Track By Tracks: Cosmonuts - Leaps Of Fate (2020)

Following their first album “Holidays in Andromeda”, Cosmonuts from Greece, have teamed up with Sliptrick Records to release their new concept album, titled “Leaps of Fate”. The album’s concept looks at the power of destiny, as presented in the Greek ancient tragedy works. Their grooves are multidimensional, characterized by sudden stops and obscure twists. The feel is mysterious and theatrical, almost operatic. Through their endeavor to contain sophisticated thoughts into their lyrics, and to embrace musical and semantical elements from Greek and Eastern tradition, the band tells their story with three distinct tracks. 

Tracklist: 

1. Why Do We Still Care? 

2. Flesh and Bones 

3. Reflections

 

The opening track titled “Why do we still care?” is a quick, 01:30 length introduction to the album’s semantic and sound vibe. It starts with a mysterious gradually oscillating noise, that evolves to the beginning of the “in your face” vocal harmony. The oscillating noise follows the evolution of the narrator’s psyche. The song builds up, always repeating the line “Why do we still care?”, from a pessimistic point, to a deep dark insanity, leading to the line “Why do you still care?”, accompanied by the entrance of a vivid, almost ironic, drum groove. From there, the song opens up, in a joyful but ironic sound vibe, to the peak of the narrator’s insanity, to come back, eventually, to the loop of the oscillating “Why do we still care?” phase.

 

It continues with a more vivid, 03:00 length track, “Flesh and Bones”, that is based around the ancient drama “The Bacchae”. The opening line: “He comes from a place very far away, from the well of Dirkis to the breed of men. He comes not for love, but to frenzy. Flesh and bones!” introduces you to the main character’s godlike magnificence and glory. It evolves to the song’s main riff, full of twists rhythmically, while steady tonally. The first verse gives the space to the narrator to unfold the story, by describing the main character’s lust of “luring the women in a frenzy dance”, with a robust vocal harmony. The chorus opens up the feel. “Drink my beauties, drink and sing!” responding “I want more!”, accompanied by absurd chord changes. The second verse depicts the luring of the prude character “king”. He joins the party “masked as a goat”. From there, the song suddenly jumps to the bridge, an immeasurable groove that ends with “Revenge the old!”, followed by the chorus. In the end, the main character orders the “beauties” to kill the goat masked “king”: “Chop off his head!”. From there, the song explodes into the guitar solo. It starts playfully freaky, and ends into a screaming paranoia. An interpretation of the concept can be the allegory to the fight between the conscious and the subconscious. The main character is the subconscious, and the “king” is the conscious, of actually the same person. The conscious finally gives in to the subconscious’ demands and eventually destroys itself. Audially, it is an acid blues rock/rhythm and blues, experimenting with some, odd-rhythm fusion elements, mainly on the drum parts. Guitar riffs, licks and solos are heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix and SRV. The theatrical interpretation of the vocal lines have a David Bowie, Queen, Pink Floyd and The Kinks vibe. 

The last one, “Reflections” is a long, 12-minute multidimensional track, that consists of several attitude twists and is based on the ancient drama “Oedipus Tyrannus”. The song can be divided into three parts. The guitar solo, that dominates the first part, is an introduction to the song’s mysterious, heavy sound. Switching between E Hungarian gypsy minor, A Hungarian gypsy minor and D Dorian, it has an “earthy” feel. Its structure is that of an eastern “Taqsim”, that is traditionally played by a bouzouki or a clarinet. Here it is played by a heavy distorted violin-like screaming guitar, influenced by Eric Johnson and Yiannis Spathas. It is backed by an ambient drone by the rest of the band, where improvised melodies and noises occur. The part ends with some heavy climbing up arpeggios by the guitar and drums, that lead the listener to the first vocal lines. In that spot, the vocals take the turn from the guitar to give an introduction to the song’s concept. “Years ago, a father meets his son at the crossroads, near a willow tree”. From there, it leads to the explosion of the first part, through a tight, drum ’n’ bass-like groove and riff, and an ambient guitar solo over the top, that unfolds into the second part. The guitar introduces the feel of the verse, initiating with a hazy acid blues/jazz riff. The band enters with a waltz-like, mysterious, easy groove, while the story unfolds. “He wakes out of a nightmare, and he can see a woman lying over thee…” and “…runs back at the willow tree, looks his mirror in the lake but he can’t see”. Then the rhythm and feel suddenly changes as the main character “takes his own eyes off”. After, it comes back to the main rhythm but with a much darker feel, saying “blood to blood, tear to tear, he shall perish for his deeds”. This part builds up and explodes into a staccato, heavy post/progressive rock riff, that leads to the songs climax. Here, the main character grieves for his fate, asking the “gods forgiveness”, accompanied by a glorious melody that deepens his mental state. It ends with the peaking of the character’s tragedy and leads to the last part. This part symbolizes “the catharsis”. A serene, ambient guitar riff initiates, accompanied with a smooth drum beat and bass line. Soon, the guitar solo engages with a creamy smooth tone, starting low and gradually going up. The feel of this part is “joyful sorrow”, indicating that the character is cleansed from his misfortunate ordeals.

All the recordings took place at Artracks Studios (using DDA AMR24 Desk, Otari MX-80- 24/32 reel-to-reel tape recorder) in February 2020. Production and mixing were made by Clyde Jabra, and mastering, by George Priniotakis, at Artracks Studios. The album’s artwork, that presents the mythical “Three Moirai” in a futuristic, comic style, is designed by Aniro.