When we started writing new songs, we didn’t quite know what the lyrical themes would be. One thing was clear: the album will not be a conceptual piece and will not tell one story. We had just finished „Journey of a Dead Man“, and even though the creative process was a relatively easy one, we wanted to give ourselves more freedom. This freedom would be limited if we had chosen to do a conceptual (one story) album.
One day Modestas brought a riff to the rehearsal which would become the first one of „The Day I Grew Old“. The energy it had clicked with our wish to write an intense death metal-ish song. We wrote most of it and… put it to rest. Something was wrong. Something was missing. The main reason I lost interest in the song was that I didn’t quite know what it was about. What part lies under this beat, what idea is under this melody? Simply „sounds good“ isn’t good enough. There has to be something deeper, something more. Otherwise it becomes boring to me, and it’s almost impossible to accompany the music when you’re out of ideas. I did not realise that at the given time and I was frustrated that the new material of “Juodvarnis“ did not please me. Almost all of the songs written back then were put to rest in a computer folder. Then I started realising that if I wanted to be happy with what I do, I had to be completely honest with my work and to myself as well. I had lost all interest in reconstruction. Myths, legends and fantasy are all nice and have greatly influenced our first two albums, but by this time they did not resonate with me at all. If I hadn’t realised that I needed to sing about things that were happening now around me and in the world, I greatly doubt that the third album would ever be born. This realisation brought back the joy in songwriting and opened the gates to new ideas.
After writing three or four songs we decided to play the “Blaaast“ again (that was the working title of “The Day I Grew Old“). In an instant it was clear what needs to improve and what the lyrics are going to be about. Just like that this song became one of our favorites! A lot of shit was stirring in our lives back then. I was extremely angry, I wanted to yell at everyone, I wanted conflict. Maybe that’s why this song has zero clean singing. From all of this came one of the most aggressive of “Juodvarnis” songs. It worked as a lightning-rod grounding all my anger. I hope that I can do the same for somebody else. What to expect from the song? Intensity, energy, a lot of blast beats and guitars.
Paulius
