Montreal thrash-core stalwarts BornBroken unleashed its debut CD/unorthodox prescription The Healing Powers of Hate last week. The band’s mission? “Help the masses find a voice, a face, an ‘X’ that marks the spot through the sounds of beating skins, metal strings and broken chords.” Check out the pummeling rager of a title track below, along with a little track by track insight from guitarist Mike Decker…
1. “Can’t Quiet the Riot”
The disc opens up with the noise of the bustling streets. The sounds of the city can sometimes be comforting, but for him, all it did was drive him a little madder. You see, when the voices start talking you eventually start to listen and loose trust in what you believe. This was actually one of last songs we wrote for the concept album and seemed fitting to be the first. We wanted a straightforward no-BS style song, which seemed to lend more to a hardcore feel for us as a band. It still had to make a statement, as it is our opening track off our debut album. It ends with an almost dreamlike feel — Simon and I came up with it in his kitchen one night — that gets abruptly interrupted, by the daily. Simon watched close to thirty movies to find TV news segments, which while in studio, we opted to use sound bank snippets instead so as not to infringe on anybody’s rights.
2. “Old News”
“Old News” is the second song we wrote as a band over four years ago and seemed to always never feel complete until we got to the studio. The song starts off very aggressively as it all relates to what we feel on a daily basis waking up to a barrage of headlines, which never seem to portray the light at the end of the tunnel. The feeling of having our freedom being spoon fed to us by “Big CORP,” didn’t give him much to look forward to, especially with those voices always taking center stage. We like to groove and this song makes sure you get a taste of what you are about hear over the course of the CD.
3. “ Anger of the Day”
“Today is the day, I love to hate!” spoken, opens up this song. Very quickly we spin the song into and old school thrash/speed metal style pace and try to make it feel like the rush of adrenaline you get when someone just pisses you off. Then just as quickly the feeling and thought of what you are going to do to this person takes shape as the song gets into a very ominous sludge-like pace. The middle melodic driving break makes you feel the disbelief portrayed, as the plot unfolds to his day going to shit realizing that his world, has now gone down a unwanted path due to this person or voice.
4. “I Will Rise”
We wrote this song really quick, everything fell into place and felt right. Not for him, though — life was unraveling and choices were going to have to made as he awoke to this new world laid before him. Call it what you want, I call it the wake… Musically the songs staccato riffing and double bass makes you feel like your mind is being made up for you and you have no choice but to groove to the beat. The middle acoustic break is the calm before the storm — the last ray of sunlight before the inevitable blackness — we wrote this in studio and fit it into the song because we felt the concept needed that moment — a breath of new life — as for the acoustic ending this was a piece that was lingering on a spare track and had a very honest feel to it like he was sitting down playing. We added it to give the concept some realism and depth.
5. “Control”
Third song we wrote together as a band. Once we had the main riff the rest fell into place. We wanted to have a sort of musical breakdown feel in the middle to merge with the mental breakdown he was having, so we added a bass drop with a sub mixed over it. Reversed it and then started the song again as to give the impression of coming out the other side. All solos were built in the studio, as we wanted to hear the feeling we got from the songs first. This was the first single we pushed to the media and the masses as we felt it was one of the most well rounded songs of the CD. The song is actually about the lack of control we have in society, with everybody pushing the end of the world upon us, so much, that even Jesus has given into the rat race and decided to gamble away the lost souls. No god can save him with apocalypse being sold on a shelf and the voices pulling ever so more at his inner being, splitting his reality and forcing his life into the illusion.
6. “It Has Begun”
We always penned this song as the starting of second side if we were to ever release a vinyl Limited Edition. Like any good album back in the day the second side always started out with a bang. So the voices are now running the show, the plot is laid out, it’s them or us! It opens up, with stats about the death rate in the world and how he or they are going to add to it. When we came to writing this we had sort of idea to make this song stand out on the CD, and growing up with the likes of Sepultura and Slayer it made the choice easy. Taking a step away from the speed and making a true to form “South of Heaven meets Roots” song that bowls you over with a blunt force. When it came to the solo I decided to keep the flare “à la” Slayer. Mathieu Marcotte (Augury) who recorded and helped edit the CD guest soloed to give it that 80’s early 90’s double solo feel.
7. “Birth of the Broken”
Simon had this idea rumbling around before the band was even formed, so it became our first song we worked on when we all met. I had pages of lyrics from some past projects that he always wanted to use and it all worked together. We felt the need to have an opening of a soapbox preacher barking to the troops and preparing them for the mutiny of the mind that is about to happen. We used some lyrics from this song as one of our main shout outs — Hear the cry, the broken shall rise! — as it is supposed to instill a sense of patriotism to the cause. A moral booster and an overall war chant. It ends with his voices marching into battle.
8. “Bleed the Sky”
With “Bleed the Sky,” the war has begun; a battle of his illusions against reality. The drums really lend a strong sense of power and the guitar and bass play a grinding chug that we use to convey the force needed to cross the wasteland which has become his life. With the solo again I tried to make it part of the song and not just taking up space. Simon and I wrote the lyrics in one night with the thought in mind there is no turning back.
The coldness of the human race has made the choice so fucking clear, the rape of this world and the blood from rebirth, all innocence dies in the end…
9. “Reborn From The Ashes”
“Reborn” was written about our character’s life spinning into frenzy. He starts to realize that all along, he’s been fighting himself and the inner struggles he is having, while trying to make certain key life choices. He must now rebuild his life from the one he tore down. It’s never easy to admit to your mistakes and ask for help. Pride is hard to kill, but it can be overcome and conquered. We used fast driving riffs with hardcore breakdowns to complete the feeling of the song. We also used a childlike keyboard sound to give a simple feeling of innocence as the fires of his voices burn out
10. “The Healing Powers of Hate”
Hate is a strong word and many a war has been started and fought over this emotion. Many loves lost, and many men/women driven insane. What can we learn from this? How can it help us heal? Can we take this ultimate power and make it burn bright in other areas of our lives? We think so, as our character does from leading the struggles in this story, looks back at his life, death and becomes a better human for it. Sacrifice does not come without a cost, healing does not either. As this is the title track to BornBroken’s Debut CD we wanted to express all the emotions we put into writing this album; pounding drums, melodic metalcore verses and viscous stop dead choruses. I really tried to convey the feeling of healing through the solo by using more of an anthem style approach. Which leads to the climactic end breakdown — This is the healing, now this is the way that we hate — which closes off the CD.
We have hopefully taken you on a musical journey, though aggressive in nature still leaves you with a moral. We all have an important story to tell and how we live it will be our legacy in life.
