Track By Tracks: Féleth - Divine Blight (2022)

The album as a whole:

The lyrical themes are usually all over the place but often inspired by things that I (Espen) find massively wrong and provocative such as politicians waging war, being greedy, and also how humans can be extremely hateful against others. Then again there are also songs that are somewhat purely fictional, mostly showcasing my lyrical style. The general red line throughout the album when it comes to the lyrics is perfectly described in the album title ‘’Divine Blight’’, which is a wordplay on ‘’Divine Right’’ where kings etc. meant they were chosen by god, and because of that had more worth than other people. ‘’Divine Blight’’ is my dismay in such thinking, implying that all of humanity is equal and we are all equally responsible for all the fucked up shit that’s happening in this world.

Track-by-track explanation:

1.Majesty:

Musical take: The songwriting started out with the intro which later translated into the massive hook. Most of the songwriting was written around the hook to build it up. Also threw in a really spicy shred lead. The solos were written when the song was done. The first solo is Alexanders’ and the second one is Thomas’s.

Lyrical take: This song and the song Avarice is in a sense story related. Majesty describes the rise of a diabolical king-like entity that corrupts, oppresses, and kills everyone. The ‘’king’’-persona is basically humankind fucking itself up.

2.Caretaker:

Musical take: Originally written from a riff Espen had made, and just adjusted the riff and wrote a whole song around it. Some of the bridges were written a long time beforehand but were also adjusted to fit the song. The rock’n’roll solo by Alexander ended up completing the song.

Lyrical take: Caretaker was inspired by a real-life experience of a ghost sighting I had when I was young with a friend. The lyrics are about someone being haunted, then becoming corrupted by demons, and just ending up in hell. Haha, easy as that.

3.Riven:

Musical take: A bit musically inspired by Fit For An Autopsy, trying to develop a huge atmosphere at the beginning of the song, and then transitioning into pure heaviness. Also, queue the fat solos at the end of the song wooohh.

Lyrical take: Very powerful song lyrically for me, where I'm trying to get into the mindsets of people struggling with drug addiction, being desperate for help but nobody is listening. Having grown up with a lot of close friends and even family who’ve been drug addicts whereas some of them have even died, I wanted to dedicate a lyric to them. Where I grew up the support system has been really bad, and I feel like lives have been wasted because of it. The mellow feel to the instrumental also helps convey this, at least for me vocally.

4. En Elskovsdans:

Musical take: Tried to make a song as hard as possible for me (Thomas), but kinda failed. Just tried to write a song where I could push everything to the extreme. The song also opened another level of technicality to the band, which we will see more of at a future date.

Lyrical take: A somewhat funny lyric, this one in Norwegian too, about basic sex. Many years ago an ex-girlfriend of mine wrote a song for me, so I jokingly dedicated this lyric to her. It’s about a man obsessed with a woman, so he stalks, kills, and rapes her post- mortem. Sounds really grim, sure, but it’s written very comedically and satirically, trying to read like typical old-school 1800s Norwegian poetry, so it’s more silly than anything when being read in Norwegian.

5. The Serpent:

Musical take: Started out writing the first riff, and all the other riffs just came naturally. No real thought process except making another big hook. Solo by Thomas.

Lyrical take: Not really much to add here, it’s mostly just lyrics to make the vocals sound better, but then again I also tried to make some cool lyrics for it. The story is basically the devil is summoned, fucks up the holy see where the pope lives and evil stuff, no clue hahaha.

6. Casanova:

Musical take: Casanova was made out of an old demo we had laying around, Espen had written the first riff and it just worked perfectly as the main riff. For the melodic chorus Brage (bassist) came around and threw some wild bass lead which worked very well. For the solo part, Thomas starts off with a solo that somewhat follows the theme of the general melody, before Alexander channels his inner Yngwie Malmsteen.

Lyrical take: This is the one lyric I try to keep my mom away from reading (hopefully she hasn’t read any of them). This song was written many years ago, and I was heavily into the band Bloodbath, and all of their lyrics are super ridiculous to the point where you just have to laugh at it. This is somewhat the same. I wrote it at a time when I watched a lot of serial killer stuff, so it’s about a man being abused by his mother, then starting to kill females. But with very nasty words.

7.Deadlands:

Musical take: The song Thomas spent the most time writing. From the eerie and atmospheric intro lead into the more heavy riffs, a lot of time was spent on the guitar. Tying the rope between our original sound and a more technically advanced style, this was the last song written, maybe showcasing what direction we are headed. In the song you also get a bass solo from Brage, and an absolutely epic guitar solo from Thomas.

Lyrical take: Pretty generic death metal lyric about pollution and too much mining and fishing etc. This song is mostly an instrumental highlight, so I didn’t want the lyrics and vocals to be too much. Also found it funny to write lyrics for a 6/8 song again, so it just ended up very generic and not over-inspired. But it works.

8. Absence:

Musical take: Absence is a somewhat generic take on modern metalcore/deathcore, written completely by Alexander. Going between jaw-dropping brutal chug patterns into more eerie leads, creating a huge soundscape to accompany the breakdown.

Lyrical take: The lyrics for Absence was written during covid and with all the huge riots in America, but also inspired by general humans-are-shit-stuff that’s written throughout the entire album. The lyrics are so-so but I had more focus on delivering heavy and awesome vocals for this song.

9.USA:

Musical take: Our most alternative song on the album, where almost everyone contributed to the songwriting. USA starts off very calm and beautiful, before the main bassline of the song comes in, which in itself is very intricate. The song follows a very strange structure where it has two ‘’hooks’’, and riffs that showcase the absolute guitar mastery that the band can deliver. Solo by Alexander.

Lyrical take: This song I put in a lot of work with and it’s the pinnacle of my lyrical writing, at least for this album. This song touches upon the horrors that were inflicted upon the native Americans, and also the Sami people, the indigenous people of Northern Norway, expressing extreme dismay and criticism against the atrocities inflicted.

10. Avarice:

Musical take: The one song we actually wrote by just jamming, which one can easily hear in certain parts where the instruments are chaotic, yet totally in line with each other. A somewhat basic song structure, but with highly aggressive riffs and big atmospheric leads. At the end, we transposed the chorus down half a step turning the song into borderline black metal out of nowhere. Started off as a joke, but it worked. The huge twin solo at the end was orchestrated by Alexander.

Lyrical take: Here we are back again with the king-like figure from Majesty, declaring war on everything and itself. The hook is written in first person from the view of the general greed and hate that lies in the hearts of men. But grimmer. Also a song I focused more on vocal delivery than epic poetry.