Track By Tracks: Parrilla - Femme Fatale (2021)

1. Law Of Texas:

I first heard the name in a Joe Rogan Podcast and immediately felt like it’s a topic I wanted to write about and in this case I wanted to cover a scenario of a distressed husband who came home to find his wife cheating on him and upon seeing this his first reaction was to get his shotgun and blow them both to kingdom come but then he reflects on what just happened. He goes from “why did you not try to work this out instead of hurting me” to justifying his actions more and more. We do strange things when we’re in distress which we normally suppress however in extreme circumstances we lose control and become slaves to our basic instincts, so the Law of Texas (also known as the Law of Passion) was the perfect way for me to put this emotions into song.

The song started off with the opening riff, we wanted a big opening song live so what better way than a big fat open chord, then came the drums which added an unplanned but welcome groove to the song. Then came the synths and Bass to funk it up even more giving it some early Killers like layers.

2. Bleed, Cry, Pray, Die:

It started off as one of Chris’ ideas which also had the most arrangement changes towards the end. It started life as an Atmospheric Electronic track so the first thing that was added was the chorus riff which was heavily influenced by the Industrial bands from the late 90’s like NIN, Rob Zombie and so on. After all of the instruments we went and changed the arrangement several times, added some additional synths and then recorded the vocals, due to some communication errors the vocals were recorded over a different arrangement than the one that was decided on in the end which then added a unique structure to repeated parts.

The lyrics themselves are about an oppressive force that subjugates and dominates it’s subject, the one/ones being subjugated realise that they are being oppressed but are too docile and depressed to do anything about it. Any effort to try and break away from this dominant force is stomped down and held back never allowed to grow or become more than what they are intended to be, slaves.

3. Show Me:

The oldest song that was written from the EP which has had the least amount of change from the demos, Show Me is the story of the two lovers and one the lovers was left with a broken heart and wants nothing more but to know that the other person regrets their decision and hurts like they do. The “Two suns” simply longs for the “Ocean” to return to them so they can have a happy ending but knows that their world is falling apart more and more with every passing moment.

Visually inspired by the movie Dune and Gary Numan’s “My Name is Ruin” the main focus was to have a big movie-esque sound which sounded disjointed and “VHS” like so the song started with synths and samples. The band side of the song was intended to be minimalist to add a greater dynamic for when Guitars, Bass and Drums do come into play.

4. Mannequin Complex:

The message conveyed in Mannequin Complex is that we are all too focused on our looks and that we can develop an unhealthy obsession with it. A Mannequin is perfect, it is exactly as it is intended, to be looked at by many and it is durable in case it needs changes unlike say a porcelain doll. The story that is played out in the song focuses on an individual that seems to want attention from everyone via their looks and that everyone needs to look as good as them, they need to be showered with constant praise but all that person wants is to get the attention of a person that theyre heavily in love with but that person does not feel the same. The “Mannequin” believing that they cannot get their loves attention in a normal manner decides to constantly destroy and rebuild themselves so that person will finally feel the same way as them however that day will never come due to the “Mannequins” shallow reasoning why that person doesn’t love them back.

Did someone say Riffs? Because that is what the song started with, a riff that was inspired by Strapping Young Lad’s Love?. We wanted to create a song that had Heavy riffs and was also very melodic, so we wanted it to be more guitar focused than some of our other songs. It was a song we had for a while but never quiet got it to glue together until now, it was one of the last songs of the record we wrote and recorded.

5. Desire:

It’s life started as a random writing session between Dani and Chris, the latter would play a random drum loop which Dani would then try to fit a riffs into and worked from there and then put polished the song during demo sessions with he rest of the band. It’s very Static-X “Wisconsin Death Trip” inspired instrumentally while vocally it took pages from Danzig and Trivium’s books.

The theme in this song is quiet simple and tongue in cheek with lyrics like “Looks like I planted a tree” which were inspired by Lonely Island. The reason behind a song like this is that we wanted to write a song that was both fun and something that pretty much every person can relate to on some level.

6. Femme Fatale:

And here we come to the title of the trilogy, Femme Fatale, this focuses primarily on Domestic abuse and the mindset that someone in such situations can and will often find themselves in. When you are in a toxic relationship like this you will often believe that the other person is acting in such an abusive manner because of something you did and that it is your fault, often people are afraid to seek help because of this whether they are male or female the pattern is pretty much identical if not the same. It’s an important issue that needs addressing more in music as it is something that should not be happening to the extent that it is at this day and age. 

Same as Mannequin Complex this song started with it’s opening riff however that was never going to be the sole focus of the song as we wanted the last song of the EP to seamlessly crossover with the 2nd chapter of the trilogy, which will be more electronic focused hence some of the Aggro Tech influence that we included on this track.