Track By Tracks: Cruzeiro - Hic Sunt Dracones (2025)

Until you get to the studio, you never know how the Javier magic is going to work and what surprises can happen, it's always something exciting.

1. Sibyl of the Rhine:

Celebrates the largely overlooked achievements of medieval nun Hildegard von Bingen, who was later canonized by the Church. A visionary ahead of her time, she contributed significantly to humanistic and spiritual knowledge. The song combines a classical stoner metal approach, with a powerful and heavy guitar riff, with some other glimpses of the post-metal and post-doom contemporary genres.

2. Death Mountain:

Based on the mysterious disappearance of nine young hikers in the Ural Mountains (a.k.a. Dyatlov Pass incident). This song was the first that we created for this new album, and it focuses on a leading heavy and slow bass riffs, joined by robust guitar solos and speedy parts, in the following the now already classical tradition of the stoner and doom metal after Black Sabbath, Sleep and others.

3. Ankh:

Explores the significance of the “ankh”, also known as the “Key of Life” or “Key of the Nile”, an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life.

4. La Quinta del Sordo:

Refers to the now-lost house where Francisco Goya is believed to have painted his so-called series of “Pinturas negras” or Black Paintings. This picture of Goya inspired us a lot in the creation of the lyrics of this song, that employs the fast and heavy bass riffs to recreate the typical orientalistic approach of the atmospheric and psychedelic classical stoner hymns.

5. Galaxies Waltz:

Inspired by the future collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in approximately 4 billion years. A cosmic dance described as a waltz, that explores a more post-doom approach.

6. Velvet Heart:

A heartfelt tribute to beloved pets who are no longer with us. Meanwhile, we were recording this album, one of our pets died. It was a strange and hard moment, so we wanted to make a tribute, and some few lines of the lyrics were in the studio for this moment that we were living. This song combines elements of traditional American blues alongside doom and stoner features, to recreate the melancholic atmosphere of the sad lyrics.

7. Hic Sunt Dracones:

This is an instrumental track, that also serves as an introduction to the next last song, Figa! The title refers to the exploration of new territories in our lives where you find your own “dragons” and need to face them.

This metaphor served us to reflect a new era in the Cruzeiro formation. Since its beginnings, we went through a lot of changes in our lives, in the personal and in the artistic spheres, that sometimes give you some life lessons and make you grow up in both parts at the same time.

8. Figa!:

Inspired by a traditional Galician protective amulet, with roots tracing back to pre-Roman times, used as a symbol of protection or mockery. This song is inspired by the epic hymns of the classical stoner and doom genres, using massive and slow riffs to recreate the occult and uncanny features of this traditional symbol. The lyrics of this song were merely a draft when we went to the studio, where Beatriz finished them after the first session of recording the instrumental parts, in a very creative and immersive moment.