, widescreen view of the Egyptian influence, of the eternal wandering and torment of the various transformations Osiris undergoes, and explore some of what it means to be an immortal demon, condemned to feast with the dead for eternity.

4. Blood & Gold: 

This track actually grew out of our very first single "Hiraeth" as a reimagining of the closing acoustic section of that track. We had not at that point written a bonafide ballad, but neither did we plan to do a generic ballad structure for this song. It grew very organically, in part built on Evgeniy's experimentation with falsetto vocals in the chorus, and built on some very cool electronic elements. More a spiritual successor to ZERO, the story is in part based on the novel "Blood & Gold" by Anne Rice.

5. Juliet:

Evgeniy is a huge fan of gothic rock and cut his teeth as a singer following bands like HIM, 69 Eyes, and Charon, so this track is an homage to the "Helsinki vampires"-era of those bands, as well as some American influence of bands like Sisters of Mercy. We invited our good friend Daniel Louden from Calgary gothic rock project Benevolent Like Quietus to sing on this track, and the result was catchy, heavy, dark, and overall fantastic. The lyrical influence behind this song came from a poem by a well-known Engish poet, itself inspired by an old Greek legend - we'll leave you to discover which one.

6. All Is Violence:

We wanted to have a heavy, aggressive track on this album that is a spiritual successor to our earlier song Guillotine, and AIV definitely fit that mould. Evgeniy wrote this track while visiting rural Russia, and it is meant to be a stark exploration of the positive and negative role of violence throughout humanity's existence, from the POV of the Slavic war-god Veles, a complex and divisive character in Slavic mythology. The idea behind the track was born while reading an old hymn to Veles, and Brendan Doll and Tyler Corbett very much gave the song its power with their inventive, heavy, and dynamic guitar work. We also sampled the Icelandic "Viking war chant" on this track, to add to the relevance and power of the song. 

7. Wing of the Crow:

The skeleton of this song was one of the earliest ever written for Red Cain, but it never sounded right to Evgeniy until last year, when the very strong chorus was written, around which the rest of the song was constructed. We had always meant for this track to have a female vocalist, but for one reason or another, could not find a suitable fit, until we decided to have a talk with our fellow Calgarian metal songstress Kobra Paige of Kobra and the Lotus. She loved the track and her role as Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of war, and did an absolutely brilliant job with her guest appearance, working incredibly well with Evgeniy's voice to make for an epic, catchy anthemic track. A wonderful collaboration that gave us exactly what we wanted, and definitely places Wing of the Crow as one of our favourites to both perform and listen to. We also borrowed some elements from a very old Celtic folk song for both the melodies and some of the lyrics in this track, for a more authentic reimagining of the Celtic myth it's based on.

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