The St Louis progressive sludgecore demons A Dark Orbit are streaming their new album Inverted exclusively with Metal Hammer!
Pretty sweet, huh? Well vocalist Chad Kapper has also provided you with a very in-depth breakdown of all 15 tracks. You’re in for an emotional ride…
Weep To Water The Black Earth
“Weep for sure is one of those tracks that kick you in the teeth from the start and as it grabs you from the first hit, it never once lets go until the end as it throws your lifeless body off the cliff. It starts out with four heart beats and when it kicks in, it produces a lifeline that sets the tone of intensity for the album. It is a difficult song to play live, due to its speed and riffing that never lets up, especially for the vocals, since they follow that same pattern of craziness. But it’s full of emotion and you feel completely cleansed and liberated when it’s done.”
Surfacing
“A quieter track at the beginning that starts out with eight cymbal hits before its destructing opening riff, Surfacing takes a slower and sludgier approach to our heaviness. This track has a very dirty feel live and leaves a great impression on the crowd. It relies on our simplicity factor a bit more than the rest of the tracks, and ironically, becomes more heavy and engaging at times. The drums are monstrous at times and I love the feeling this track leaves coming out of Weep so early on in the album. I think it throws the listener for a loop, but pulls them in more with its trance-like riffs towards the middle. It provides a great numbness to the beating Weep left on you from the start.”
Alter
“I think this track has one of the best overall feels of the record. Lyrically it came to me easily and I found my patterns almost instantly. I also feel this track has some of the most unique guitar riffs as well. The best part is right in the middle, the track actually alters itself when I say ‘I’m altering.’ It makes the overall feel here more organic and true to the roots of the song meaning, which is about overcoming obstacles by a different vantage point or paradigm shift.”
They Rode The Heart Until It Spit Venom
“This track is one of only three tracks from the album that was written as a cohesive unit. It carries a lot of elements from all of us and has a very driving undertone that plays into the record well here by being placed where it is. It comes out of the sludgier ending of Alter and picks the speed of relentlessness back up feeding into that rollercoaster ride feel that Inverted possesses. I love this track live and its energy seems to leave the crowd a bit dumbfounded on what they saw or heard. I rather like that response. It makes me feel like we did our jobs correctly.”
Wavering
“This track seems to get the vote from most of us as the heaviest track on the record as a whole. Now I was doubtful on that statement up until when we started playing it live in rehearsals. It has so many different elements in it, that it comes across as a lot more punishing and emotional in comparison to some of the more obviously heavier tracks on Inverted. It has a real haunting intro riff, along with the synths being played and it just gives off a nasty vibe as it builds up to a great ending that is about as heavy as any ending we have ever written.”
Haunted Error
“A very sinister sounding track with probably the best overall structure. It’s subject matter is written well around the abundance of technology and its over-consuming existence into our daily lives and how it all consumes us. How it all rules us to make decisions without thinking. The end riff has a very Botch-like feel, like ghost machines are tearing us apart as I scream “There’s an error in this horrible machine. There’s an error in this robotic haunting.” I think it is my way of paying homage to technology’s ability to consume our actions and make us do things in a way like we are on an invincible level. But our remorse is a lasting stamp on a society that can re-live our stupidity at a push of a button and not forgive our human mistakes.”
Death Cult Philosophy
“This track sits up there with the approach Weep gave us as it comes barreling out of the gates at full steam ahead. This track features Corey Bennett of Bermuda and really blends his gruesome low end vocals with my mid-range raspiness very well. This track also features our guitarist John on the second verse with me. His voice is about as evil and visceral as I have heard, and I loved having him feature it more here. He blends in well with Corey in a way that it feels like an alter-ego of his voice at times. It then has a real cool bridge riff that slows down the feel of the track for a bit as it stretches out the song with more of our signature big chords and atmosphere. It gives the track the much-needed breather it deserves, but then it comes right back with the rage and ends on a huge build-up and a single note groove riff with such great low end and tone, that it could shake dust off the rafters with one pass. I think this song will end up being a crowd pleaser.”
Lore Of Ocean
“Lore was a song that was almost dropped last minute, but we decided to have it completely re-written. John did an amazing job on what he came up with, especially since it doesn’t even resemble anything from the old version. It is by far one of my most favourite tracks on Inverted and I think it does a complete 180 in its overall feel from beginning to end. It begins fast and empty in emotion, but ends with a slow atmospheric riff that is full and vast. The lyrics also fit that vibe as it is a song of life versus death in the way that innocence is crushed by living on the edge and letting blinded feelings of invincibility cloud your vision and decisions until it’s too late to reverse the outcome.”
