Track By Tracks: Ashen Horde - The Harvest (2026)

About the album as a whole (lyrically and musically):

Unlike the previous four albums, "The Harvest" is not a concept album; however, it does have an overarching theme: endings. For the first time in Ashen Horde's history (at least when it comes to full-lengths), I didn't have a single story | wanted to tell. But after I came up with a couple of different lyric ideas, I realized they had a connecting theme. "Entropy and Ecstasy" is about a couple who get a thrill from the tragedy and chaos all around.

"Autumnal" looks at old Pagan beliefs and ceremonies that came with the end of the harvest season; "Backward Momentum" focuses on the seemingly devolution happening across society. Each is rooted in a reaction to something ending, so we leaned on that for the rest of the songs. Karl wrote "Voids in the Ash" about the last days of Pompeii, which was certainly a dramatic end!

Track By Track (lyrically and musically):

1. Autumnal:

The music for this song was inspired by Sensorio, an outdoor light installation in Paso Robles, CA. My wife and I were there for a mini vacation, and the overall vibe of the lights spread across the countryside triggered the idea for both the intro melody and lyrics, which are about old Pagan activities that came with the end of the harvest season and coming of Fall. The slow build from quiet to full-on black-metal blast beats seemed like a perfect way to kick off the album.

2. Entropy and Ecstasy:

This song, which we chose as the first single and shot a video for, is about a couple who, instead of being terrified by the world collapsing around them, get a thrill from it. I don’t remember what initially sparked the idea, but it’s fair to assume the initial Covid lockdowns had something to do with it! I thought the music, which definitely takes some influence from Voivod, reflected both the chaos of the outside world and the bizarre passion of the couple. This was also the song Karl used for his “audition.” I sent him a demo with some unfinished lyrics, and he sent back his take on it. I was immediately blown away. His vocals on the core melody, “how can we thrive if we expect to survive?” give me chills every time I hear them.

3. Backward Momentum:

This is a weird song with a lot of different things going on musically! There’s actually a fair bit of melody buried under some pretty unconventional riffs. There’s definitely Opeth inspiration, particularly using layered clean vocals over some fast blasting. This technique was used on the Lotus Eater from “Watershed,” and I thought the synergy of the extreme and melodic was just super effective. Then you get this riff-heavy, hard rock break in the middle that taps into my love of all things 90s. The extended solo here is probably my favorite on the album, and the one I worked on the hardest.

Lyrically, it’s my angry rant about people seemingly devolving and falling into superstitious and conspiratorial beliefs while ignoring science and rational thinking.

4. Voids in the Ash:

Trevor: I wanted something a little more moody and slow, so that drove this song. I didn’t have any idea about what the vocals should sound like, so when Karl came back with this Soundgarden/Alice in Chains-esque melody for the verses, I realized he’d stumbled onto exactly what it needed. Yet again, the contrast of a dark melody with some unconventional riffs makes for a unique listen. Interestingly, the black-metal sounding blast beat parts were not originally intended to be fast, but Robin came up with the idea to go that direction, and the jarring jump from slow to fast was better than what I’d come up with, haha!

Karl: Voids in the Ash is a special track for me. The last one was written and recorded vocally for this record. The song is about Pompeii, told from the perspective of the people of Pompeii and the gods who hated them enough to bury them in ash.

5. Remnant:

Trevor: I honestly don’t remember a lot about what inspired the music on this one, other than my love of trying different things. It’s not too fast or progressive, but it has a lot of energy.

Karl: Remnant is about a man out hunting in the wilderness when a storm hits. His trail gets destroyed, and he hopelessly wanders until he finds salvation at a stranger’s cabin. He's taken in, fed, and then the storm picks up again, destroys the cabin, and everybody dies. No happy ending.

6. A Place in the Rot:

Trevor: We slow things down again here, and while it’s still heavy, the guitar parts are pretty melodic. The solo at the beginning was sort of an afterthought, but I think it works really well. I get the middle section stuck in my head a lot, which is hopefully an indicator that it’s cool.

The name of the song came from the Swamp Thing series; I’ve always been fascinated by how the Rot contrasts the Green (read the series for more info on what that means). But all I had was the title and no lyrics. I told Karl that’s where the name came from, and he replied, letting me know that he was a huge fan of the series and even had a Swamp Thing “Love and Death” tattoo! It further proved that he was the right choice for the band!

Karl: A Place in the Rot is about Swamp Thing and how our destiny is the soil. In the end, we all die, so live a good life!

7. The Apparition:

This is probably the heaviest song on the album. The main riff was inspired by early death metal—basically all the stuff that got me into extreme metal in the first place. But in typical Ashen Horde fashion, that leads right into a strange little riff with an odd rhythm and vaguely 70s feel (at least, that’s how I see it).

The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a ghost who sees people doing truly horrible things, but who is helpless to do anything about it. He wonders if it’s punishment for things he did in life, yet doesn’t recall what he did. Thus. He’s slowly going insane in his eternal prison.

8. The Harvest:

The music for this song was inspired by a trip I took to Iceland a few years ago. We were driving through the countryside, and the insane scenery: black beaches, glaciers, and an almost unearthly landscape, was just so awe-inspiring. I can’t explain exactly why it translated to these riffs, but it did! I didn’t realize it at the time, but I hear some definite influence from Demonaz’s album “March of the Norse.” Apparently, some subliminal inspiration crept in!

While I already knew I wanted to have a title track for the album, I wasn’t sure what the lyrics would be about. It wasn’t until I found the cover art that the idea finally came to light. Inspired by the red skeletons, I imagine an entity that’s watching humanity from the shadows, judging how awful and stupid we’ve become. At some point, when things have reached whatever the creature deems to be the absolute end of hope for humanity, it will emerge and devour everything. It’s really a metaphor for the bizarre tendency of humans to go out of their way to destroy themselves and the planet.

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