Track By Tracks: Tundra - Eternal (2025)


1. Alone / Welcome to Hell:

Alone is a slow burn that leads directly into Welcome to Hell. It does so musically as in they share some literally identical musical motifs, but also lyrically. Alone sets the stage with an all-to-common story of a person who falls away from their faith, thinking they could know better. For many people who deconstruct, they struggle to find new meaning in life and what may be afterlife. Obviously, that can be taken as a literal hell, but also can make life on Earth more hellish.

2. The Pit:

The Pit was a song written later on in the process of putting the album together. These songs are less metaphoric and are a little more on the nose. This song tackles addiction. Addiction is often as obvious as substance abuse but is often more broad and less easy to identify, meaning more of us struggle with it than we realize. Anyone who becomes aware of this state and tries to correct it knows that it feels like trying to crawl out of a bit, with any regression feeling like being dragged back into hell.

3. The Witch:

The witch is a classic in pop culture horror, but originates from a complicated time in history; tackling fears of the unknowns of science, but also sometimes dealing with real evil and wicked doing. Specifically in this song, the witch represents temptation. Lust specifically is a very real temptation and can lead people to do or follow people they may not otherwise. Meanwhile, giving into our temptation often leads to guilt and regret.

4. Smoke and Mirrors:

Musically, Smoke and Mirrors feels like one of the bigger risks on this record. While we've more or less always tinkered with more melodic elements, this feels like going a step further. Lyrically, the song is about trying to help someone who's stuck in life. That can manifest itself in multiple ways: addiction, spirituality, depression, and more. It's specifically written from the perspective of how it hurts to see people you care about in those situations. For anyone who's been there, you know it's not that simple to get them out.

5. Hostage:

Depression and anxiety are relatable to all people for all people have felt them. However, the depth and frequency of those struggles can vary drastically. For those who constantly feel weighed down, it can feel like being held captive by your own mind, to the point that your brain can start making you believe things that you could reason yourself away from. This is why it's important to instill in yourself not only what you think and believe, but why you believe it. When you're at your lowest, that may be what saves your life.

6. 911:

911 is just an instrumental to give a bit of a break roughly in the middle of the album. Though it's intentionally designed. The phone ringing and dispatch answering probably evokes some fear or memory you have. The song is intentionally giving lots of air to breathe in that discomfort.

7. Undead:

Another popular horror trope is the zombie. For most of us, zombies are kind of goofy and we can take them quite lightly in the horror genre. However, like the best of horror, zombies actually do raise some deeper philosophical questions. Specifically in what it means to die, what is afterlife, what makes us human, and what separates us from monsters. While this song doesn't try to answer all of those things, as a Christian band, we do try to tackle at least one of them. A fundamental of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ literally died and literally rose from the grave. Through his sacrifice, we are granted the chance at eternal life, a life after this one.

8. Insane:

Admirably, Insane was written because we felt like we needed one more super-heavy song on the album. As a result in some ways, we struggled to not make it feel like an afterthought. But the pre-chorus is the highlight for me. "Father, why'd you "bless" me with madness? Father, why'd you "bless" me with sadness?" People have this misconception that becoming a Christian makes life easier. People who think that should read a history book. That means those who struggle (with depression for example) will often still struggle. But now the framing is different. So if God made me with intention, is He to blame for my depression? While there are theological answers to those thoughts, this song simply gives people a couple minutes of a safe place to ask those questions in a way that also lets them vent in the mosh pit.

9. Revelation:

For a lot of people, the end of the world is terrifying. This is heightened in the digital age of overflowing information, especially in a time of growing global threats. Christians have promises for what the end of days may look like from the book of Revelation. While this song does use a little bit of imagery from that book, it more so takes imagery from dystopian fiction. No matter how it goes down, it's going to be rough.

10. You Are:

Well, that's a lot of dark and heavy topics. Let's end on a lighter note. We believe that no matter what horrors you face in life, God is the answer to finding peace. We felt like it was necessary to end a dark album with that message of hope on the way out the door.

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