Track By Tracks: Tylor Dory Trio - Unsought Salvation (2019)

1. The Righteous and the Rest:

I believe this was the first track I wrote after we reduced the number of band members from five to four before becoming three. One of the few songs that was written linearly, before I tacked an intro onto it, The Righteous and the Rest all stemmed from the bouncy 13/8 riff the starts once the drums come in – everything to follow flowed naturally. As far as the lyrics go I’d rather have listeners interpret them for themselves. I feel like listeners can form a deeper bond with songs by relating the lyrics to their own lives as opposed to knowing exactly what the author intended. What I will say is that the album is a concept album that follows a singular character’s journey through pain, cults, betrayal, and acceptance. The lyrics are also dualistic in meaning as they relate to both the concept of the album and my personal life. Also look for references to other songs, bands, movies, plays, and that sort of thing. There may be a Tupac reference here or a Fight Club reference there.

2. Comatose:

By far the oldest track on the album, the opening 7/8 riff was written nearly ten years ago when Jon and I were just messing around with some ideas in his dad’s basement. The rest of the track was based around the opening riff several years later while Jon and I put together the nucleus of TDT, this was before we had any other band members so probably around 2011 or 2012. The first half of this song is all about the bass, the guitars are pretty sparse which leaves Slava a ton of room to play very tasty bass lines – many of which allude to the opening riff of the song.

3. The Fallen Man:

This is one of the songs that was finished up in the jam space, I had written a large chunk of the track but wasn’t sure where it should go after the second chorus. Luckily, Slava chipped in with the heavy riff you hear at 3:46 and the song wrapped itself up neatly after that. Definitely one of my favourite tracks on the album, Jon and Slava’s drum and bass interplay during the verses is something I really love. The Fallen man also features what I would call an “A” chorus and a “B” chorus meaning the song has two distinct choruses/big hooks as opposed to the traditional singular repeated chorus in most rock/pop songs. This is something we do on a few other tracks on Unsought Salvation as well.

4. Dying Light:

I was playing around in DADGAD tuning on an acoustic guitar when I wrote this song. Often times I’ll hear a chord or a riff in my head before I write a song and this was the case for Dying Light, but I was having a problem with DADGAD accommodating what I was hearing in my head. So, I tuned the middle D string down to a B to get DABGAD and this track popped out relatively fast. The concept of this track was based around the idea of two choruses that are polar opposites dynamically – the first chorus is quiet and low key whereas the second chorus is essentially the exact same thing but cranked up to 11. Dying Light also features one of my favourite guitar solos on the album because of it’s tone. The solo was triple tracked, an old Randy Rhoads trick, on my strat which gives it this wide stringy sound that I really dig.

5. The Spaces In Between:

This is the first song on Unsought Salvation where you really get to hear the 8 string chunk for an extended period of time. The first verse of this track is our little ode to Devin Townsend before it takes a turn at the chorus and heads down a different path. The Spaces In Between, like The Fallen Man, features our “A” chorus “B” chorus concept – the first being a big, ethereal, melodic hook and the second being an almost Strapping Young Lad meets Opeth heavy chorus. My favourite part of this track are the layered ebow leads that happen during the heavy “B” choruses, sometimes they’re harmonizing beautifully and other times they’re clashing and dissonant – but what they’re really doing is adding a layer of eerie tension to the song overall.

6. East of Eden:

The first single off of Unsought Salvation and probably one of the most accessible tracks on the album, East of Eden definitely features one of my favourite choruses out of all of the songs on the album and walks the line well between hard rock and progressive metal. East of Eden was born out of the death of another we had written, we were experimenting with writing in the jam space and had come up with some kind of riff salad that didn’t have any discernible direction – so we scrapped it, used the intro chords you hear on East of Eden, and constructed an entirely new song after that. Usually I’m not a big fan of using curse words in lyrics unless they add something that couldn’t have been said without them, in this case I felt it was necessary to put an exclamation point on the song and the words that came out happened to be expletives. This song is about being betrayed by someone close to you and wanting to show said betrayer that what they did has done nothing but make you stronger before you cut them out of your life.

7. Glass Menagerie:

I wrote the skeleton of this song back when we were a five piece band, but it constantly evolved lyrically and musically over the years leading up to the recording of Unsought Salvation. Glass Menagerie features some of the more layered vocal work on the album where I’m creating a choir with my voice by recording close to, if not, one hundred tracks of vocals doing different harmonies and complimentary vocal melodies – you hear this kind of layering on The Fallen Man, Into the Maelstrom, and Cenotaph as well. To be intentionally vague, Glass Menagerie is about the different masks most of us wear in varying social situations and why those masks had to be created.

8. Marionettes (of Distant Masters):

Marionettes (of Distant Masters) is one of the more in your face songs on Unsought Salvation. From the verses to the bone crushing choruses, this track has heaps of energy and aggression. For me this song is all about the giant, eight string laden chorus riff with my best Chris Cornell (RIP) homage on vocals and a slamming yet open rhythm section providing the backbone. Lyrically this song is about someone who moves from group to group just trying to belong, wether that group is a religion or a pyramid scheme this person is trying to fill a void in their life with the acceptance of others.

9. Into the Maelstrom:

This was the last song written for Unsought Salvation and is the track most different from the others. Into the Maelstrom is a somber pause before the epic finale of the album. The verses of this track were initially written on guitar before being switched to a Rhodes keyboard upon realizing the vibe just wasn’t right. When it became apparent that the song would be primarily based around keys rather than guitar the song practically finished itself within a day. Into the Maelstrom’s lyrics are based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story yet the song still retains personal meaning and narrative connection to the album’s concept.

10. Cenotaph:

The grand finale! Cenotaph combines many elements of the band’s diverse sound to create a true journey for the closing track. At its most basic lyrical level, Cenotaph is a song about accepting the past as well as the uncertainty of the future while letting go of a false sense of control – control that you never had. The vast majority of this song is based on variations of the opening riff, and I swear that it doesn’t get boring even with its thirteen minutes plus run-time! Cenotaph does a great job of closing the loop of Unsought Salvation, and we hope you think so too!