A vision for a great and timeless work and an idea to “tickle” the mind, maybe are the sparks that will start the flame of creation.
The new ideas that will be added to this vision are nothing but fuel, in order to maintain the momentum for the completion of the project.
And when the materials are notes, then this work can withstand eternity.
As long as there are ears able to hear it. After all, notes travel through time and space.
A beautiful place is the town of Bamberg in southern Germany, where Varus, a Symphonic Folk Metal band, comes from.
Varus
They are named after a Roman general Publius Quinctilius Varus, who lost his life at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
When the Roman legions, which he led, tried to conquer the rest of the Germanic tribes.
But, like the Roman legions, it took many years to conquer the whole then-known world …
So, it took Varus several years to complete the biggest track of their second album, “A New Dawn“.
“The Awakening” is the nearly 9-minute song, whose creation began when the band was still called Banjaxed.
The first cornerstones of the song began to be placed in the period 2011-2012.
When the band was still somewhere between covers and its own compositions, aiming to be recorded in an E.P.
From Waltz to …
As Konstantin Raab tells us, their intro at that time was what is today the main melody and chorus of the song.
He admits that at that time their sound was at a fairly low-quality level. Howver, the EP was recorded, with this melody as its introduction.
The melody of the intro “stuck” in their heads and everyone agreed that they do not need to waste these riffs in a simple introduction.
Instead, they decided to make it a complete song.
To the band’s lead singer seemed to be an easy task.
As he had completed all the orchestral and guitar parts on his own, always guided by the original form.
But in the end, it is easier to take a selfie with a wild bear than to follow a program in art.
“The beginning was made, but beyond that, it was not going anywhere,” Konstantin admits.
He had no idea what to do next, he found the melody wonderful, but he could not think of a specific sequel.
Besides, the band plays metal and not melodic ballads.
Although nothing matched the sequel, Konstantin’s former singer and brother, Max, came to the studio with a new riff.
Much heavier thrash and almost death metal.
In fact, the intervention of the composer’s brother helped him to break (thrash), the mental blockage, a consequence of his creative passion.
And all the ideas started popping up out of the head and take the form of notes.
… The Awakening
Until he reached a point, which they called “Waltz“.
Not unjustly, because it looks like a soft waltz, clearly with a more relaxed vibe accompanied by acoustic piano and “clean” vocals.
However, they did not fit the voice of the current singer and songwriter and so they changed it again …
Putting enough distortion on the guitar from pure acoustics, but also the vocals turned into… Screaming.
But the story of the song has constant twists and turns, like a well-turned film noir.
{It was raining profusely in dark Bamberg when a fatal blonde beauty entered Detective Raab’s office.
Who at that moment was in another creative impasse…}?
No, no, this is not the article …
Coming back to the facts, the only thing we keep from this short parenthesis is the creative impasse of Mr. Raab, who has reappeared.
Although he had written 20 minutes of material, he did not know he had to go in after what the band called “Waltz“.
In fact, the “closing” of the song was over.
There just wasn’t any kind of pause between the first and second part of the song.
And then the solution came again from outside the composer’s head, with the then drummer of the band, Chris, saying succinctly:
“Why not throw an interlude and play ‘Waltz’ again?”
And as it turned out, his intervention was a catalyst for the completion of the composition.
And so they did, following Chris‘ urging.
The orchestral part
According to Konstantin, in a magical way, the song had a natural flow.
Leading it to a fundamental change and a discreetly intelligent orchestral piece.
Essentially, the alternation of orchestral and “metal” elements is in complete harmony.
Its coda is the original EP-intro of their first recording.
“The Awakening” is written in E minor, but closes with B minor, giving a different feel to the song.
While at the same time it paves the way for the next song of the album, which is written in B minor.
After the musical completion, the lyricism must take place.
The lyrics
Although the title of the song existed from the beginning and undoubtedly remained the same, the lyrics were added after the completion of the musical part.
The enrichment of the composition with lyrics started after 2-3 years.
But little by little, the lyrical part took on more space than it fit in the composition.
In other words, the lyrics are actually half of what was written, just like the music.
The draft of the lyrics was made by the former singer of the band, Max.
His subject matter is based on a strange dream he had: “He saw a world falling apart and reaching a state of biblical revelation.”
At the end of the song, the narrator wakes up and understands that it was just a dream and/or nightmare.
And suddenly he realizes that the “real world” around him is really beginning to collapse.
The lyrics are terribly relevant, as is Max’s dream.
However, the lyrics did not remain the same, as they did not fit the different musical parts.
Again, the creative void appeared, something that bothered Konstantin a lot.
A refuge from his frustration was his personal approach to the general theme of the song (Awakening).
Thus, the lyrics were written clearly from his own point of view.
Under the weight of not fulfilling his desire for an epic long-lasting piece of music, to torment him.
It was both a feeling of anger towards the song, which forced him, and towards himself for the creative attachments he had.
But pain, even if emotional, is always a harbinger of a birth. And in this case, it was the Varus song that was born.
The message of the song, as Konstantin mentions, is the inertia we can feel at some point in our lives.
What is needed is simply to awaken ourselves, to get up and overcome any insurmountable situations and obstacles.
As cliché as it sounds, we must remain true to our dreams.
After all, personal awakening is what keeps our dreams alive.
The recordings
In the recordings of the song, things were not as time consuming as in its creation and without any particular obstacles or confusions.
Essentially the weight fell on the guitarist of the band Stefan, who had to repeat the guitar parts many times.
And at some point, a few “lines” appeared to the band bassist far out of their style of play, causing him to exclaim:
“Guys, do you really want us to play 80’s Hair Metal ???”
It is noteworthy that the band was “forced” to finish the musical parts of “The Awakening” with headphones.
The reason; The scolding by the singer’s girlfriend!
The truth is, however, that everyone enjoyed the whole journey of both the song and the whole album.
After all, let us not forget that pregnancy is a time consuming and painful process.
The result, however, is a new creation, ready to gaze at the unknown world or even to awaken it…
***
Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VarusBand/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/varusbamberg/
- Metalmessage: https://www.metalmessage.de/Promotion_VARUS_en.php
