Track By Tracks: Infernalizer - The Ugly Truth (2021)

1.NIGHT SHIFT:

I envisioned this record to unfold like a horror movie, so the opening track clearly stands as the opening title, setting the atmosphere for what comes next. I've always been heavily influenced by soundtracks and I do really appreciate 80s retro-wave a lot, so we tried to recreate that kind of mood and feeling with this track. I want to point out that instrumental tracks are extremely important for us to shape the more cinematic side of our music, so they're not fillers at all. I love this side of our music so much that I don't rule out making a record of only instrumental tracks one day.

2. THE OUTSIDER:

Some bands cram the fastest songs they have at the beginning of the record trying to impress the listener just for the sake of it and I think it's an extremely stupid thing to do. I wanted the album to transition smoothly from the instrumental opening track to the next track and this was the perfect song to do it. Quite influenced by 80's hard rock with a haunting goth chorus this track sets the record straight right from the start and introduces the listener to what's going to happen in the rest of the album. Lyrics deal with discovering the darkest (and probably purest) side of our nature and accepting it as part of ourselves, a recurrent theme in a lot of lyrics throughout the album. One of my favorite tracks out of the whole album for sure.

3. LEAVING SO SOON?:

This track has been chosen as the first single, it's clearly an extremely catchy song and I like the fact it builds-up until the chorus when you finally understand what it is all about. It's the second song we wrote for the album and it's clearly a tribute to the 80s, I love the rock'n'roll-influenced guitar solo and to me, the whole track sounds like a horror-party song. Lyrics are basically about discovering the beast inside and not being overwhelmed and crushed-down by everyday life with all its constant complications and delusions.

4. IN RETROSPECT:

This is the last track we wrote for the record, we were like “Alright, let's do a heavy metal song”, there's a lot of goth parts throughout the album, but we wanted to show some teeth as well, so we came up with this track. It's one of the heaviest songs on the record, mainly riff-driven with a pounding chorus and it serves its purpose of stepping-up the tempo on the first half of the album perfectly. As far as lyrics go... Well, I honestly don't believe in humanity, I'm constantly disappointed by people and this is my personal “Fuck You” to a lot of persons that have crossed my path in the past. So many people live in a reality that exists only in their heads and doesn't realize what life is about until it's too late.

5. CRUEL INTENTIONS:

I call this track a “fake ballad” because as soon as the piano starts you immediately expect a ballad or something mellow, but then the guitars come in and you're like “Hmmm, no, maybe not”... I like a lot of Scandinavian goth-metal bands from the 90s and this track, in particular, pays tribute to the kind of sound, I love the way the vocals create a catchy melody still remaining harsh while the lyrics deal about losing the mask of sanity that we wear every day to be able to relate with the rest of the world, giving in to our most animal and primeval instincts.

6. THE UGLY TRUTH:

The title track is the very first song we wrote for this album, it mainly alternates extremely heavy riffing with more goth parts and as soon as we finished it I thought “Alright, this is going to be the title track”. The chorus is one of my favorite of the whole album and the track itself is very solid, with a lot of atmospheric parts that I do really enjoy. I decided to do a double chorus with different words and melody at the end to add more variety, lyrics-wise I expressed my interpretation of the concept behind stories such as “The Picture of Dorian Gray” or “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

7. IN THIS WORLD OR THE NEXT:

Here's another favorite, the second single from the album, it can be considered as the “dark sister” of IN RETROSPECT: a very solid fast-paced song with extremely haunting keys, I love the overall atmosphere of the track and how it develops towards the ending. This song embodies the concept of “Alright, no one's getting out of here alive, we're all going to die, so let's die fighting”... Life's a joke, most of the times a bad one and everything is temporary, so you can either curl up in a corner waiting for death to arrive or live your life fighting, knowing full well it's a battle you can never win.

8. LEAVE A SCAR:

The most goth track out of the whole record, an extremely catchy and easy-listening song, it embodies the more melodic side of our music despite the fact that I couldn't resist spicing-up the chorus a little bit with more harsh vocals. The track is a huge “Fuck You” (again) to all the people that are no longer part of my life... There's usually two kinds of people: the ones that bring positive and uplifting energy in your life and the ones that only bring you down and wear you out, constantly dropping their problems and insecurities on you instead of working on themselves to solve them; this song is basically about how good it feels when these kind of persons are no longer part of your life.

9. I DON'T WANNA BE ME:

I decided to cover this song by TYPE O NEGATIVE first of all because they're one of my favorite bands ever and I absolutely love this track, then for the reason that I've always found this track somewhat uplifting, even if it's filled with the usual TYPE O black humor, and being the whole record quite negative so far I wanted to end it on a less-negative note, let's put it this way... It's quite close to the original version, I don't believe in completely changing the track you do a cover version of just for the sake of it, but we added some more keys and of course harsh vocals to it, giving the songs an even more hardcore-feel.

10. AUTUMN OF TERROR:

The last track is of course what I consider the closing titles. Again there's a huge 80s influence going on as it closes the album in the best way possible. I don't believe in long records but I do believe in well-structured records, we touched different genres and influences throughout the album and as the curtains close we wanted to leave the listener wondering what could come next enjoying a more atmospheric and cinematic track. I do really like the atmosphere this track creates as it complements the opening track perfectly.