Track By Tracks: Catharia - Unimaginable Dreams Of Fate (2024)
1.Der Tod Eines Gottes and Der Tod Eines Gottes (Reprise):
The album opens and closes with a foreboding dark dungeon synth track to set the mood. During the writing of the album, we found that Der Tod Eines Gottes was too long to use as an intro, outro, or standalone track without breaking the album flow. We tastefully cut it into two parts and used it as bookends for the album.
Like the instrumental track in the middle of the album, Elfen Tanzen, this song’s title is in German. It means “the death of a god”. This track was played by band member Matt Powell who also makes full dungeon synth albums under the name Wrath of Odin.
2. Terminus Hierophant:
The main album opens up with the track Terminus Hierophant. The lyrics go over the duties, fatigue, and finality of the protagonist, a Hierophant. Loosely, a Hierophant is a mythological man who acts as an interpreter/bridge between arcane knowledge or principles from another realm and our reality. Terminus is a Latin word for the end of a route, etc.
3. Solemnly:
Solemnly tells a tale of loss and abandonment. A societal rebellion and war that leaves nothing to rebuild, nothing to replace what once was. The song has a line “hollow shell” referencing the rotting from within from its own corruption.
4. Devouring Firmament:
Devouring Firmament was the first Catharia song to ever receive a lyric video. To date we have still not made a full music video. We went into recording this album with most of the songs already written but not this one. Devouring Firmament was written in the studio by Nick and Dylan during some spare time. It is about the existential struggle of creation and the relentless march of entropy.
5. Tomb Throne:
Tomb Throne is a story that idealizes escaping from modern life into the beauty and peace of nature, dying in solitude to achieve it. This is the last song to be recorded in person at Strata Recording in Indianapolis by the band, though the remainder of the album was still mixed and mastered by its proprietor, Jackson Ward.
6. Elfen Tanzen:
Elfen Tanzen is an instrumental break in the middle of the album with only one recorded instrument track of an acoustic guitar. We used unconventional-sounding reverb to achieve the feeling of this track being played in the large dungeon with dense stone walls. Fun fact: the demo version of this song was mistakenly released with the correct versions of all the other songs on digital release day. It was later corrected but for about a month you could hear the track in its infancy.
7. Slipping Into Eternity:
Slipping Into Eternity has an unusual backstory. The band was visiting a Sam Ash music store. Dylan came back from the bathroom and misheard something Nick said while using a synthesizer. The phrase “slipping into eternity” was written down and revisited later to turn that title into a full song.
As for the music, this track stands out compared to the rest of the tracks on the album. It’s not a sound we’ll probably return to but interesting nonetheless. It has a very ‘busy’ sound to it. Many layers deep and a larger soundscape than the other tracks. There is something different to focus on within each listen. We asked our engineer to make it sound ‘cosmic’. It also opens and closes with unique clock sound effects.
8. Revocation of Life:
This one was recorded around the time of the Midnight Sun sessions but not released until this new album. There was no express reason for that, it was just forgotten about and sat in our files completely finished. It probably could have gone on the first album. You can definitely hear more of a Midnight Sun style sonic footprint on this track than the others as it features symphonies/choirs and a bit thinner soundscape than Unimaginable Dreams of Fate.
It was the second song Matt had ever attempted writing music for in the black metal style. Lyrically it has imagery of a deteriorating body used as a metaphor for inner torment, disgrace, helplessness, and abandonment. The protagonist’s voice and identity are stripped away, leaving only silence.
9. Screaming Cemetery:
Screaming Cemetery is about spirits buried physically but not truly at rest because of dreams or actions left unfinished before death. These spirits observe the maddening certainty of the sun rising and setting each day, and the stars passing overhead every night. They are locked in this place, seeing a static cycle that keeps passing them by. Much time passes but it will not change anything for them. The balance is off and life, incomplete.
10. Unimaginable Dreams of Fate:
The title track and main album closer tell a story of battling inner thoughts. It goes over those thoughts becoming your biggest and most formidable enemy, as well as internal turmoils associated with daily life in this state.
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