Track By Tracks: ITUS - Primordial (2020)

1. Cloud Reader:

The opening track is a brighter sounding homage to stoner metal and stoner lifestyle. The lyrics are meant to convey a spaced out, reflective headspace. Throughout the song there are a lot of strange sounds and effects, all of these are from a guitar. We hope that all the weird layers going on really entice the listener to try and figure out what they are actually listening to. The vocals come in at the beginning very light and airy, overtop the huge ‘wall-of-sound’ inspired guitar tone.

2. Question Everything:

This song sets up a grim tone right off the bat and is a very good precursor to the next track Primordial. ‘Question Everything’ uses heavier fuzzed-out guitar and bass and offers a perspective on societies’ system of values and where in some areas it fails to meet expectations. This song leads listeners through a dark journey, reflecting on failure and self-destruction.

3. Primordial:

This is the title track and first single from the EP, with a music video to accompany its release. We chose to make this the first song we release because to us, it embodies the aspect of human savagery. Primordial uses the idea of coming out of a euphoric bliss into a hellish existence. Its lyrics comment on what forces within people's work to pull society back down to chaos. This is the most aggressive song on the EP with its crisp, and aggressive guitar tones that really make it stand out from the other songs. We think it is reminiscent of our more death metal roots as musicians, especially with the breakdown/solo section at the end. There is a very significant sense of unrest in the tone of the song as it progresses getting more and more aggressive and uneasy.

4. This Can’t Be:

This song is intended to bring us down the aggression that the previous 2 songs delivered, into a calm and thoughtful zone. This is our “planet caravan” so to speak, which was a big influence behind how we wanted the beginning of the song to flow. The lyrics are based around struggling with past burdens and with one’s own sense of worthlessness. We wanted the end of the song, where the solo and heavy guitars come in, to give a feeling of relief, comfort, and closure. 

5. Chaplain:

Chaplain is definitely a weird one. We didn’t really know what to do for the final song on the EP so we decided to go up north to Brandon’s cottage, jam for the weekend and see what we came up with. The entire rhythm section of the song was hashed out with a click track. We built up the whole song around one riff, adding many more layers and effects. We really wanted to close the album with a hard-hitting, droning doom song. The lyrics are directly inspired by stories from Warhammer 40k, a popular fantasy war game. It follows the tale of a space-marine soldier, who finds a portal in space which completely corrupts him, and he emerges from that portal as a plague on humanity.