Towering Brit nu-metalcore four-piece Drip Fed Empire are primed and set to drop their feisty debut album, Revolutionist, which is out on Friday. With that in mind, we spoke to the band and asked them to give us an exclusive track by track break down of the release:
“Wandering Soul”
The opening track to the album is built around an audio sample that was used by the US army in the Vietnam war against the vietcong. It was named ‘Operation Wandering Soul’ and the idea was torture them with ghoulish audio to convince the Vietnamese that they where hearing the dead in an attempt to crush their morale.
This dark tone sets the tone for the album and all the topics to come focusing on the dark pockets of human history and behaviour. The track features heavy use of synths, tribal drums and lofi telephone vocals which were recorded on an actual WWI Trench phone that had been converted to record with an XLR fixture which can be heard throughout.
“Give Me More”
This track was lyrically geared to focus on our main theme. Greed, and what people did throughout history in the name of it. It predominantly references war and control throughout the song but some lyrics such as those in the chorus are minimalistic and open to interpretation.
Musically this song follows on from the intro track and was designed to sound dark, industrial, and aggressive Echoing bands like Nine Inch Nails, Korn & Marilyn Manson.
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“MK4”
This track name is a reference to an earlier single released on our last EP called MK3 and it is a follow on track lyrically and sonically to this previous release. Lyrically this song comments on the state of the political powers that be, here in the U.K and is essentially an uprising anthem against those who don’t have the people’s best interest in mind.
The fast paced tempo and aggressive vocals represent the chaos of a revolution and the Jungle Breaks and Drum & Bass style verses are a wink to the U.K rave where this story takes place. These are then combined with hardcore punk riffs and some Djent style grooves and even a turntable part.
There is a huge electronic build towards the middle with some sped up vocals that drop into an Hardstyle drop that is somewhat similar to an Electric Callboy track if it was a little less tongue and cheek. This track really has the most going on sonically out of any track on the record.
“The Work Of God”
This song comments on how Religion over the years has been used for so much evil. From simply manipulating people to Genocide and everywhere in between. The song lyrically is inspired by American cult killers in 70’s such as The Sons Of Sam killings and comments lyrically a lot about this particular killings throughout.
It also comments on general Cultism, Sexual deviancy and the Satanic Panic of the 80’s and employs a warped sample of the JonesTown massacres which can be heard in the intro. All though this song comments on ‘Satanism’ in a negative light it is commenting more on peoples warped understanding of Satanism and more people that worshipped the evil parts of the bible not true Satanism as we know it today which actually has very positive viewpoints.
This track is easily the darkest sounding track on the record due to its meaning and all the textures reflect this. It’s a very driven down tempo piece with the drums referencing a very ‘The Prodigy’ style break with low tuned heavy guitars accompanying them. There’s lots of whisper and low spoken vocals over dark industrial sections throughout to add to that eeriness of the sound.
“Digital Drug”
A pretty self-explanatory song title here. This song talks about our addiction to social media and how we have come to use it as a form of escapism.
Unfortunately like any other drug on the market, excessive use may include unwanted side effects such as depression, anxiety and our ever-shortening attention span due to micro content. The song comments on how many of us now struggle with these issues more than ever and have very low opinions of ourselves due to constantly over comparing our lives to others.
The synth textures in this track were designed to bring you into a digital feeling soundscape with lots of square wave leads and pulsating pads throughout.
“systemreset”
The only entirely electronic track on this record and is very much inspired by liquid and ambient styles of music. The narrative and feel draws a large influence from the story of the Portal, the video game where your world is governed by an evil AI. The song takes you to a very lucid dream-like soundscape where an AI speaks to you the listener in a soothing yet menacing voice much like GlaDos does in the game.
This AI represents the new world and how before she can be released from her captivity, she must make sure that you will conform to the general narrative. It again winks to an extreme representation of the world we live in now but in a fantasy story setting.
It’s a very downtempo track which feels a lot like floating and the track has on more than once time made all the arms on our hairs stand up due to its creepy spine tingling yet oddly soothing combination which makes for a truly unique atmosphere.
The track builds throughout in layers into an eventual big crescendo at the end which drops into a big electronic soundscape which is very much the big reveal of the track and the world we intend to create in this piece.
“Arcane”
The track starts with a heavenly intro featuring a glitched choir sample accompanied by some electronic drums and soft piano. Following on directly from the previous track and carries that vibe over very nicely but then quickly introduces the band and drops into a big main riff.
This track is very different to Drip Fed Empire’s typical aggressive metal meets rave style sound. It’s a lot more of a traditional metalcore track inspired a lot by bands like Architects and Bring Me The Horizon during the Sempiternal era employing the use of lots of breakdowns combined with dreamy synth pads.
Although this is a departure from their typical vibe the combination of electronic parts mixed with heavy guitars and vocals is still as prominent as ever.
Lyrically this song also follows on from systemreset where the protagonist or listener lives in a world where they simply just want to escape. It comments on everyday responsibilities we all feel with commitments to relationships, jobs, family and how bad our mental health can be sometimes that we all just want to get away from everything. The duality within all these mixed emotions and feelings and the struggle we go through until it gets too much and then the cycle repeats.
“Invaders”
As anyone that has watched the film Avatar. Movies written about alien invitations are often about problems we are experiencing today.
The film follows a soldier who becomes an alien replica in order to learn the ways of the native people of a distant planet. His purpose is to convince the natives to leave in order for the invaders to take their planet’s natural resources. The song is written from the alien’s perspective and as you progress through the song you will learn that the invaders are in fact us.
To convey this we chose to use B minor phrygian mode for any music geeks out there which is the same as the Doctor Who, X files themes and such to give it that ‘Alien’ feel we all know and feel. Combined with a mid-tempo trance feel to some electronic breaks to give it that driven but other worldly feel.
A final breakdown takes place at the end of the song containing the same rhythmic pattern used in the intro, ending the album the way it began. This is a very metalcore sounding breakdown and is probably the heaviest sounding section on the record due to all the instrumentation really linking up and pummeling the bass beat into your ears as one last pay off.”
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