Singled Out: Etherius' The Rivers of Sand and Blood

Keavin Wiggins | 04-06-2020

Progressive Metal group Etherius are releasing their new album "Chaos. Order. Renewal" on April 17th and to celebrate we asked guitarist Jay Tarantino to tell us about the lead single "The Rivers of Sand and Blood." Here is the story:

"Our newest song "The Rivers of Sand and Blood" comes from a few riffs that date all the way back to 2009. Experimenting with new sounds, or even picking up a new instrument, can spark our creativity when we least expect it. That's exactly what happened to me. I bought my first seven string guitar in 2009 and the first piece of music I wrote on it was the verse riff. I experimented with variations of it, but I couldn't top the first one. The breakdown before the final solo was also another riff that came from that time period. The song went through several more variations with different riffs, and even had vocals at one point when I brought it to my previous band. Needless to say, the song sat dormant for years until Etherius started writing for our new album "Chaos. Order. Renewal." When going back to it, I envisioned how an audience would react to hearing this live. In my head I could hear the crowd chanting, see them headbanging, and see the huge circle pit opening up in the middle of the floor. I wrote new riffs for the chorus and second verse and that was the inspiration we needed to finish the song. The chorus melody came from another song that we ended up chopping up and completely overhauling. The lead guitars were inspired by my love of old school two guitar bands, and how players from those bands would go back and forth trading solos. This song is the perfect example of why musician's should record themselves any chance they can and to never throw away ideas because they could come back to the forefront years later.

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