This song was supposed to be the first song that plays after the intro. Well, we did compose the intro but we never recorded it... so if you feel like the start of this song is very abrupt, now you understand why.

As the album's opening full length song, we wanted to ensure it sets the right mood for the rest of the album: dark, melancholic, feelings of sorrow and despair. For many people, music is something joyful to dance to. In our case it has always been about healing by emotionally connecting with what's deep inside, even when that's torment and desolation.

Demo

We don't remember how the idea to integrate tribal music elements came up, but we remember it went smoothly (for a change!) with both of us agreeing to do this. We tried to give this song a bit of a "tropical twist", but not the kind where you sip a Piña Colada under a coconut tree while holidaying at an idyllic resort surrounded by turquoise waters... more like the one where you're enthralled to be invited to watch a ceremonial dance but then it evolves into cannibalistic rituals and it becomes apparent you're actually the meal. For historical accuracy, it must be pointed out that while cannibalism has been observed in many places in the South Pacific such as Fiji, West Papua and French Polynesia, it was not the case of Samoa. That said, the latter still provided a good pun for the title (the only song with sort of one).

This is a really slow (and lengthy) song divided in multiple parts:

00:00 to 02:25 - a walk through the village (this part is there to simply set the tone - in retrospect, it could have been shortened)

02:25 to 04:05 - tribal dancers are getting ready, spears are being polished, torches are set alight, it looks a little ominous but you're excited

04:05 to 06:55 - everyone is gathered around the dancers, the ceremony starts, you're captivated, you've never seen anything like this before

06:55 to 10:05 - you wonder why everyone keeps looking at you, a sudden feeling of unease arises... oh! Did that person just drink out of an engraved human skull?

10:05 to 11:40 - you're forcefully grabbed, you fight back, try to escape and manage to run into the jungle but you're wounded and don't make it far, you know the fate that awaits you

11:40 to 12:25 - the cannibal tribe cooks then voraciously feasts on the meal (you), nothing is wasted

12:25 to end - the aftermath of the ordeal, the fire slowly extinguishes, the smoke vanishes as the wind picks up, the orange sky is turning black as the sun disappears on the horizon

3 / "Sa(d)Moan Lullaby"

This one alternates fairly heavy riffs with much softer acoustic parts. The reggae-inspired part provides a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dark and melancholic song. The song culminates with a sorrowful Rhodes piano melody and a heavily-reverbed guitar's wailing scream of despair. If you are after something upbeat, this song is clearly not what you are looking for.

The start may sound a little abrupt, but this is because it was supposed to connect with the end of Track 4, which was never recorded or even completed...

This song is a little peculiar. It originated from a jam session with Saad Moumtaz, another friend I knew from high school and fellow Katatonia fan who was keen to add his personal touch and vocals to some of our songs. Unlike the others, this song was therefore written with a slightly more standard structure "verse / chorus / verse / chorus".

But then Saad went to Norway... and literally disappeared from the surface of the Earth shortly after, even closing down his Facebook account, the only means we had to keep in touch back then. We never had the chance to record any vocals... but the intro and chorus are based on his ideas.

PS: I wanted to reconnect with him and searched for him for a while in vain. I sincerely hope Saad is well and would be glad to hear from him after more than a decade without any news. If anyone has been in touch with him anything, please let me know.

8 (Feat. Saad M.)

CorroDead was a short-lived musical project founded by then uni students Reda F & Sami T and that was active between 2006-2008. The pair had been friends since high school and had jammed quite a few times before the idea to team up and create music together came to their minds. At that time, both were heavily into dark, ambient and slow music such as post-rock, darkwave, doom metal, post-metal and drone metal. Naturally, their inspiration came from bands such as Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Long Distance Calling, Katatonia, Anathema, Cult Of Luna and Opeth. But they wanted their sound to be novel, not merely replicate what had already been done by others. As such, they combined the approaches from all the music genres they were into then went a step further and subtly added elements from totally unrelated genres, including reggae, electronica, orchestral and ethnic music which, more often than not, provided an endless source of debate between the two (stubborn) friends.

Some of the things on which the pair never reached an agreement include the name of the project itself. Even the songs that were recorded (and uploaded here) were supposed to be "demos for internal use only", they are not final versions due to unresolved disagreements on some parts. However, it is now 2020 and Sami and I have been 17,000 km away from each other for quite a few years now so I figured that the chances of anything happening is practically zero (us old-schoolers don't use the cloud!). That's why I've decided to share our music with the rest of the world and, hopefully, for others to enjoy. In retrospect, there are quite a few things we would certainly do differently now but we won't blame the 20 y.o. kids we were at that time for not having the same outlook and experience as we have now.

PS: we never agreed on how to call our songs either, we simply referred to them by numbers hence the weird names...