Track By Tracks: Mystical Death - Across (2026)
“Apophenia” – this song is one of the faster and more technical songs, but I really felt a fusion interlude would be fitting here. A very ethereal, spacey fusion interlude breaks open the song. The interlude starts gently but builds up in weirdness and complexity soon. The solo is me playing guitar on one channel and me half-playing, half-programming the exact same solo on synthesizer on another channel. Panned in the stereo field, and obviously not played exactly the same on both channels, the micro-differences create a very wide feeling. The lyrics deal with the number of people I encounter on social media and in real life who adamantly subscribe to various conspiracy theories. I have an academic background and surroundings, so I tend to approach things more rationally, and find it fascinating to see how some people try to make sense of the complex world we live in, and the incessant amount of information and disinformation we get bombarded with daily
“Laniakea” – this song is one of my two personal favourites. This song is to me the perfect Mystical Death song. It contains so much variety and prog influences yet remains aggressive and cohesive. I hope it takes the listener on a little journey musically. From thrashy death metal to saxophone-driven prog metal. This song is the first song I wrote for this album, and it was released as a single already before I signed with Rottweiler Records. This version, however, has a few added synthesizer lines, some redone drums, and a better mix and master. The title of the track is the Hawaiian name of the supercluster of galaxies that our Milky Way belongs to. The song describes my wonder at the unfathomable size of our universe.
“Inundant” – the slowest song of the album, one of the most intense songs. I’m especially fond of the opening riff, the slightly bent chord. I stole that from somewhere but can’t remember from where; I think maybe Ulcerate. I’m admittedly not much of a solo guitar player, but this album contains a few solos I’m satisfied with, given my limitations. This song contains one of them. I also really like how the prog interlude that contains the solo worked out. I used a couple of quirky freeware choir plugins that are not traditional classical choirs, and it worked out well.
“Lacerate” – one of the fastest and most aggressive songs of the album. I finished this song the very last, and perhaps part of the fatigue-turned-frustration is audible here. Also, the lyrics are the most brutal and deal with a terrible subject, being animal testing. I am unfortunately very much informed about the subject, and yes, it has brought great progress, but at a terrible cost. I’ve read scientific research papers, seen official academic video footage and photographs that have kept me awake for weeks. Mankind could easily reduce the number and kind of experiments drastically by stopping testing for anything other than medical purposes bar lifestyle-diseases, sharing all data results in a standardized format worldwide, and shifting the enormous budgets from the animal testing industry towards research into alternatives and a few other measures.
“Empathy” – the intro is something I wrote probably more than thirty years ago. I was playing it on a regular guitar, and it blended very well with the guitar I use for Mystical Death, which is tuned in B flat standard. So I thought, why not? It is the longest song and arguably the most progressive one as far as odd meters and difficult accents go, etc. The main attraction here, of course are the saxophone parts. I found a saxophone player on the Fiverr platform and gave him a broad description of what I wanted. I picked him because I knew he was that good and he would make it happen, which he did. He sent me four incredible takes, but the first one of both sections was the best. Although I did use two snippets from another take. The lyrics deal with love and empathy from various perspectives: biological, psychological and theological.
“Kurtosis” – one of the more technical songs, with a neo-classical flavour. The song is relatively progressive in terms of accents and meters and variety, etc. I’m not the best nor the fastest of guitar players, and when I play faster riffs, I usually switch from wrist motion to forearm motion. So, some of the faster riffs took more takes than I would have liked. The lyrics deal with powers that use social media to influence the general public, paid troll armies on both sides of the fence, etc. I was on the internet in the eighties already, and I’ve seen it evolve from a mostly great network of academics, governments, etc. to the thing it has become now. People will swallow anything just because ‘Facebook says so’ and various powers know and use this.
“Across” – the title track in which I tried to compose a progressive, intensive mid-tempo song with a catchy chorus. Very much Scar Symmetry-style I think. Next to the aggressive harsh vocals of David, this song also contains Vivi’s vocals in the chorus, and mine ran through a vocoder. This is the second song of the album that contains a guitar solo that I’m content with. Again, I’m not a great soloist, but the final solo of this song came out with too much thinking and I was surprised myself. Full of arpeggios and tapping. The lyrics are a play on the word ‘across’ and the phrase ‘a cross,’ and touch upon my belief in Jesus showing us a better way to life, the only way, in fact, Jesus being The Way.
“Thalassa” – this is my other favourite song on the album. It contains all the ingredients I like for a Mystical Death song in a compact, coherent package. The song starts off with a nod to Allan Holdsworth and then an intensive arrangement follows and another fusion interlude. Vixi’s and my vocoder vocals appear as well. A traditional classical choir plugin helped to enhance the mood as well. The lyrics deal with faith and doubt, and use Biblical metaphors comparing Peter walking on the Sea of Galilee with me navigating the storms of life.
“Voyagers”- an instrumental track which, on hindsight, shows how much I am influenced by prog metal bands like Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me. Especially their older work, not that I play in their league, of course. I like the solo where again I play more or less similar notes as a synthesizer, which uses an organ sound this time. The title and samples allude to astronauts taking off into space and starting their voyage to beyond, across.
“Sanctum”- the orchestral closer of the album. Right after the previous EP, something went wrong with my iLok device and I lost a large orchestral library. During the recording of this album, I bought new orchestral software and a few solo string plugins as well. I wanted to close the album with something tranquil, something sacred, if you will. To round everything up, bring musical closure.
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