March 2018 Update

Hard to believe it has been a year since the last update. Time really flies.
I still have three songs worth of vocals to record, but otherwise everything else is done (including all the lyrics and the artwork). The release will be within a few months at any rate, likely in June.

Here's the track list:

Hermit

1. Safe in Obscurity
2. Bloodborne
3. The Boy Who Lived
4. The Black Company
5. Forgotten Ones
6. Magicant
7. Dead Man's Switch
8. Means of Comfort
9. Augment

1 and 8 I'll leave to interpretation, but the rest are pretty identifiable.
Game-wise, there's 2 (Bloodborne), 5 (Torment: Tides of Numenera), 6 (EarthBound), and 7 (Shadowrun Returns). Number 9 shares themes with Deus Ex, but I wouldn't say that was necessarily a direct influence; more so the notion of aging as a disease and how man's potential immortality could be achieved through biotech.
Book-wise, there's 3 (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), and 4 (the first book of Glen Cook's series of the same name).

While I try to pay homage to inspirers from various chapters of my life, I'd say 3 and 6 are the more nostalgic songs on this album. Generally, my most-played games are strategy related, having started with Civilization around '92 (well shit... seems I'm getting old); however, it has always been those story-rich RPGs like EarthBound that first come to mind when it's time for writing lyrics, as such were the stories that sparked my childhood imagination the most. EarthBound was actually the first RPG I ever owned, which I craved for my ninth birthday due to schoolyard and Nintendo Power hype. I remember us looking all over town and, just before defeated resignation, finally finding it at a Canadian Tire of all places-- that giant box with the included player's guide sitting high on top of a glass case.
And a few years afterward, I have Rowling to thank for really getting me into reading novels. Prior to that, it would have been just the occasional Goosebumps or Animorphs. And comics, but those are still on the menu.

Anyway, this will be the last update since once the vocals are all tracked the album will be released shortly thereafter, as I've been iteratively mixing along the way so there shouldn't be too much work left to do at that point. See you then.