Interview with guitarist Scott Carstairs | By Sean Gonzalez
Undying Light sparks a new era for the San Francisco technical death metal act Fallujah. After a slew of successful dark, atmospheric releases, the new album is packed with more aggression, emotion, and bursts of energy in its 45-minute runtime.
Undying Light saw the light of day on March 15 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Fallujah’s new sonic period is marked by new vocalist Antonio Palermo taking the reins with an onslaught of visceral vocals. “When we began the writing process for the album, we definitely wanted the vocalist to not only be able to technically sound good but also be able to convey the emotion that is contained within the music itself,” guitarist Scott Carstairs comments. “Working together on this new record was a great experience. We pushed each other to grow as musicians and writers. I think the chemistry we had as a group led to one of the best performances Antonio has ever had on a record.”
Palermo’s performance across the 10 songs is dynamic to the point that his howls leave impact craters on the atmosphere of sound. Closing track “Departure” finds the vocalist matching the bombastic drumming in intensity, personifying the final moments of the record as a frustrated, fire-breathing figure airing his qualms with humanity.
These lyrics expressing disillusionment with modern life are embedded everywhere on the album. From the cover art’s interpretation of humans being hypnotized and unable to reach the light to the deep dive of its ideas, Undying Light presents a lyrical field of relatable abstracts. This theme is built perfectly into the sound of the fourth track, “Dopamine.” Carstairs expands, “The lyrical content of the song talks about society and its growing apathetic culture, subduing ourselves with instant gratification, hypnotized by windows of light.”
The song’s instrumentals explode into a headbanging groove that fluctuates between hypnosis and aggression. The verses feature a pounding rhythm section with floating guitars, allowing for the listener to be subdued by the trancelike nature of the tune. The sound fits the lyrical content in a way that Fallujah have not mastered before. “I think, with this track, we really wanted to experiment with different instrument arrangements while maintaining the heavy trancelike vibe of the song,” Carstairs explains. “One of my favorite sections in this song is when everything drops out except the bass, vocals, and drums. It creates a type of atmosphere we haven’t worked with before.”
Fifth track “The Ocean Above” is led by an extraordinary jazz section that gives listeners a break from the pervasive technical metal grooves. The drums find a bubble of extensive patterns that add another dynamic to the song’s airy pulse. Carstairs mentions that instrumentals like these are “a testament to the ebb and flow we try to incorporate in our music to help it breathe within the context of the album.”
Another instance is the sixth song “Hollow,” which is full of dynamic stop-and-go that helps instill a larger-than-life feeling, “all while still maintaining a melancholic dreamlike atmosphere,” according to Carstairs.
Ultimately, Undying Light seeps into listeners, taking them on a journey, and Fallujah are not afraid to unmask the gratifying elements of writing an album that is organically built upon the collusion of humanity’s failings.
