Sonic Cathedrals
Mixtape Series Vol. X
Curated by Vestiges

CVLT Nation is is ultra excited to announce that the Sonic Cathedrals Mixtape Series Vol. X Curated by VESTIGES goes live today! This band has reshaped what post/hardcore and post/rock music sounds like. Their most recent album, The Descent of Man, is an awesome journey into a place where sound is stretched and morphed into another universe of radness. VESTIGES worked a great sense of who they are into their song selection for Sonic Cathedrals Mixtape Series Vol. X, so I know you will not be disappointed. Enough with my talking, read what VESTIGES has to say about their mixtape below, download Sonic Cathedrals Vol. X after the jump & blast that motherfucker beyond loud…MAKE YOUR BRAIN SHAPESHIFT!

When asked to curate CVLT Nation’s Sonic Cathedrals Mixtape Series Vol. X, we understood that the privilege could not be taken lightly with predecessors including Altar of Plagues, The Secret, and Thou. We also understood that this would be the perfect opportunity to not only reveal the musical diversity within the band, but more importantly, the intricacies that we have woven into our own music from the bands and artists that have influenced us over the years. The following discourse is meant to clarify the choices we have made both personally and musically with Vestiges.

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CVLT Nation’s Sonic Cathedrals Mixtape Series Vol. X
Curated by Vestiges
TRACKLIST

“The Dead Flag Blues” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor is the first track that was played when sitting down to write the lyrics for The Descent Of Man. The song paints a depressing landscape of abandoned cars, collapsed buildings, and deceased remains filling the sewers while a man tells his lover that “these are truly the last days.” This track was essential in achieving the perfect frame of mind for writing about the end of mankind and envisioning the many weaknesses of humanity, particularly the discord after a catastrophic event. The band’s entire discography was soon to follow and what we attribute to the mood, the depth, and many of the cryptic elements that surround our lyrics.

“Awake In Sleep” and Spirited Migration as a whole was a big influence on us when the band first formed, and rightfully so. Being a two-piece during the writing process of The Descent Of Man, we were amazed at what Dark Castle was able to achieve despite only having two members. We have since discussed getting in touch with vocalist Stevie Floyd about being the voice of Mother Earth on our next album, and without giving too much away, we can’t really imagine anyone else pulling it off. This has been an idea for quite some time now, we just haven’t really talked about it publically or addressed it with Stevie since we still have some writing to do for the album, but we certainly will be pursuing a collaboration in the near future.

“Ænima” by Tool, both the song and the album, the band, and honestly anything linked to Maynard James Keenan has been a bit of an obsession of mine. While listening to this song for the first time, I envisioned Maynard addressing the world as a whole, but after reading the lyrics, it is understood that he is merely addressing Los Angeles, CA. One could argue that he was in fact using LA and specific examples in the song as metaphors, but that is up for interpretation and not what the album inlay would suggest with California breaking off into the Pacific Ocean. Regardless, I have been obsessed with the thought of a man pleading to Mother Nature to “put it back the way it ought to be” and watching the end of the world, or at least the end of what plagues the world. Tool was one of the first heavier bands that I listened to and, needless to say, this song has had some impact on how I view our existence. The Descent Of Man is more or less what I had always imagined “Ænima” could have been on a much greater scale.

“Don’t Drink The Water” by Dave Matthews is about the despicable events that took place when we first came to America. The Native Americans taught us how to survive in the New World through agriculture, only to have us turn around and poison them so that we could call this land ours. Rather than learning from the Natives and living in harmony, we manipulated them and looked down upon them for being less advanced, then stripped them of their livelihood, if not their lives. We are currently doing the same with nature. The opening line in “V” on The Descent Of Man was a way for me to bring these ideas together and pay homage to the events discussed in “Don’t Drink The Water” without actually trying to fit the specific importance of the events into our narrative. The live version of the song featuring Tim Reynolds was included on the mixtape because of the extreme shift from a happy (albeit sarcastic) interlude of “This Land Is Your Land” to complete and total darkness at the end of the track, both lyrically and musically. This tends to be something Dave keeps bottled up until Tim comes around, seeing as how the original Dave Matthews Band version is more or less pop music and far less thought-provoking, at least in most cases. In a sense, this is exactly how we approach Vestiges. We don’t live our lives brooding and cursing mankind, we are genuinely happy people, but we understand that there are issues that need to be addressed and addressed in a certain way, and Vestiges is our means to do just that.

Ghaust, a two-piece instrumental band from Indonesia, contacted us during the first week that The Descent Of Man was released. The band had nothing but nice things to say about our album and it wasn’t long after their initial contact that we began discussing the possibility of a split record. A year later and a world apart, we will be releasing the next chapter in our narrative on a split with Ghaust, featuring a new track from the band as well as a remastered version of the song “Sleep and Release.” The split will be released on three continents by Replenish Records, Mayfly Records, and Maniyax Records.

