Behind The Artworks: BYRON - The Omega Evangelion (2021)

1. Epilogue (intro):

2. Through the Eye of the Nightingale:

As heard, they were originally just one song we cut the intro out and shortened the "Nightingale" middle-section a bit for radio friendliness. The original lyrics was inspired by the movie "The Lighthouse" (2019) but they somehow lacked the gunpowder when put into the bombastic melody. So when it became clear that this should be the first single, I rewrote merely all except the choruses.

"Through the Eye of the Nightingale" tells a story of a violent coupe and decrowning of a Witch-King in a fictional Hyperborean empire, title referring to an european folk tale about a nobleman catching a nightingale and releasing it for a good advice from the bird: "never be sorry for something that cannot be brought back (and never trust idle words)"

Mr. Puusaari saw me wearing a Helloween shirt in the sessions and got carried away with the solos. If I'd only knew he would pull this out of his jacket I'd have played the drums like Ingo (Schwichtenberg, the reason I started playing drums) would have done!

3. Amalthea:

This is the song where all the people who bought a female fronted melodic heavy metal album throw the record to the trash bin!

"Amalthea" is the first song I did for this album. It started with a working title "Sweden" as a counter to Cult of Luna's song "Finland", partially with a hint of smile because mr. Frylmark, the first-planned singer of the whole album is a Swedish force of nature. I tried to catch the same athmosphere from the lyrics as in "Finland" and the first demos of this song were also musically bit closer to the referenced, but the result is what you hear, definetly a Byron song. Brutal and gloomy, yes, but there's a bit of hope in the end too. I began reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series again in the studio and wanted to have some kind of wild west desert athmosphere in the end solos, which were beautifully generated by mr. Puusaari, me shouting advices like "Be a desert! Clint Eastwood from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly! Sandstorm! Gunslingers!"

The name "Amalthea" was born when the song started to remind me of another finnish band "Callisto", and "Amalthea" being another moon of Jupiter as well so...

Christoffer did all of his vocals to this album in a studio in Sweden because the pandemic cancelled all the passenger traffic from Swe to Fin. By the time the restrictions hit, I asked Johanna to sing to the album too, as a back up plan, as there were no guarantee of Christoffer making it to the album at all. I'm happy he did, but I bet he secretly hates me a bit for giving most of the job to Johanna.

4. Corn, Drought and the Lord:

The song "Corn, Drought and the Lord" is the second single taken from "The Omega Evangelion", an occult rock song loosely based on the 1977 short story "Children of the Corn" by Stephen King - one of my favorite writers of all time. I've always wanted to do something musicwise as a tribute to mr. King, so this was a logical step to do as a part of this project.

The song started with a working title "Church of Void", based on the legacy behind the name, having the bizarre reverend mr. Void and his congregation, the Church of Void, as it was originally made to the band but never made its way to decent rehearsal. But when the lyrics start to take their form, the song kind of started to give birth to itself and grew out of the original lyrical concept to how it eventually turned out to be.

It's a great song with -to my ear atleast- a bit Ghost-ish chorus and once again, awesome guitar licks by mr. Puusaari, (as a fun fact to mention, recording the tracks on one stand, hearing the song first time on the same sessions. Phew.)

5. Oktober:

"Oktober" is the only track I did not do the lyrics to but handed the task over to Christoffer. He did the lyrics and the arrangements with the swedish vocals to the demos and I crafted the english chorus melodies to the text in a hurry in studio.

We rehearsed it with Johanna about 10 minutes with a loop before the red light, while Tuomas (Kokko, the producer) was seeing his kids that were watching cartoons next room. Johanna exceeded herself in this song, singing the highest notes she had probably ever sung. Totally brilliant work from her, the whole album. (fun fact this being her first "metal" album done, but as an ex-vocal student of - one of them to mention-, Noora Louhimo, I expected nothing but the best from her).

6. Oasis Of Tranquillity:

One of the oldest songs I wrote, originally a Church of Void - song and you could hear a bit "Summerland" here too. About an alternative future of historical event that fortunately did not happen (the escalation of cuban missile crisis to an all out nuclear war). Luckily for us, the future generations, reason won with the nuclear rearmament.

7. Night's Watch:

8. Over The Wall:

This was, and still is, just one song with two parts. The first part, "Night's Watch", was originally released as a Church Of Void - track in a three-way-split "The Coalition Of The Anathematized" (2016), with Acolytes Of Moros and Cardinals Folly. The CoV tracks sound policy were a bit of disappointment so I wanted to do "Night's Watch" again, with proper mixing.

And, it being a re-recording, it was clear that only Magus Corvus could sing it right and he luckily agreed to show up with G. Funeral who fortunately could commit himself only playing these two tracks and "Where Shadows Align" (found on the Nightingale - promo cds b-side) than the intended all rhythm guitars.

Anyway, after 3 years of the CoV-band being split-up, Magus came to the studio with no lyrics or notes, walks into the box and sings it right through by the memory with just few takes.

The rest of the piece, instrumental "Over The Wall" was born accidently when playing the original end of NW (being the opening notes of OtW), started jamming and just decided to see how long does it go. And in the end I had another song and a perfect outro for the album.

At the end solos you can hear bits and pieces of some of the other songs main melodies as a part of the solo before it all fades into the oblivion.