Track By Tracks: When The Deadbolt Breaks - In The Glow Of The Vatican Fire (2025)

I’ll start with the easy one first. The name of the album “In the Glow of the Vatican Fire” came from a project band that our old bassist, drummer, Amber, and I (Aaron) did before the COVID times. It was short-lived but may be revived sometime soon. The name of the band is/was Vatican Fire, and since that version dissolved, we took some of the songs: Coffin Walls, N56912nd Ave, and Deus Vult, and incorporated them into the When the Deadbolt Breaks set.

We had asked a friend of ours to draw up a cover that would be fitting for such a title, and he sent us a text message with a painting he did of the Vatican on fire. We were awe-struck. Bill Kole helped to add some finishing touches, and the current cover is what it became. It is very fitting for the album in every way.

As to the song lyrics, there are many that are written from a feeling, and what they are truly about, sometimes we don’t even know. We approached the writing of this record very differently than we had in the past. Both Amber and I wrote most of the lyrics together, and our prior bassist, Charlie, helped write some of the lyrics for the Vatican Fire songs we incorporated. There are certain passages in each song that directly relate to life events that have directly affected us.

The Scythe Will Come and Deep Well fall into that category. Although both songs have a similar theme of instability, isolation, and a lack of trust.

Red Sparrow: Amber grew up in a Catholic family, going to church, singing in the church choir, and believing that she would go to hell if she did not follow the teachings exactly. However, I decided at a very early age that I did not believe in traditional, organized religions, and read books from occult authors such as Alister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Eliphas Levi, and Rev. Yaj Nomolos. Yet, we both came to the same conclusion that organized religion is the true evil. Unscrupulous church hierarchy using their positions to prey upon the weak, feeble, and those who place them on pedestals due to their phony pious stature. The constant lies and deception are used strictly for control. Although we don’t preach or judge. Everyone does what they feel is right and believes in what they need. It’s just not a direction we choose.

The Chaos of Water: Throughout my life, as many others have, I have had many instances of vulnerability. The winter of 2023, and as we were beginning the process of writing the lyrics for the new record, I had a physical injury that laid me up for some time. During that time, it was bitterly cold out, and the ground had frozen, forcing rainwater to flood my photo studio and the rehearsal space. I had to depend on friends to help, which I am grateful for, but I felt the ultimate useless feeling as the water kept surging in, seemingly without end. That feeling and frustration were poured into the lyrics for Chaos.

Burning Zozobra: We learned about a festival that dates to the early 1920’s and takes place in Santa Fe where they set a massive marionette on fire, allowing gloom and sadness to be dispelled for another year. The history behind this tradition really resonated with us in many ways. The music itself was primarily written by our bassist Steve, and once the music came together, the theme of Zozobra just seemed to work as a perfect pairing.

The final 3 songs, Coffin Walls, Deus Vault, and N15691 have a very different feel since they were from our Vatican Fire project.

N15691 is the address for serial killer Ed Gein and being that we have a fascination with serial killers, we felt that Gein is definitely one of the more interesting stories. The song is written more from the eye and mind of the killer in an almost taunting fashion.

Coffin Walls: is merely about the feeling of being buried alive. Not in the literal sense, but more metaphorical. The day-to-day dregs of having to put on a smile or be pleasant when that is the last thing you want to do. It becomes suffocating.

Deus Vult: With Amber’s fascination with the crusades and the violent catholic history, this song was written almost as if we were watching a movie like Mark of the Beast. A violent night on some mountain, riding on horseback and slaying anyone who stands in the way. The song is short, violent, and to the point.

The recording process was probably the norm for the twenties -- we each recorded our own bits in our own studios and passed files back and forth to each other. While we had a pretty hefty track count, we were cognizant of making sure we could recreate it live, or at least get 80% of the way there with just two pitched instruments and two voices in a live setting. One thing we insisted on without ever discussing was keeping the instrumentation to vocals, guitar, and bass -- no synthesizers, no keyboards, no orchestral samples. Amber plays the steel drum and prayer bowls on Red Sparrow. Otherwise, it's traditional metal instrumentation.

We kept studio tricks to a minimum -- plug-ins were kept to highpass filters and some reverb. All of the effects are on the very same pedalboards we use live. Even Amber's vocal effects are 100% reproducible on stage via her pedalboard. What you hear on the album is what came out of our amps or got DI'd into the board. And yet there is still enough going on, enough musical doodads, so to speak, to make the album worthy of multiple listens or even close listening. Some of the arrangements are really wild, and there's some good stuff to discover and explore in there.

There's not a lot out there that sounds like the music we create. At least I (Steve) haven't encountered it. Given the global population of music makers, it's entirely probable there are multiple bands out there that sound just like us. Ain't nothing new under the sun. So let's call us quasi-unique. We don't intentionally write music with the explicit intent of being different, and we'd like to believe we don't rely on novelty to make us stand out. Still, we're hard to nail down. I (Steve) have been throwing around the term "post-doom" because we've really gone off the ranch and don't fit the doom mold. We're taking things in a different direction.