Album: Annihilation Of The Wicked (2005)

Spawn Of Uamenti


[Music by Karl Sanders]

[Instrumental]

[This instrumental came about in one of those completely impossible-to-plan ways. I had been monkeying [sic] around with detuning some French Horns, Tympani and implausibly overblown subterranean reverb, trying to create something "underworldish", maybe to use as an intro for "Annihilation of the Wicked". When I put that down to work on the lyrics to "Sacrifice Unto Sebek", I decided to search the Internet and see if I could find something relevant revelant on some of the historical type web pages.

I stumbled across a web page that had actual recordings (amongst many reptiles) of several varieties of crocodiles, Nile Monitors and Komodo Dragons, each with labels such as "Nile Monitor - aggressive territorial warning", "Bull Crocodile - mating roar", "African Monitor - slithering sounds", et cetera. So, of course, I grabbed as many as I could, probably about 20 assorted WAV files. I thought, well, now what? Where am I going to use these sounds? With the blast beats and wall of guitars in "Sacrifice Unto Sebek", these sounds would neer be heard if used in that song. Then it dawned on me, why not use them for the other piece I had put aside?

After experimenting with juxtaposing these various reptillian sounds - slithering, crawling, fighting, mating and what-not - against more orchestral-type sounds, the mix featured this evil quality that effectively built tension in such a creepy, eerie way. This reminded me of "The Terrible Monster Reptiles", referred to in the descriptions of the domain of Seker, that crawled around in the mists of the underworld. These horrific, demonic giant lizards and serpents are kept in chains, enslaved to the servants of the god Seker - the name of one of which is "Uamenti".

"Spawn of Uamenti" was not complete until I found some rattling chains sound, which provided a nice compliment to the piece's preternatural atmosphere. I mixed the rattling sounds in, and took the resulting monstrosity to band practice the same evening. Once again, I played it for the guys who gave it a collective horns up!]