Track By Tracks: Mythbegotten - Tales From The Unseelie Court (2024)

1. The Heedless Horseman:

“Heedless” is narrated by an inkeeper who is using a story about a Dullahan—an evil Irish fairy that takes the form of a horseman with no head and a whip made from a spine—as a way to trick his patrons into staying and drinking at his inn. Can’t fault his business logic there, though his story may have some holes in it. This is an old favorite of ours, a high-energy dark comedy that sets the stage well for the rest of the album.

2. Omen of Embers:

“Omen” is based on a variant of the traditional Arthurian legend of “Merlin and the Dragons”, specifically Jane Yolen's picture book of the story which Dan and Connor were read as children. Ultimately the track is about hope for the possibility of a better world in the face of oppression and suffering. Also, dragons fighting each other. After the dark folk metal of “Heedless,” this track shifts towards some of our most powerful metal material, a heroic mid-tempo romp with a very fun-to-play verse riff.

3. Mallt-y-Nos:

This track is inspired by the Welsh version of the legend of the Wild Hunt—an omen in the form of a spectral procession of fairies and ghostly hounds—and one of its traditionally rumored leaders: Mallt-y-Nos. It can also be read as being about staying true to oneself despite society's expectations. This song started out as a very aggressive, straight-ahead melodeath track that ended up taking some unexpected turns in later drafts.

4. Beneath Exham Priory:

“Exham” is inspired by the story “The Rats in the Walls” by H.P. Lovecraft. The story and song deal with an aristocrat who descends into madness as he explores his family's ancestral estate and discovers his ancestors were monstrous cannibals. The original story, like a lot of Lovecraft, uses tropes of denigration and xenophobia to drive the engine of its horror; we wanted to instead reimagine the story as a parable on the horrors of colonialism, the much more real and damaging skeletons in the closet of every noble family. Like “Heedless,” this is the culmination of another song we’ve been kicking around since our previous project, and it features a similar dark fantasy vibe, though it leans in more neoclassical and black metal–inflected directions. It also features a nice classical guitar interlude, an instrument that once upon a time was probably going to be featured more throughout the album but ended up only showing up in this song.

5. The Fall:

This track is based on a section of Book Four of John Milton's “Paradise Lost” where Lucifer looks out over humanity after his rebellion and subsequent fall, and considers if he made the wrong choice before ultimately resigning himself to his role as the Adversary. It's a really emotionally weighty and interesting part of the story that often gets overshadowed by the initial rebellion. This song started life as a mid-tempo acoustic ballad by Dan that was such an earworm that Connor insisted we give it the full band treatment, but we very much wanted to maintain the mournful, intimate quality of the original arrangement.

6. The Terror of Lothian:

More cannibals! This time comes from the folklore surrounding the possibly apocryphal Sawney Bean, who is said to have led a clan of cannibals who robbed and ate hundreds of people along the Scottish coast in the 16th century. The theme fit well with the very dark riffs and allowed for some fun wordplay and a spooky vibe. This is maybe the grooviest song on the album, with some of the most fun-to-play guitar riffs.

7. Twa Corbies:

Our arrangement of the traditional Scots ballad “Twa Corbies” ties our form of metal story-songs back to their roots in the traditional ballads of the British Isles. The macabre subject matter—two birds discussing their plan to eat a recently slain knight they found in a ditch beside the road— emphasizes humanity's perennial interest in these sorts of grim tales.

8. Of Wrath and Ruin:

“OWAR”, as we have called it, brings the album to its glorious close with the story of the climactic “Battle of the Pelennor Fields” from J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings”. It's a song of hard-won victory against insurmountable odds, and is dear to the band's heart as we are all big Tolkien fans. This was probably the most collaboratively written song on the album, and we think we all pushed each other to get the best out of it. It features some of our most energetic power metal riffs, most diverse tone painting, and moments of orchestral drama that we think make it a fitting culmination to the rest of the album.