When did the initial idea for your latest single come together?
It was a couple of years ago. I had song which never made it onto our last album, The Ashen Child, which came out 3 years ago. I wasn’t happy with the ideas in it, except for the chorus which I thought was very catchy. So, when I was thinking about an opener for the new album, The Devil’s Whisper, I remembered that chorus and I built the vocals melodies around that. It was only when I came up with the thrashing opening two riffs that I thought they would go really well with that chorus. The only thing I didn’t have was the groove riff leading in the verses which came much later.
How would you describe the track, to a reader that is unfamiliar with the band?
It’s thrashy in spots, has groove moments, has some chugging parts, is very melodic in the vocals, a super catchy chorus, a dash of lead guitar gymnastics and starts with a nursery rhyme; all packed into 6 minutes. Think Scar Symmetry having a baby with Kobra and the lotus, with some Megadeth thrown in. As one reviewer put it, “It flies along,” which was the intention.
Can you tell us a bit more about the meaning behind the track?
The music came way before the lyrics. We were short of lyric ideas at the time so I asked one of my previous collaborators, Hedgy, to write some words. He asked, “What’s it about?” To which my reply was simply, “A plague.” A couple of weeks later, he produced three pages of lyrics about a plague but from the plague’s point of view and how it affects everyone, hence the line in the chorus, “All the money from all the people can’t escape my Black Caress.” As a band, we love those short stories, writing lyrics from different perspectives, we don’t write about real world events etc… we’re just not that good at those types of things.
How would you say that the track compares to anything you’ve done before?
I think it’s as good as anything we’ve done before, in fact it’s one of my favourite tracks from our whole discography, top ten certainly. It contains all the traits The Spectre Beneath is known for. I don’t think we’ve crammed so many ideas into one of our previous fast ones, and it showcases everything we’re about.
What was the hardest part about putting it together, and why?
The length of it. The early demos clocked it in at nine minutes long until I took a knife to it. But then it was a headache of what to remove and what to leave in. The middle section was initially twice as long. I thought it was a really strong idea and I didn’t want to cut it, so I shaved as much as I could but kept the flavour of the original version and I think I succeed as the track does go to places you’re not expecting without it dragging.
Why should a reader check out the track?
It’s fast, full of energy and as catchy as hell without going down the growling vocals, too complex or overly poppy. If you want to know what The Spectre Beneath is about, Plague (The Black Caress) is a great example and a suitable place to start if you were thinking about checking out our discography.
What else can you tell us about the track, that we haven’t covered in this interview?
Initially, I had this brilliant idea of making the chorus a four-part counterpoint with the normal chorus over the top. I did a demo but it turned out to be a terrible idea as it sounded a complete mess, as it sounds like you were listening to several songs at once. In the end, I threw two of the vocal lines out and cut down the other two. In the finished chorus, you can hear what remains of the vocal lines but they simply provide support and a counterpoint to the main melody without them fighting each other.
