Track By Tracks: Scars Of The Flesh - In Darkness Alone (2022)

1. ONLY I:

(Kobey on his lyrics)

This song is about mental health in general. I wrote the lyrics to resemble all the thoughts and feelings one can feel from within. The things that we say to ourselves that no one can hear. SOTF lyrics have always been about our own humanity, how it begins, how it flows through time, and how it ends. This song is a shout out to all who suffer silently, for all those who wish to hear someone who feels the way they do. This song also has a double meaning now since the tragic loss of Trevor from the Black Dahlia Murder. These specific lines are dedicated to Trevor. “Only I can holster the torment of being me, never ending dreams of anxiety Blackened sight with a narrow point of view, depression gets the better of you I will settle with my anger and the world, pissed off by true necessity The endless collapse of my woe, kill yourself”

(Bryan & Derek on the music)

For this song and most songs for SOTF we start with a few riffs and then dig through titles that Kobey has provided ahead of time and see which one matches the vibe we are shooting for. We decided on "Only I" barely into the intro section and had a good grasp of what we were shooting to achieve, a straightforward banger of a song with a good solid flow throughout. We always just bounce riffs back and forth off of each other and tend to write songs musically very quickly together. This is also the first SOTF that I (Bryan) got to do a whole vocal section, in trying to give Kobey some ideas on vocal phrasing for the section before the solo, I tracked it and then he loved it too much, and just said that's your part now! lol

2. THE HOODED ONE:

(Kobey on his lyrics)

This song is dedicated to the mascot of Scars Of The Flesh, the grim reaper himself. I always wanted to write a song describing the duties and drive of Death, how he comes and chooses who is next. We never wrote a song from Death’s perspective, always from the dying’s perspective. It’s our homage to what death is, the gift of life, the gift of remembrance.

(Bryan & Derek on the music)

For "The Hooded One" I believe we decided on the title before even starting to write for this one. We knew we wanted epic, and some drawn-out stuff to capture that almost supernatural vibe of the persona of death himself. The vocal talking intro addition was something we asked Kobey specifically for as the first riff and chugging section just came too abrupt originally. So we just said hey dude, do some talking or some shit at the beginning hahaha, and it worked out majestically.

3. IN DARKNESS ALONE:

(Kobey on his lyrics)

This track is a deep dive into my own personal demons. It’s a description of what it’s like to be me, when the darkness enters my mind and consumes my thoughts. I wrote this alone in a dark hotel room while far from home, and it was actually the first track that we wrote for the new album. Every album always has a very dark and sad view on what it’s like to be me at times. You can hear more of this tragic story and upbringing in past tracks like “Constructed From Silt” and “Infinite Static”. I make a point to always have my heart on my sleeve for a very in depth, honest song for each Scars Of The Flesh album, of course I will do it again one day. Our guitarist Bryan has called this track my Magnum Opus lyrically and vocally.

(Bryan & Derek on the music)

For "In Darkness Alone", I think again we had the title picked out before writing. And this being the first song written for the album, it had actually been a few years since we had written any new SOTF music. We were both full of fresh new ideas, and it flowed out pretty quickly. The keyboard parts in this song were a late addition, added well after the full song was mostly completed, but I feel personally the subtle touch they provided helps immensely to give this song the vibe it needed to be something truly special. And like Kobey said above, I believe this to be his absolute best vocal performance on a SOTF to date.

4. MEMORY UNKNOWN:

(Kobey on his lyrics)

This song is very special to our vocalist as well and almost didn’t happen. When in the process of getting the album together, we had a few ideas for covers and they outweighed our originals so we needed one more, so Kobey requested this subject. This song represents the lost time with his child. Due to separation and having to move away, he felt a deep sadness over all the lost time he doesn’t have with his son. He tried to keep it as vague as possible so anyone can relate to the distance and lost time with family and children or friends. Every touring musician probably feels this at one time or another as well so it fits the mood. All the lost time and memories that should be day to day now dwindled down to weekends or every other weekend, or worse. It’s an apology and a promise as well. It’s never goodbye, it’s always I’ll see you later.

(Bryan & Derek on the music)

For "Memory Unknown", this time we had a very specific vision of the type of song we wanted and no title until way later. The vibe we were shooting for was a "Insomnium meets Dawn of Solace" kind of song. We wanted the guitar parts to breathe, much more simplistic than usual, and just to let the vibe and emotion of the sound take over, instead of trying to do anything technical or complicated for the sake of it. Once we finished most of the music, the solo section was last to complete, I (Bryan) wrote the first half of the solo and just stopped and was like, damn this is the perfect spot to get someone to guest solo, for that feel to have the solo mood change halfway through. We enlisted our good friend and shred master Jon Santiago (The Jon Santiago Project) to guest spot there, and oh boy did he knock it out of the park. It couldn't feel any more perfect than how it came out in the end.

5. MORS AETERNA (Instrumental):

(Bryan on his music)

For this song I had a very specific idea as to what I envisioned before writing. I wanted something with no set tempo, not to a metronome, something that flows in feeling, speeding up or slowing with the emotion portrayed. This was a very very difficult song to get "just right", I probably did retakes of the main clean guitar 100's of times until it had the proper feel and flow. Then the hard part was to match backing keys/piano and ambience to a track with no tempo haha. Another battle indeed! But in the end persistence won and it became something truly exceptional I believe. The title "Mors Aeterna" is latin for "Death Eternal" or "Eternal Death" it works both ways. I felt this title truly encapsulated the feel of the music as the mood gives this almost purgatory vibe of being trapped in an ominous void of some kind. We wanted this track to serve as an "Interlude" between the 4 originals before it and the 4 cover songs after it.

6-9. The Cover songs:

(Bryan on these)

For the cover song choices, we had the Amon Amarth one planned way back in 2017 but it just took some years for us to get off our asses and complete it. It was originally supposed to be the only cover on this release, but once we got into writing originals (we had 3 at first and the instrumental) we decided that a good balance of 3 originals then the instrumental and 3 covers after it would be perfect... But of course we got carried away and then did 4 covers (Whoops!) lol. So that is when "Memory Unknown" came to pass. The decision to do the Behemoth cover was more based on our drummer who kept playing the beginning drum part at practice haha. The Dimension Zero one was just a song me and Derek loved from way back in the day that we knew is way under-appreciated and would be killer with a beefed up recording. The Metallica one was the odd ball forsure, and almost didn't make the cut, until I added the piano parts I felt like it was just missing something and somehow that gave it the new and interesting touch it needed to feel extra special and unique. Another thing to note on that song is that I did the lead vocals and Kobey did the backing vocals. That came about accidentally, I originally tracked my vocals as a way to show Kobey my "idea" of how it would be done with heavy vocals, he ended up liking my version so much he said, dude this song is yours I don't want to change it, you did too good lol. So a happy unintended accident...