I'm proud to release an ultimate thrashterpiece of a song that's been in the works for about two years now! Even before releasing my first solo harmonic rock song, I've been writing a wide variety of different music, and one was this thrash song. I had this full song written on bass in 2023, but I was hearing it in my head with full metal band instrumentation, not only bass but guitar, vocals, drums. I reached out to one of my favorite fellow independent artists, guitarist/vocalist Evaleigh, for a collaboration and thankfully he was up to it and I'm really proud of both of us for how well it turned out. It was a real step out of my comfort zone reaching out to another artist, and my first time collaborating on a song with someone like this (outside sending my friend Windsock some bass samples to use here and there). I'm so glad I did and had a lot of fun working together, suggesting different things to add, sending recordings back and forth, and here's to the new independent creative renaissance that's been awakening these past few years!
My cover art for this song is also a huge milestone, it was the first time I've done inking and coloring simultaneously after my penciling (and first time I've used inks and color at all in an album cover for that matter!). I've been wondering for a while now how to retain the sketched quality and textures that I get from pencils into inks, and I learned that this is one way to do it! I really like how it turned out, especially the stark contrasts between lines and fire/water element. I was going for a German Expressionist style, but with the added colors it reminds me a bit of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints and the Icelandic illustrations of the Prose Edda. I've been really resonating with the fire and water elements lately, especially those beautiful teal blues like I used here. The balance between igniting the flame of your heart and riding the waves of your emotions and intuition and reaching into the unknown. To quote one of my original lyrics for the song "Like a viking sailing across the Northern seas, exploring lands unknown. A journey within, the seas of my soul".