"Death Is At Work In Us" Creation Notes

Part 1: Album Release Day, Music Deep Dive On The Song, "Death Is At Work In Us" & Thanks

The wait is finally over. As of today, August 15, 2025, our debut full-length album "Death Is At Work In Us" is finally out. My brother (David) and I (Daniel) worked on this album for what feels like a long time. My goal is to write an article on each song of the album regarding the creation process of each one, starting with the first song we worked on and finishing with the last song we worked on. Due to leading a busy life, I'll write each article and publish it when I have ample free time to do so. Anyway, my main purpose behind this article is to celebrate the release of our album by providing a deep dive into the song "Death Is At Work In Us" and to give thanks to those who helped work on this album in some way, shape, or form.

Since my brother and I live around 5 hours away from each other (still do to this day), we had to write and record this album during specified periods. So, we planned out two main points in time when we could do all this. We first started writing and recording this album in December of 2023, and we had the skeletons of 4 songs by the end of this time. In August of 2024, we had the skeletons of 4 more songs by the end of this time, and finished vocal tracking and additional production/recording work in December 2024. We both had winter breaks from our jobs in December 2023, so it made sense to use that time to start writing and recording skeletons of songs. The first song we worked on is the last song on the album and coincidentally, the title track, "Death Is At Work In Us."

Here's some further context for this song in particular. There was a riff that was made by a childhood friend of ours, Brennan, who was the guitarist in our old progressive metal band, Omnilarity, back during the days when my brother and I both lived in California. Here's a song from Omnilarity's debut full-length album, "Ameliorate," where Brennan was our lead guitarist, David was our rhythm guitarist and keyboardist, and I was the drummer.

I provided this to both reminisce and showcase Brennan's skills as a songwriter and guitarist. Anyways, we had always wanted to use this riff for a future Omnilarity song, but life was getting busy for all of us at the time, and we never had the opportunity to use it. During the years when I was working deadbeat jobs, I always remembered that riff since Brennan had sent us all a video of him playing it. I remember listening to that video a lot, thinking that the riff couldn't go to waste. Perhaps one other reason I remembered it was because of the unusual time signature of the part (it’s in 10/4, which is highly unconventional). At any rate, before Omnilarity completely fizzled out due to our hectic life schedules, I recorded Brennan playing it in an old Pro Tools session that went unnoticed and unremembered for years. Here's the original video of Brennan playing the riff for the first time. The date of this video is February 9, 2015.

Fast forward to December 2023. While my brother and I were sitting in my old bedroom studio, I remembered that part, so I called Brennan and asked if we could use the riff (the chorus riff that starts and ends the song), and he said yes. It was in this moment that my memory came back to me all of a sudden, so I started poking around on my mobile hard drive for a while, and to my surprise, I finally found that very session. I almost completely forgot I had recorded it, but there it was, Brennan's part recorded by Brennan himself. Brennan's riff was essentially the entire foundation for the song, "Death Is At Work In Us." With only this one part, I knew we had the main section of the song, and from there, my brother and I essentially built everything around it. My brother recorded a part on top of Brennan's riff to give it more of the desired effect I was looking for, but we kept Brennan's take in the song. It's crazy to think a riff recorded years ago for one band is in a song released by a different band over a decade later.

Next, my brother and I worked together to craft the transition riff out of Brennan's part so it could smoothly move into a verse riff where I knew we had to make it a little basic so the vocals could easily go over it. Then there is an odd secondary verse that David wrote and I tweaked, to where the music is a polymeter. Here is the first instance of musical nerd time. The musical phrase times out to a total count of 14. So, my brother is playing one fast measure of 6/8 and then switches to two measures of 4/4 to total up to 14 (6+4+4=14). I, on the other hand, am playing a straight 4/4 rock beat for three measures before playing a short measure in 2/4, totaling up to 14 (4+4+4+2=14). If you know anything about basic rock beats, the snare typically hits on count three. Since 14 doesn't fit within the usual timeframe of 4 (usually groupings that add up to 12 or the standard 16), it creates an oscillating cycle where if you try to count the beat to get a feel for the snare drum, it may be a tad discombobulating because the snare doesn't always come back on count three, it fluctuates.

The pre-chorus section that leads back into the chorus riff, for some reason, reminds me of something you'd hear in a '90s beatdown hardcore song. This is the only riff in the song that I have no idea how we came up with it, but we did. I believe my brother wrote this part while we were jamming, and this is what came out of that. Again, this riff primarily serves as a launching pad to get back to the chorus riff, which, if I haven't made clear enough, is the heart of this entire song.

