THE KNIFE
People fade in and out of your life, like a broken cycle. You build walls to protect yourself, but they always find a way in to wound all over again. Their blades leave no physical debris, but deep scars which nobody sees. Dealing with invisible pain, your brain begins to circle itself like a vulture, picking away until you’re driven mad.
VAST MURMUR
We’re all born with open minds and open hearts—agog at a vast world with so much potential, hope and awe. Yet life is entropy, each year tarnishing wonders, dulling taste buds, clouding our eyes. Life takes, always. Defense becomes second nature, our emotions become beautiful weapons against the cruelties of the world and the people within it, always taking, always wanting, no matter what the cost. The universe we build inside ourselves is as real as the one outside; perhaps one day we might become so flayed by the outer that the inner will gush forth, raw and perfect.
Never did I
Why do we always wear masks…? To avoid communication? To hide ourselves from others? You can gaze into someone’s face and never know the real them. What sacrifices must I make to get inside? How will I know if they're right?
MIND TEARS
Trying to survive in a world where others see you as too dark, too negative, but all you see is the truth they cannot give voice to. Taking belief and energy from the stars, the moon, the cosmic void all around us, all I can do is continue marching. Am I foolish, or is it foolish to exist as a human? We all suffer in this world—everyone’s wings get clipped.
SLITSKIN
Not only an anthem to bodily autonomy, but also an anthem to being comfortable with yourself, while at the same time feeling trapped. We cannot escape judgement, from external or internal sources. Yet no one will ever wear your skin. Only you have your path. It’s your story to tell, but the pages are becoming brittle...
Hex (THE SPELL)
Musically, this song has a lot of inspiration from ‘80s legends Book Of Love, especially “Boy”; it’s such a bright, poppy song entirely about frustration that could be read as body dysmorphia, yet the end finds those frustrations given over to acceptance and a reclamation of power. The lyrics were inspired by experiences with bullies and abusers, who love having power over others. I’ve suffered and known many who’ve suffered from these inexecrable monsters, been wounded or crippled emotionally. The only way to defeat such demons is to reverse the flow of power. Take back what is yours—your control, your name, your body and mind. Darken their skies, and give them only what they already had: sorrow.
Only DEAD FISH
The ultimate query in life—and one I think many do not even think about, because it has been beaten into them unconsciously since birth—are we our own drummer? Do we forge our own paths and swim the tides, waves and winds…or do we just flap on as it carries us, following what everyone else does and not caring if it’s right or wrong? Do we take the risk of thinking for ourselves and maybe succeeding, or just become as cold and numb as a dead fish?
iNNARDS
Wounds may close, but that doesn’t mean they’re healed. We are always inside ourselves, where black and white do not exist—floating in a soup of gray. Our touch affects others, always. We cannot move through this world without gutting it.
Road Of Thousand Tears
Singing in both English and en español, I took inspiration for ‘Road Of Thousand Tears’ from my ancestry and the suffering path of the Trail of Tears. The creation of the song that would become the album’s title went a surrealist route, because life is surreal. Is it even real? This is my journey, all of the steps I’ve taken with Bestial Mouths. It is a path that has taken me down a Carrollian rabbit hole, past lives recycled through a meat grinder. Connections are broken, strands of reality disconnected from their whole. Elements of the past bleeding into the Now, stripped of context to create only raw wounds in existence—like half-remembered fragments of melody, once pulsing with life and now devoid of meaning.