Singled Out: Ronin's Saturn's Portal

10-08-2023

Ronin just released their sophomore album, "Valak the Defiler", and to celebrate we asked frontman Chris Feldmann to tell us about the song "Saturn's Portal". Here is the story:

This song initially came about, at least lyrically, from a few lines/poems I had lying around in a couple of my notebooks, the majority of which preceded all the riffage and melodies etc.. The main descending, angular riff came about one day where I was just noodling around on the guitar and I played it once, but then couldn't get it in my hands again. It frustrated me to no end and that's kind of when the light bulb went off and I knew I was onto something. I had that riff and the verse/pre-chorus riffs down before bringing it to the band, but I didn't have a chorus riff or ending sorted out. I had general ideas on vocal melodies, rhythms and what not for sections though to help with the writing process when the band got together to workshop it. The hammer-on "bouncy" bit of riffage that acts as the "tail" of the main descending riff was from our bassist Bo, a-la "Natural Born Killer" from Avenged Sevenfold. Initially it was some straight chugging mixed with gallops before we made the switch. The chorus progression came out organically mid-jam from our lead guitarist, Jack. We were running through the song and when it came time for the chorus, he just shot into the riff progression and we all jumped on as I "scatted" the rough vocal melody along with it. One of those "in-the-moment" natural creations that can be few and far between. Luckily for us, it happened again with the outro/solo portion of the track. We didn't have an ending and when we got to the outro portion, we just let the low E minor chord ring out when Maas (our drummer) slapped the snare and I started playing some riffs that wound up being another chromatic progression that mirrored that main riff from the song. Initially it was twice the length but with the help of recording engineer extraordinaire, Frank Mitaritonna from VuDu studios where we recorded the whole album, we decided to chop it down and the song is much better for it.

Thematically, the song is basically a metaphor for how we as a society and humans have a knack for self-sabotage and knowingly/unknowingly sealing our own fates. We allow our impulses and baser instincts to sometimes get the better of us to the detriment of not just ourselves but quite often others. The things we yearn for and believe we can achieve/acquire usually come at the cost of other people's well-being, such as the destruction and death of the Earth because of things that we've let loose on our home. Greed comes with a price. An accumulation of "stuff", if I can borrow from George Carlin, is a strong motivator for so many evils we unleash on ourselves and our fellow man. What those things are that get let loose is dependent on the person and can be big or small. In the case of this song, the idea of interdimensional beings(a la Lovecraft) that were once locked up, but are set free by an individual, or individuals who are seeking some greater, profound knowledge and power. This desire leads to these monstrous creatures coming to our home and devastating the earth we know and love. That's at least the sort of angle I was coming at when writing the lyrics for the song. As for the title of Saturn's Portal, our resident conspiracy buff and lead guitarist, Jack, came up with the title due to a "potential" portal that is on or around the planet Saturn. It fit the overall lyrical content well so we went with it. We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any such portal, although Jack may tell you differently.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here