The last riff we wrote for this song that doesn't repeat one other time in the song is the bridge riff. This was the most time I had spent writing a drum part on an Every Thought Captive song up to that point. I came up with the idea for this entire part musically, and the rhythm for this bridge section was heavily inspired by an interesting rhythmic moment that occurred on a Botch song called "Afghamistam" off their 2002 EP titled "An Anthology of Dead Ends." Botch's song has a part where the 4/4 meter is kept by the bass guitar, the hi-hat, and the snare drum, but the bass drum and the guitar are playing in 5/8. So, the band effectively created a simple but effective polyrhythm where 5/8 is being superimposed on 4/4. The snare drum always comes back in on count 3 of 4/4, but because of the odd 5/8, the snare drum seems to fluctuate when it technically does and doesn't simultaneously; it just depends on how you count it.

I felt it was important to give the information about that song because what goes on rhythm-wise at the bridge in "Death Is At Work In Us" is similar, but not the same. Here is the 2nd and much bigger instance of musical nerd time. So, the hi-hat and the snare drum are playing in 4/4, exactly like the Botch song. However, the major change here is that the bass drum, guitar, and bass guitar are playing in 7/8. So, I created a polyrhythm here because I enjoy the oscillating nature of them. Before the entire phrase repeats, the count totals up to 16 if you are counting in 4/4 and 32 if you are counting the four measures of 7/8 and the one measure of 4/8. Musically, once the chord progression repeats, the rhythm groupings will have gone through twice. So, the way I see this section is that it is four big chunks, with the first establishing the polyrhythm.

The second chunk is almost identical to the first, except we added in a guitar lead, and I chose to make the drums even more complicated. With my right hand (the one keeping time on the hi-hat), I play across 5 separate cymbals and continue doing so until the 2nd chunk ends. If you count just the cymbal here, there are seven measures of 5/4 and one measure of 2/4. Now we have an even more complex polyrhythm: 7 over 5 over 4. After the 2nd chunk, the 3rd and 4th are much simpler. I added a piano and fast synth part in the 3rd chunk, and the drums return to how they are in the first one with the only exception being that the 2nd snare drum hit of each cycle is on the "e" of 4 (4 e & a for you drum nerds) instead of on the conventional 3 like in the first one. The 4th and last chunk is exactly like the 1st one, except instead of hitting the hi-hat to keep time, I hit the China cymbal.

I wrote the lyrics to this song in late December of 2024, and I was in a bind for time as my brother and I were close to wrapping up the vocal recording. I will hopefully write a separate article on the lyrics for this song, but overall, that is about as much information as I can give on the song musically at this time. Again, I do aim to eventually provide more insight into the lyrics for this song at a later date.

Lastly, I just want to use the remainder of this article to thank several people for their contributions to our debut full-length album. First, our label, Broken Curfew Records, and its founder/owner, Seth Metoyer. Seth has made lyric videos, published press promotion, created album artwork, handled CD manufacturing, and many other things on behalf of our band. Thank you to Seth and everyone at Broken Curfew Records. Next, thank you to Emily Klophaus, who wrote, arranged, and recorded the violin for the song "Death Is At Work In Us." It was a pleasure working with you, and I thank you for taking the time out of your busy performing schedule to make time for us. Thank you to our friend, Neil Prakasam, for taking the time to write and record a killer guitar solo for the song "Sanctification." I tried getting Neil to write a solo for the last Every Thought Captive release, but it wasn't able to materialize. Thankfully, it all worked out this time, and I'm extremely glad it did. Next, I want to thank my wife, Megan, for her undying support for my artistic endeavors and her vocal contributions to the songs "Hope Endured" (I enjoy our duet on that song) and "Death Is At Work In Us." She helped me edit a few lines of lyrics for this release as well. Thank you so much, sweetheart! Next, I want to thank my dear friend Brennan. In some ways, getting the main ideas of the song "Death Is At Work In Us" down after having Brennan's part gave my brother and me the momentum to push through the next batch of songs we worked on immediately afterwards. Brennan has had his hands full for several years now as both a paramedic and a family man with several kids, but it still amazes me that a small part of him exists on this release. Thank you so much! Lastly, I want to thank and dedicate this album to the Lord Jesus Christ, without whom nothing is possible. Grace and Peace, everyone!

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." – Jude 1:24-25