Track By Tracks: Cult Of Scarecrow - Tales Of The Sacrosanct Man (2021)

1. SACROSANCT MEN:

We had this simple but catchy doomy riff in our heads for a while. But we kept it aside, and it stayed in the drawer for quite some time. But with the pandemic suddenly keeping us separated and at a distance we kept contact, we finished the song relatively fast. We added two more riffs, Nico put this doomy beat underneath it, Jan created a wonderful guitar solo,…. Filip wrote the lyrics about this odd but evil figure called Sacrosanct Man, a creature that influences humanity throughout history, but in a wrong way. Filip’s voice in this song is so fitting, it was made for this song. Some will say: Mike Patton, but it’s much more than that. Robbie added some nice keys… Sacrosanct Men is one of our favorite tracks on the album. The opening riff is so recognizable!

2. LAZARUS:

One of the oldest tracks on the album. It almost appeared on our 2018 EP, but we decided not to use it then. It was not finished, not good enough. But we kept working on the song until we thought it was ready. And now it is. Our former drummer wrote the lyrics. It’s about breaking out of your daily routine and start living for a change. ‘Wake up, wake up, become the Lazarus Man’. Lazarus is the biblical figure that resurrected from death. So we want you to stand up like Lazarus and live your life. Robbie, our new keyboard player who joined us in august 2020, immediately made his impact on this song with this wonderful piano intro, supporting Jan’s weeping guitar. We’re really very happy with the result.

3. ROBOTIZED:

This is the last song we wrote before going into the recording studio. It wasn’t really finished yet, but we finished it while recording it there. We wanted to do a different style for once, something groovy, something happy, something that immediately gets you in the right mood. Believe me, this is not what we are used to do, we’re usually into dark and doomy riffs. Ivan came up with some thrash metal riffs at first, but the rest of the band changed the pace completely and it became something very different, a more classic old-school metal tune. Robotized is again a song about how we all get dehumanized, slowly, almost unnoticed, until we lose all humanity and become willful machines. This track will definitely get you in the mood! By the way: the bass in the intro is Gunny’s salute to Steve Harris. Can you hear why?

4. PITCH-BLACK:

Pitch-black is a very dark and dreary song about a post-apocalyptic world, the future life on a scorched and barren planet with almost nothing left. Of course, it’s all mankind’s fault. A voice in the middle of the song says: “We knew it was coming but all we did was pray. Poor mankind”. There’s a special role in it for our mascot, the Scarecrow. We used some artistic license to let him appear in it as a huge Eddie-like monster. A creature that dwells the planet, searching new victims: “All living species fear the Scarecrow’s eyes”. The music and vocals have this grungy touch, switching between calm and heavy parts. The guitar solo part is something completely different though, you might discover there that some of us formerly played in a thrash metal band. We definitely like the build-up of the song, it’s almost like an explosion at the end of the solo, but then the calm returns. It’s fantastic to combine grunge and thrash metal in the same song.

5. DOORKICKER03:

This track starts off with a very doomy riff, but then it becomes a sort of Deep Purple/Rainbow-like song. It’s really one of our personal favorites. It has everything in it: power, rhythm and melody. Especially the lyrics are a different story, a very difficult and sensitive topic. Doorkicker03 refers to the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks in 2018. The shooter was a US Marine Corps veteran that did some time in Afghanistan and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. In his head a sound or a flash of light was enough to get him back on the battlefield. This and the fact that he could easily get heavy weapons led to the drama. This song tells the story of the killer, it’s the dark side of the American Dream. He was trained to become a hero, but he ended up being a monster.

6.THIS BLOOD’S FOR YOU:

Another song that condemns blind faith in all kinds of religion. It’s the same theme as Sacrosanct Men, but more specific. It’s a story of deception by false prophets. Their followers are blinded by their lies, believing everything they say without question and they are ready to do everything, even murder innocent people which they call sinners or non-believers. We really loved to make the intro in the studio, with the church organ and the choir singing ‘This Blood’s for You’. It’s one of our older songs, and it has changed a lot through time. This is the best version we ever made of it. It became a great song, with many layers of different voices. By the way, we always spend a lot of time on vocals.

7. SAMENESS:

It’s about a society in which individuality is the highest crime. Everybody is the same (‘Sameness’) and must follow the rules. Other opinions are not tolerated. Just listen and obey. It’s a society where you don’t want to be a part of. You may think that it doesn’t exist for real, but when you look close you will find out that we already live in this kind of society. The track starts off with a scene like from a horror movie, you hear someone approaching a cradle and a frightened child. And then this music box tune… very creepy. Followed by these hard pounding riffs, and then just this nice guitar strum accompanied by Filip’s voice : ‘Welcome! To the land of the free!’. So ironic, goosebumps! The song keeps going up and down: switching between heavy and softer parts all the time, never a dull moment. It’s the only song without guitar solo. When it was finished, we realized we forgot the solo part. No really, you don’t miss it, this is such a strong track.

8. OWN WORST ENEMY:

The intro of this track was originally written for acoustic guitar and vocal. But Robbie wrote a beautiful piano arrangement to it that sounded so nice, that we decided to drop the guitar and add the guitars at a later stage. This is a song with a beautiful melody and it has many layers of different tunes and instruments. It’s catchy and very accessible. Also mind the interaction between the vocals and the solo guitar in the strophes. The lyrics are about a man who wants to change the world and only wants to do good. Yet, he is not pleased with himself. But how can you save the world if you can’t even save yourself? If you can’t accept who you are and make peace with it? So this man became his own worst enemy. The end of the song is also the end of the whole album. We decided to fade it out with this same weeping guitar as in Lazarus. We lay it down very softly, but in your heads it will definitely linger on…