With:	Koen Romeijn (guitars, vocals)
Conducted by:	Marcel Hubregtse (e-mail)
Published:	10.05.2007
Band profile:	Detonation
Album info:	Emission Phase

01. Invoking The Impact
02. When Stone Turns To Ash
03. Craven Ablaze
04. Chokedamp
05. Defects Of The Isolated Mind
06. Modulate
07. Into The Emission Phase
08. Infected
09. 2nd Sun Ascending
10. Soul Severance
11. Reborn From The Radiance
12. Fallout

As I stated in my review of Detonation's latest album called Emission Phase, Emission Phase is a great melodic death metal concept album and therefore warrants a thorough Song By Song break-down by the band. So, take it away Koen.


01 Invoking the Impact
We thought this was the perfect opening track for the new album, it's heavy, fast, catchy, and it has some new elements in it, which are kind of refreshing to our sound. I'm talking about the more rhythmic approach of the riffs, and the clean vocals in the bridge. Lyrically, "Invoking" is also the chronological introduction to the concept of "Emission Phase". It's about the fear of mankind for nuclear warfare, and that men is aware of the fact that it is inevitable in the end, and that we have to take responsibility for the events that are about to happen.

02 When Stone turns to Ash
This is one of the newer songs on the album. We actually thought about making this track the opening track for the CD, but in the end we went for "Invoking", because "When Stone..." is obviously a new direction for Detonation, sound wise that is. The song is very dynamic and feels quite eerie. It's very rhythmic based, and melodies have been put backwards more than ever. But it is one of the better tracks on the album I think. It also gives perfect form to the theme of the lyrics, which are about the actual initiation of the nuclear warfare. It describes the detonation and impact of a nuclear bomb, and all technical aspects that are part of that.

03 Craven Ablaze
A brutal and fast paced track, although the middle section is a bit more mid paced. But it's still one of the fastest songs on the album. Mike (Ferguson) our guitar player wrote most of the riffs, which are again kind of refreshing for our usual sound. The vocals turned out very powerful and dynamic, which is a result of the time I put into the recordings for all vocals this time around. The lyrics are a continuation of the concept of "Emission Phase". "Craven Ablaze" is about the chaos and insanity among mankind during the time of impact. A group of people realize there is still time to flee from the despair and decide to seek shelter underground.

04 Chokedamp
One of my personal favorites. It's one of the slower songs, with lots of diversity among the riffs. Mainly because all band members contributed in the songwriting for this one The clean singing in the chorus is something we never really tried like this before, it turned out really cool if I may say so myself. "Chokedamp" is another word for blackdamp, which is a phenomenon in the atmosphere in a mine following an explosion or fires. The damp is high in carbon dioxide and incapable of supporting life. In the concept of the album, this song is about hiding underground during the nuclear warfare, and the fact that there is no place on earth where men can be completely safe. Below ground the people are confronted with the dangers of the mines, and physically they are at risk of becoming unstable and mentally insane.

05 Defects of the Isolated Mind
This song is the continuation of "Chokedamp", lyrically that is. The lyrics describe the fears, emotions and insanity that people are confronted with when they are put in an isolated situation, with no where else to go. Mike came up with most riffs for this song. It turned out very rhythmic and groovy, and especially the leads halfway the song came out really nice. Melody wise it feels different than most of our older songs, but it definitely still has the Detonation vibe in it I think.

06 Modulate
This one is pretty aggressive and straight forward when compared to the other songs on the album. I wrote most of the riffs myself, although the chorus was done by Thomas. We haven't done this song live yet, but I feel it's going to turn out really brutal as part of our live set list. Especially the mid section is heavy as hell, probably one of the most insane riffs we've come up with in our 10 year existence as a band The lyrics are about modulating your thoughts and perspective upon things. Within the concept, it is this moment when some people realize the intensity of their problems and decide to change their view point. Should they stay sheltered underground and face the risk of becoming victims of their own insanity and also to be choked to death by possible blackdamp, or should they take their chances, face their fears, and return home, the place that is possibly infested with radiation?

07 Into the Emission Phase
Together with "Reborn from the Radiance", this was the last song we wrote for "Emission Phase". The riffs were mostly written by Thomas and me (Koen). It's one of our favorite songs on the album, mainly because of the atmosphere. Personally I'm also pretty keen about the clean vocals in the bridge, I've never done clean vocals over clean guitars before and it turned out really cool, just what the song needed actually. The whole song is without a single blast-beat or polka drum beat, which is also uncommon for Detonation songs.
Lyrically, this song is sort of a global summary of the entire concept. It is more or less the title song of the album, if you will.

08 Infected
The vibe of "Infected" is pretty similar to the songs we did on our previous albums, it is also one of the first songs we wrote for "Emission Phase", that could explain it. Before the recordings we weren't quite sure on actually putting "Infected" on the album, but we decided to record it anyway. It turned out really cool and melodic in the end, and we had no choice but to include it The vocal lines also turned out really strong, especially the chorus. The lyrics are again a chronological continuation of the concept. The title explains itself really, it's about getting infected by radiation, returning home after a long period of shelter, while realizing that the area is still highly radioactive. Halfway the song Mike and I recorded a conversation between a military officer and a soldier who has been ordered to explore the infected area. We thought it was a cool idea in order to give an extra vibe to the song. It came out pretty cool actually! We could have used a sample from a movie or something, but doing it ourselves felt more genuine.

09 2nd Sun Ascending
Before the recordings, this acoustic part of this instrumental piece was about twice as long, but we changed it last minute while recording it. By keeping the chords minimal we wanted to create a threatening and gloomy atmosphere. The 'heavy' part of the song is very dynamic I think, and it's cool how it blends into the next song on the album. The inspiration for the title "2nd Sun Ascending" is something I got after reading an article about one of the first ever nuclear fusion bomb tests. After the detonation, uninformed residents of a city many miles away, saw the fireball of the explosion in the sky and believed that there had appeared another sun.

10 Soul Severance
This song is about being infected with radiation, and the effect it has both physically and mentally. Reaching a state where you can do nothing but longing for the end to come, the point where your soul actually separates from your body. Musically, it's one of the older songs on the album, and a combination of riffs that we all contributed to.

11 Reborn from the Radiance
The last song on "Emission Phase" also happens to be the last one we wrote before entering the Split Second Sound studio. It has a cool Thrash vibe going on I think, although the acoustic intro and more modern bridge aren't really Thrash of course...Somehow this song has become one of my favorites of the whole album, can't really explain it, it's a feeling.
Lyrically, it's about the continuation of human existence after the departure of the contamination. It's about rebirth and the fact that the source of life has been infected from the core. Somehow the effects of the contamination will always remain in the systems of those born long after the nuclear war. To sum it up with the chorus line: "Lives' spawn contaminated, lives' creation devastated".

12 Fallout
Mike wrote the basic structure for this instrumental song a long time ago. A short time later, I added some melody lines and harmonies, and we started using it as an intro for our live performances. I always wanted to record it properly, and so we did for "Emission Phase". We did not want an intro on this album, so the choice to make it the outro was easily made. It's a perfect ending for the concept, as it really adds up to the dark and depressing atmosphere of the concept.