Pretty Guts
“A filler track at first that became so much more on a grand scale with the amazing skills of Paul Green of Devil Sold His Soul/The Arusha Accord. This song is the shortest on the record, but probably the one that I listen to the most. The haunting melody and lyrics he came up with here are just epic. I feel he may have the Midas touch a bit, because he is just so versatile in his craft. The vocal harmonising that sound like synths in the background are actually all sang by John, which really made this track what it was before it had vocals. This for sure is the one track that as long as the right people are in the same building at once, needs to be done live. I feel it would be breathtaking.”
Zombiehawk
“This track title actually came to me as I was going outside of my work one day and I saw this overly intense and enormous hawk hunkered over a dead carcass as it was tearing away flesh like a crazed zombie. So you can see where this song got its name now. I even actually have a pic somewhere – it was unreal. It made it seem like a zombiehawk was here to rid evil at all cost. So I took this amazing track that John had written and didn’t really like, and persuaded him to keep it, so that I could put this mythical creature down on paper and help bring it to life. I also really loved that this track had a completely different feel with a jaw-dropping solo in it. It was so beautifully written, that I literally told John he had no choice in the matter and had to recreate the solo note for note perfectly when we recorded the final version. He nailed it and for that main reason, this is for sure one of my most favourite tracks on the record.”
Floating Intact
“Floating was picked as our first single off Inverted by Basick owner Barley (Nathan Phillips) since it showcased us in a way that was not only ear-catching, but also simplistic. It’s a great wide open track that gave me a ton of free range to take charge and get to spout off whatever I wanted to talk about. What came out was probably some of my most poetic, but poisonous and heart-felt thoughts yet. I am very proud about what we were able to create on a track that embodies so little riff wise. It has a great presence to it though and sets the tone immensely for the listener about what else Inverted has in store for them. I think it’s a good intro to anyone that is first discovering us since this track does tons of damage without really even scratching the surface. This will probably my new favourite track to play live once we start playing out again.”
Proper Skin
“A track that carries a great name is always a good start in my book. John came up with this name from the original version of this track before it was rewritten for the record. PS was another track, believe or not, that was probably going to be dropped off the final tracklist. I pleaded with John to keep it and he reworked the structure and riffs completely, and what came out was a sludgy masterpiece. I loved how John went back into creating this track from a different perspective and try to write music that challenged him to think differently. His emphasis more on huge chords really heightened other aspects of the album in a greater way, while successfully not making this song feel out of place.”
Horrible Mud
“Mud is that track that has every element of ADO wrapped into one big ball of sound and emotion. It has amazing groove, doom and atmospheric melody all encompassed in noise. It has tons of elements of surprise but still is able to go from extreme beauty to brutal in one balanced motion. It holds strong lyrical content as well that talks about our humanity’s issues of sitting back and waiting for something to happen, without being a go-getter like society needs you to be. Currently this is my most favourite track to play live and provides so much emotion in one full song. This was the second track of the three that was written as a full unit too, so all the members at the time made it as special as it turned out.”
New Age Sinkhole
“This song is just a beautiful track that has the ability to meld the entire album together. It showcases the more melodic side of ADO and allows more of the music to stand out as the vocals are held to a minimum for that very reason. This is the final track of the three tracks that were written as a cohesive unit, and the first song John wrote with ADO. The minimal lyrics used fit the overall mood and create a more poetic feel to the track. The atmosphere here is huge and epic and I don’t think Inverted would be complete without it.”
The Golden Purpose
“This final track is by far the best track we have that could end the record. It has probably the most dirty feel out of all the songs on Inverted and really seems like it was written to be that very track. The lyrics are commanding and full of rage. They came out so easily that it seemed like the song wrote them for me. John wrote some of the grimiest riffs that come together into the most god-awful ending destruction of a track that we may have ever written. The feel of this song is unlike anything we have done before and the whole album gets anchored like an exclamation point with the saying, “say it now, the golden purpose stands!” It then is followed up with a screeching harsh synth that sounds like an alarm calling the machines to war as it fades away. With a track this unique for us, we really can’t wait to hear how it is received when we actually play it live.”
Inverted is out now, via Basick Records
