Track By Tracks: Lenax - Infection (2025)

1. Worship Hymn:

An invocation. “Enter into the Sanctum of the Black Sky.” This song is about beginning a life journey of esoteric exploration, including the possibility that the soul may survive the body, and that a greater cosmic intelligence may exist. The ending chorus of “Ho Drakon, Ho Megas!” brushes up against the draconian concept of this cosmic intelligence envisioned as a dragon, and has roots in some Left Hand Path practices.

2. Leeches:

Apocalypse. “Latching on until your blood is gone.” Set out to tell the story of religious zealots as blood sucking leeches. The “speaker of hate” is not the occultist but the evangelist. The song flips the aggression and implies that the missionaries themselves will be on the receiving end of the pain and suffering they threaten to their non-believers, the poetic justice of suffering the “worm that never dies.” After a lifetime of spewing hate, they are forced to ingest carnivorous worms, all the while the great beast of revelation and his blessed whore come to rise into power.

3. Chains:

Freedom or Slavery. “Without sacrifice you will never know what it takes to earn this.” A song about breaking your attachment to the world, as tempted and taught by a devilish figure. The quote is an allusion to the personal, spiritual, and sometimes physical sacrifices that must be made in Left Hand Path initiation. Twist at the ending as the devil places you in a whole new set of chains, bound to his service. Meant as a warning of the danger of trading one oppressive system for another, even if that system is meant to be transgressive and freeing. Apply as you will to religion, politics, or societal norms.

4. Crossroad Black:

A deal with the devil. “Have you come to cross the threshold, as if you're selling your soul?” A play on the phrase “crossroad blues”, this song revisits the classic dark man at the crossroads theme. A partner song to Chains, the song has a similar twist in that the devil character takes authority over the main character by the end. You made a deal with the devil, and you are surprised to find he is a liar? No remorse will be spared for you.

5. Hive Mind Apocalypse:

Self-willed individuality. “Individuality erased, fade into none.” A dystopian song about losing the identity of self in a sea of faceless souls. “Fight for identity, refuse the chains” again ties in a common theme in the album of seeking your own individuality, this one ending in a more victorious position. The main character becomes Adept, or an “expert at black magic”, a sorcerer who departs the flock of sheep to stand alone as a beacon in the darkness.

6. We Are Legion:

Futility of man. “On your knees, you thought you were the one controlling me?” A mage becomes overly greedy with demonic evocations, unintentionally assembling “Legion” of biblical legend. The demons show up only to overcome the would-be sorcerer attempting to control their kind with words and incantations from man-made grimoires. It is a song of freedom, but not from the point of view of the magician, but of the demons themselves.

7. Plague Bringer:

Black Magic Sorcery Rites. “I will see your death, I am a plague bringer.” A straightforward black metal song, with an unapologetically mellow guitar break, followed by a rage against enemies. The “murderous heart” is a reference to the Gunslinger’s Creed (“I do not kill with my gun, I kill with my heart”) while “strike with a blade straight to the heart” is a metaphor not for murder, but for a psychological defeat of the enemy, a valid and perhaps even better revenge as a physical one.

8. Overdrive:

Calm before the storm. The one instrumental on the album serves two purposes. From a nostalgia point of view, I had an instrumental song called Overdrive when I was a teenager, and two of those riffs actually survive here in an otherwise brand-new creation. Musically, it is meant to be second to last on the album, a resting point before a big finish.

9. Throne of the Forsaken:

The Self Created Ancient. “The stars have moved but his shadow stays”. This song tells the story of an ancient god-king whose name and deeds have been entirely forgotten about by history. Hints of battle, kingdoms, alien conquest, treasure, all lost to time with no records, no archaeology, so sagas or folk tales. But a spark of life force remains alive all these years later, and this ancient god-king wills himself back to life to regain, reconquer, and receive worship from the totality of his creation. “In this sanctum intelligences arise” making it a counterpoint to Worship Hymn