Track By Tracks: Vipërwitch - Witch Hunt (2024)


We start off with the Intro, simply setting the scene for our world, its brief context, and where we're heading! The intro really speaks for itself.

The second song Saxon Killer like I stated above is about the title of the Midnight Rider that had before his current name. His profession is in slaughter and battle.

The Third song ‘Hellbound’ is about the Midnight Riders transmutation, entrance into hell and eventual battle, and first head-on meeting with the Viper Witch herself. He finds his Wife after returning from war with the Saxons, kidnapped and dragged to hell. He finds a shadow man to help him find her and allow him entrance to Hell where she's been taken. With one tiny twist. After finding her through numerous demon slaughters, the Viperwitch appears and a battle ensues that his ego is truly not ready for. She kills his wife. She mocks him and his weak human emotions, dragging her lifeless body around pummeling it into a paste as he looks on with horror and despair. He's ejected from hell on the brink of death by his knights in hopes of saving him, not knowing that once ejected his soul will remain immortal. He promises vengeance upon the Viper Witch. To burn every city down, claiming rule over every kingdom he could find, paranoid someone sent The Viper Witch personally for him. Spending centuries in search of answers, decimating cities one after another, but with no answers or solace. Falling deeper into despair and hatred. The only soul left to comfort him after all these years is his horse. Who he transmutes from body to body in desperate attempts to keep its immortal soul along with him, in the ever-changing times.

Fast forward in time, we have the Fourth song. This is The Ritual, in which the Viper Witch is brought back by her loyalist cult within the caves of Kynerath. The unsettling and evil vibes help tell this scene of a desecrated and vile rebirth. Which immediately blends into the fifth song. Using elements from the original 80s film ‘The Exorcist’.

The Viperwitch. The Fifth song is an immediate warning and call to action for her reign draws near. To be more personal I myself like many have always been gone by the eight of swords a victim of my own circumstances, if we only remove the blinder we could see the swords around us chaining us and use them it break free. This is also an homage to the late and beautiful Jill Janeus from the band Huntress and her song 8 of Swords Warning Others.

The Six song ‘Bathory’, brings us fast forward past the inevitable apocalypse which no one could stop, not even the gods themselves. The song takes place in an outskirt bar of the Vaporcity. It's in first person as Lynx herself is one of our main characters. Here is where we are warned about a powerful city mob boss named Bathory. Unsure of the city that lies ahead she asks the weary locals about the dangers ahead. Unsure how Bathory took power over the many city quadrants, she warned as one of the most feared obstacles of the city. Tales of friends lost to her heartless torture they tell Lynx she is safe for now. Here in the lyrics, we hear their accounts. Brutal warnings to stay away from her headquarters brothel unless you're purely there for business.

Elizabeth Bathory, happens to be one of my favorite female historical ‘Villains’. We still don't know if these were tails and rumors spread by a patriarchy ready to do anything to usurp a woman or if her cruelty really fed the eventual stories that became Dracula. Bathory happens to also be one of my favorite bands and I love paying homage and hiding little Easter eggs throughout my lyrics. Hence, I spent time crafting these lyrics sneakily paying homage to Motorhead, Ratt, and the very early years of Metallica.

This leads us to the Seventh song ‘The Vapor City: Blood and Steel Upon the Silver Tower’ this is literally the point where Lynx enters the city; unsure what lies ahead in her path of vengeance. With rage and fear on her mind she's overtaken by the awe of it all as she stops through the massive gates We tried to make sure you could pick up every single cityscape nuance; from the flying cars, three-dimensional talking Billboard advertisements, the droves of people, the flying retail carts, the massive train station, and even the weather. The cities from Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and The Fifth Element really drove the building of this vast city. In the music, you can feel her emotions no matter how many times you listen to it, short but to the point. We wanted to finally bring in that Blade Runneresque cyberpunk City I had long since built in mind. A vast and magical wonder. Her main purpose here is to take down the silver tower, built with the anticipation she now has ahead of her. A stronghold headquarters for the viperwitch and her lead generals must go down and the next song leads us into that moment.

We explain this a little bit more in detail in the booklet but the Eighth song ‘The Huntress’ is THAT moment. You follow along with her and her mindset. Why she's doing this, what her purpose is, what she lost, and the power of the events that take place as she slaughters her way to the top of this vast building, only to find the Viper Witch has vanished. However, in the end, the tower, now completely destroyed, as she escapes is a detrimental moment to Lynx. It is a turning point in the tale. Warning the Viper Witch that her grasp of power is now loosening, she is no longer safe and her enemies are far stronger than she could have ever imagined. The city is now free of the Viper Witches power with her headquarters decimated. Lynx is able to finally breathe the deep for a brief moment, knowing that her people have finally had their vengeance.

