Track By Tracks: Myth Of Origin - Sane Asylum (2023)

1. Sane Asylum:

The intro to the album was made by our friend Douwe Holwerda (a.k.a. Crypton). It opens with ambient sounds but quickly shifts to unsettling sounds that represent the descent into insanity. Some of the sounds heard can be traced back in other tracks on the album, giving it its cyclical nature.

2. Black Horizon:

Pounding drums and heavy guitars immediately set the tone for the next track. The black horizon symbolizes the dark outlook on the future one can have, which can truly cloud one’s mind. Like with all thoughts and feelings, they can sneak into your head unannounced and control your life. The chaotic verses are alternated with a more catchy chorus in which the lyrics explain that it wasn’t always like this: the dark thoughts slowly took over.

3. In My Darkest Hour:

In My Darkest Hour is all about dealing with regrets of things done in the past when you were at your lowest point in life (your darkest hour). Even though things are going better, you keep hurting yourself with the memories of the things done. The past can’t be undone; you have to live with the choices you made. With this song, we wanted to create a calm song, but with a heavy breakdown to highlight the impact of these thoughts on your mental state.

4. Gravity Of This Matter:

One of humanity’s darkest pages of history was without a doubt the Holocaust. Gravity Of This Matter tells the story of a 10-year-old child who witnessed Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Even though the child survived the horrors of the war, mental scars will always be present. Musically, the crushing drums and heavily down-tuned guitars contrast with the melancholic break. The choruses in the song have a certain groove in them which makes it an interesting fusion of different styles.

5. Over the Edge:

A real oddball compared with the rest of the songs. We wrote Over the Edge as an homage to the 80’s power ballads, but even when we were recording the song in the studio, we didn’t quite feel the song had that WOW factor we were looking for. All of that changed when our producer (Daan Janzing) began experimenting with electronic drums and synthesizers. We felt it really tied everything together, making the track a true classic power ballad fitted in a modern jacket. The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory: it explains how someone else’s “help” can worsen one’s self-image, resulting in the descent into depression and self-isolation.

6. The Hunt:

The lyrics to The Hunt are based on a movie with the same title. It tells the story of a group of rich people who have paid great money to travel to a specific set-up islands where they can hunt people for fun. The protagonist in the song is one of the hunted who turns the tables and starts hunting the hunters. The track is a groove-filled banger with a lot of cool vocal harmonies.

7. Screams in My Castle:

The first single of the album is our interpretation of the true story of H.H. Holmes, one of the first known American serial killers. H.H. Holmes had a morbid obsession with death. Being a successful pharmacist, he bought an empty lot and began building a “murder castle”: a hotel with trap doors, peepholes, stairways that led nowhere, and a basement where he could torture, kill and dissect people. The skeletons of his poor victims were often sold to schools as skeleton models. After he was caught, he claimed he was born with the devil in him and couldn’t resist his urges to kill. One of the darkest bangers on the album.

8. Claim the Firstborn:

Claim the Firstborn tells the story of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. For those who don’t know the story, we recommend checking it out! Long story short: Rumpelstiltskin offers to rescue a girl who is due to be executed in exchange for her firstborn child. The only thing that would undo the deal, as if she could figure out his real name. This track is a ferocious riff frenzy! One of our favorite tracks and also the track we had our first official video made for. Needless to say, we are extremely proud of this one.

9. The Void:

We wanted the closing track of the album to be something special, so we came up with the idea of combining parts of the lyrics from the other tracks on the album into one song. The line “Save me from the void” can also be heard in the intro of the album, Sane Asylum. The music was inspired by the amazing song Constance by the Canadian band Spiritbox. To accentuate the infinity of the void, the track fades out slowly. We really love the wall of guitars heard in the choruses!