I mentioned I'd write a post before the release date. This is that post. And tomorrow is the release date.
The next Sequester album is titled Cosmic Considerations.
You'll find it December 6th in all the usual places, such as Spotify and Bandcamp.
(It's actually live now on Spotify, depending on your country, due to how they deal with time zones.)
The lyrics have already been added here to the website, and the Releases section has been updated as well.
Regarding inspiration this time around, you might recognize tracks 4, 6, and 7.
Track 4 (Egg): Based on the amazing short story "The Egg" by Andy Weir. You can read it freely on his website, or Kurzgesagt also did a neat animated video adaptation a few years ago that's on YouTube.
Track 6 (Heartsbeat): This would be referring to Doctor Who. More specifically, the idea of fixed points in time, or the "burden of the Time Lords," and knowing that these moments can never be changed despite how tragic they might be. And no, that's not a typo (two hearts).
Track 7 (Pillars of Eternity): A nod to Obsidian's game series of the same name. This instrumental is somewhat of a throwback to the first album's closer, Icewind Dale; I thought that parallel would be appropriate given the nature of these games, and the connection between Obsidian Entertainment and the former Black Isle Studios.
While I will, as per usual, leave the rest up to interpretation, I would like to comment on track 3: "Venus by Tuesday." This obviously outs me as a long-time lurker of the Collapse subreddit, if you're familiar with the meme there, but it is a topic that's close to home. Here is some data for those not too familiar with my provincial news:
6,450,650 hectares have burned here in British Columbia between 2017 and 2023. To put that size into scale, it would be like the entirety of West Virginia or Sri Lanka on fire.
While 2024 isn't over yet, it has shaped up to be another terrifying year with more than a million hectares lost.
In the summer of 2021, a "heat dome" lead to one of our towns, Lytton, literally burning to the ground as temperatures reached nearly 50°C (122 F). (And now look at what happened to Jasper, AB.)
Then near the end of that same dreadful year, we had to face an "atmospheric river," which resulted in mass flooding and the tragic loss of thousands of animals.
Where I live, the spring and autumn seasons have greatly diminished over the years, as we now mostly jump straight from winter to summer and back again.
Needless to say, with business as usual being the only plan on the agenda, I am not too optimistic about the future and haven't been for some time. Here's hoping for a benevolent ASI emerging in the coming years?
Anyway, you can consider this song as a space rock anthem to our potential demise, if it do ya fine. (Yes, yer bugger -- I recently finished the Dark Tower series, and the slang is infectious.)
So there's your downer for the day. If you've been listening to my music for long, however, then you are likely used to the melancholy by now; I remember reading on reddit a number of years back that someone referred to me as "probably the gloomiest dude in power metal" during a recommendation thread, which got a chuckle out of me. I can't say they're wrong, other than perhaps the ongoing question as to which genres I belong in. I believe that you can still hear all my influences on each release, just to varying degrees. The prog and psych aspects are fairly consistent, but my teetering back and forth between something like heavy/power/thrash metal and then alternative/grunge/stoner rock really just depends on the song. I like to think that dynamic is what makes Sequester what it is, for better or worse.
I am overall incredibly pleased with how Cosmic Considerations turned out. I also really like the duration: six songs plus one instrumental outro track. It felt like the perfect amount to work on and listen to. This structure will be the aim going forward, should any more be made. As of right now, I have 355 demo riffs and counting on my computer (though that also includes those already used), so there is no shortage of ideas for future songs.
You may not hear from me for a while, but I'll let you all know when the next release is nigh, providing the world hasn't ended yet, of course. (There you go -- one last jab of doom-and-gloom on my way out, may it please ya.)
Thank you for listening.