We have been fans of Downfall of Gaia and their work for quite some time now, prior to even being a band actually. Much to our surprise, Dominik emailed us shortly after recording “These Wet Feathers” for their split with In the Hearts of Emperors and informed us that our album was used in the studio as a reference for their engineer during the mixing and mastering process. Needless to say, we were honored and immediately insisted that they let us host them on a tour in the states and hook up with us for a few weeks when we tour Europe. Arrangements were made, tour dates were set, plane tickets were purchased, and now all we can do is anxiously wait for their arrival. We will be hitting the east coast of the United States with Downfall of Gaia this winter and then again in mainland Europe next summer.

We have grown really close with the guys in Masakari and Tempest over the course of the last few months. Joe and Adam from Masakari were nice enough to set us up with a great show, a vegan meal, and a place to rest our heads in Cleveland, OH and Pittsburgh, PA during our most recent tour of the states. This gave us a great deal of time to sit down and really get to know them as people, not just as promoters or fellow musicians, and we have since spent time with them on the east and west coasts during their tour with Alpinist. Prior to that, Roger from Tempest hooked us up with a show in Vancouver, BC at the start of tour, along with all of the documentation to get across the border without work permits, and we were lucky enough to meet back up with them in states and throw them on a couple of show with us in California. These guys were a blast and we strongly encourage everyone to check them out if they haven’t done so already. Coincidentally, both bands have songs that focus on the issues surrounding pit bulls, their owners, and the legislation that currently affects the people who are honestly trying their hardest to help these animals live healthy lives. Hearing both bands address these issues on and off stage, and then getting the chance to meet the animals that inspired these songs was moving, to say the least, and we felt that we needed to share this experience with as many people as possible. In the coming months, previously unreleased and live versions of “Pain Conceived As A Tool” by Masakari and “Death Rattle” by Tempest will be released on a split seven inch through our label, Replenish Records, with 100% of the proceeds being donated to local pit bull rescue and rehabilitation centers in Cleveland, OH and Vancouver, BC.

Personally, my media library has more audio books, spoken word, and podcasts than music these days, so no mixtape would be complete without at least one honorable mention, especially when that honorable mention was sampled on our album. “You’re A Fucking Human Being” is a series of clips taken from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast regarding the choices we make as a species when it comes to religion as opposed to morality and rational thinking. Rogan’s sentiments were on point and in line with a great deal of the issues we chose to address on our album, so we decided to bury his words within the intro and outro of The Descent Of Man. What you hear is a heavily edited, mixed, copied, pasted, reversed, and semi-toned version of this track that is almost undecipherable, but that is exactly the point. We know what we need to do to make this world a better place, it’s right there, but we allow our judgment to remain clouded by the grandeurs of fairy tales and completely irrational thinking about our existence within nature.

The rest of the tracks on the mixtape have been included due to the fact that all of these bands have greatly influenced how we approach our music, or in some cases, how we approach our lives. Collectively, we have an amazing opportunity to express ourselves and have our message heard through our music and throughout the communities we have established in the hardcore and punk scenes; messages that can influence others to look at the social, political, and environmental issues that affect all of us and inspire thought or change or even action is an opportunity that should never be wasted or taken for granted. These are the bands and artists that we feel have embraced this and influenced us to think, to change, and to act:

Fall of Efrafa, Wolves In The Throne Room, Weakling, Buried Inside, Tragedy, Catharsis, Trial, Skagos, Megadeth, Nasum, Darkest Hour, Envy, Russian Circles, At The Drive-In, Andy McKee, Iron & Wine, A Northern Chorus, and Fauna.

Sonic Cathedrals Mixtape Series Vol. X Tracklist:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – The Dead Flag Blues
Dark Castle – Awake In Sleep
Tool – ∆nima
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Don’t Drink The Water (Live At Radio City)
Ghaust – Sleep And Release
Downfall Of Gaia – These Wet Feathers
Masakari – X Pain Conceived As A Tool
Tempest – Death Rattle
Joe Rogan – You’re A Fucking Human Being
Fall Of Efrafa – No Longer Human
Wolves In The Throne Room – Ahrimanic Trance
Weakling – Dead As Dreams
Buried Inside – Time As Surrogate Religion
Tragedy – No Words
Catharsis – Choose Your Heaven
Trial – Legacy
Skagos – Smoldering Embers
Megadeth – Poison Was The Cure
Nasum – Wrath
Darkest Hour – Eclipse
Tragedy – The Intolerable Weight
Envy – A Winter Quest For Fantasy
Russian Circles – Harper Lewis
At The Drive-In – Hourglass
Andy Mckee – I’ll Be Over You (Toto)
Iron & Wine – Upward Over The Mountain
A Northern Chorus – This Open Heart
Fauna – Rain