Eradication - Dreamer's Passage
Track by track commentary by Mikko Gynther
1. Both original and new version of Nightmares deal with supernatural dreams that blend with reality. The original lyrics were extremely vague and didn't actually say much at all so a major rewrite was required. Mikko and Ville also collaboratively wrote a story spanning all songs on Dreamer's Passage.
Nightmares features many parts originally composed by Olle which explains prominent keyboards in the song. Chorus and a slow middle part were added by Mikko. In the original version parts sounded somewhat unrelated which was improved by using and developing some ideas over several different parts. Also hasty transitions in the original version were rearranged thoroughly making the song much more continuous.
People commented that the original guitar solo in the slow middle part was too short and it's considerably longer in the new version. In addition the solo continues over the following riff simplified to a point where it becomes more of a melody instead of a conventional guitar solo. This kind of compositional continuity is typical to recent Eradication pieces.
2. Anger bears a similar structure to Nightmares. It starts with a moderately long intro, progresses into verse and chorus and features a long instrumental section before returning to verse. Anger, however, features even more tempo and time signature changes and less repetition.
Guitar solos played a major role in the original version of Anger and they are even more prominent in the new one. Actually there's more solos than vocals in the song although the solos are partly extended with simple melodies similarly to Nightmares. Even in the early days of the band we often chose somewhat unconventional song structures if they came naturally and it hasn't changed.
Lyrics were almost fully rewritten to be able to continue the story started on Nightmares. Although the original also dealt with bitter loss and upset the new one takes a grim turn by bringing up death and suicide. We kept most of the rhythm of the vocal line but shifted it up to suit Ville's voice better. There's also quite a bit more variation in the guitar and bass parts. The original version seemed to lose intensity in the second and final verse so we added a modulation and decided to cut the chorus short after having already finished all the relevant bits of the story.
3. Unlike Nightmares and Anger, Slumber is a brand new song composed in 2016. After deciding to record new versions of Nightmares and Anger we didn't have a suitable song to complete the EP. Also a new song enabled us to tell a story with the lyrics without having to rewrite everything although a lot was changed anyway. To get the right feel for Slumber Mikko wrote the music spontaneously like he used to do in the early 2000's which is fairly different from later, much more elaborate approach most prominent on Intervention. Many parts in Slumber resemble parts from our old songs, one even predates the whole band, and we also pay clear tribute to our early idols like we used to do back in the day.
Slumber starts as slow and haunting but there's a few tempo changes to make it interesting. Most vocal parts are in double time compared to the opening riff to get the song going but lyrics maintain the dark mood by depicting hopeless immoral afterlife. In the middle of the song there's a rest and a riff is introduced in a new tempo and triplet feel in style of early heavy and speed metal. To give Dreamer's Passage a bit more up to date Eradication feel the ending of Slumber features less strictly tonal lines for violin and fretless guitar which suits returning to the gloomy mood of the opening riff.