This leads us to the Ninth song/dialog ‘Blood Moon’. On her way to now find the midnight Rider and the other mythics, she comes across an encampment of dangerous shewolves. Weary of making contact she knows this is the only way. Fortunately for her, they smell that she is not human but a beast just like them and welcome her. They begin the tale of the midnight Rider and their experiences with him. The acoustic guitar we recorded was the first riff I had ever written for this entire concept album in 2012 long before I really started writing. It was the first piece that led to she-wolves in 2014. We felt it important to put it in here cuz that was the birth of this entire world. We recorded it while I was outside on my first acoustic on a very starry and warm summer night crickets chirping and all.

Thus we lead into our Tenth song ‘She Wolves of the Wasteland’. As I explained I bit earlier, it is the tale of the Midnight Rider in a deplorable state captured by the Shewolves on the road as he drives carelessly and drunkenly. The sorting begins and he meets his captures. Thinking that they were just urban legends he realizes the massive fuck up he made. Fortunately due to their sorting process and need for children he's been deemed worthy enough to use for reproduction, rather than for food and fodder as the tales have told. However immortal enslavement to their cause of clan development and survival is just not his vibe, that flame deep within him that was once long forgotten flickers once again for survival. He decides to hold his own fate in his hands after centuries and chooses a far less favorable option amongst captured men over the decades. He chooses to instead fight the queen for his freedom within ‘The Cage’ set in a full Moons night. Much like the Thunderdome of Mad Max. After a courageous fight they hadn't seen in centuries bringing their Queen to the brink of death, they deem him worthy and let him leave. Not knowing that will not be the last time he sees them. Later we will find the She Wolves will become detrimental to his fight and survival against the Viper Witch. At this point, he knows not any of this, he's just thankful he escaped. Moving steadily forward into his purpose and along the silent path of the Prophecy.

We then go into our Eleventh song ‘Tooth and Nail. As he rides along the long Wasteland roads he is struck with the recent memories of his time there in the Proving grounds, fighting literally Tooth and Nail. A homage to one of my favorite bands and favorite albums of all time, Dokken's Tooth and Nail’. He realizes it wasn't a proving ground for his worthiness to the Wolf Pack but to himself. Will he remain a villain for all eternity or take the path of retribution and become a Hero? To whom will he be a hero too and for what for? Here is where that flame further ignites within him as his original promise is then reminded to him by his trusted steed. This is where the Midnight Rider decides to stop wallowing in his pathetic self-pity and to stop this path of self-destruction. Here he decides to start fighting for others now, for people like the she-wolves, and to use this curse for good. His steed agrees.

We move into the Twelfth and second to last song ‘No Gods No Masters’. As he makes it to the East Coast Ocean. The song steps slightly out of the story and into the minds of its listeners. This is a personal reminder from our band of individuals, who have also walked these paths to you. It is a call of action to the broken world we now live in, the lies we've been told by its masters, the power that's been taken away from us, and the enslavement we've been placed in, that we must break free of those chains. We simply must face our shadows, our traumas, and our situations and become one whole being, so that we might fight whole and as one. The loyalty we gave to the people that built our hells, in hopes of salvation and broken promises was all an Illusion, although we gave our honor they did not give theirs. It is a reminder of our true power, one that's been chained, a theme I talk about a lot. Our true purpose we must fight for, we are the gods and we are the masters, not them. Take your stake and burn them.

The 13th and last song leads into a somber and important piece. We are reminded that although this tale is beautiful, violent, and vibrant there is a looming sense of sadness that comes after surviving our own traumas and the battles won in this world. The people we've lost, the pain that we're now allowed to carry and feel, and must work through. The only way out is through. We must remember the many that we've lost not only in the story but in our own lives so we may do right by them and ourselves. The song was rightfully named after the war of unnumbered tears in Tolkien's tale. The songs remind us that in between our victories and our next battles, we are still human and we are still allowed to mourn that which we lost. The world we live in is so vile and evil and we have lost so many, the media and abusers hope we forget. We have gone through so many traumas, and so many wrongs that still have not been written right, now is not the time for fighting, it is a time for remembering that pain and allowing it to refuel us for the next battles to come. As they too will be far harder and much darker than the last, but we're ready and we are built for it.

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