Wasting no time on introductions whatsoever, the EP begins with “Cognitive Abyss” which immediately starts with an evil death metal style riff and quickly follows up with a stomping industrial riff with drums and guitar in sync like one machine of doom, letting you know that you are in for an absolute ride. Arriving at the verse, we start to unfold the theme of the EP. Anger and frustration at a broken system. The brutal vocal delivery, half-time drums, and huge-sounding guitars amplify the rage the lyrics convey.

Speaking of lyrics, “Vivisection”, in my opinion, has the most profound lyrics of Blastforge’s latest EP. Creating an analogy for how the corrupt system brutalizes us and treats us as a resource of data to be farmed and eventually used against us, using horrifying, gory imagery. Following the breakdown of the song is a particularly nasty, heavy riff that really drives the anger home, in my opinion. Sounds like a bull stomping the ground before it (and the band) charge for one final chorus.

That bull stomping riff, or at least a variation of it, kicks off the third track, “Womb of Corruption”. The kick drum is getting quite the beating now as Blastforge turn up the intensity with low guttural growls and the goriest lyrics so far. Building to an absolute cacophony that assaults your senses and puts on display the rot in the “Mind Rot Protocol”.

“Split Vision” is the fourth and final track and is the most death metal one out of the four. Blast beats instantly set the tone for the incoming crescendo of madness. As the lyrics unravel, so does the mind of our protagonist. Because when every part of the system is filled with lies, manipulation, and deception, how can one trust their own flesh? You can’t, is their answer.

BlastForge’s “Mind Rot Protocol” is a certified headbanger’s delight, an EP with a cohesive narrative thread all the way through the end, and an experience that manages to fuse multiple sub-genres of metal together like a well-balanced meal.

• First of all, thank you for giving me the chance to take a deeper look at Eternal Rage so, what’s the concept of the album?

The next album will be an epic story, our imagination about the old myths will be our influence, we will create our own myths, it’s going to take a lot of work to generate the world of “Mythos” but am pretty sure 100% that you will love it, and for the music we are already on the Mythos’ table to set our ideas and create the new era!

• Mythos had many line up changes and it had a long journey. How was the process of writing the music?

It’s a very long process, and it was exhausting, from writing the ideas, riffs, drum lines and the lyrics, to the recording sessions, mixing and mastering the whole EP, but in the end we presented to you as I think from my humble opinion, very good tracks with very good sound quality, I’m not arrogant, but I think we did an amazing job after 5 or 6 years since forming the band.

• Who are the members who contributed to recording the EP and writing it?

We all contributed in writing the EP, but the main one who created the melodies was Amr El Gendy.I (Ahmed Hassan), created the lyrical theme and also Gasser Helal contributed with his bass lines, and also we cannot forget Peter Samir our guitarist and Ahmed El Kholy our former drummer for their support and for their actions with us.

• How did your different musical influences effect on the process of composition?

By sharing the whole ideas that came to our minds, each and every one of us has his own taste in music, but we are sharing the main taste which is metal music.

Great, thank you for your time, and now moving to Dina Yaccout who designed Eternal Rage’s cover art.

• How did you design the cover of the Ep?

I designed the cover of the EP on photoshop. It’s a technique called photo manipulation; basically, it is an everevolving collaboration between photography and graphic designing. It gives this realistic view of an unreal surreal picture, just like music. When one composes music, one starts with writing, in my case combining, musical notes and playing them on one’s instruments and then moving on to the harmonizing all of the elements together to achieve the desired effect, and then one moves on to the mixing and mastering phase to make it like the music you normally hear in everyday life, in your earphones, and on the radio. Same thing when it comes to designing, it contains illustrative expressive elements while seeking a more realistic approach.

• How did they contact you?

Amr, Mythos’ lead guitarist,and I have been friends for years now, so he wanted me to be there through the whole process of recording the music even before the mixing and mastering phases. He had to make sure that I was feeling inspired and motivated throughout the whole process. And I deeply was, because one of my passions is music. And whenever I came up with visual ideas for the band music, I told him all about them. The purpose of music is to release us all from the tyranny of conscious thought and it truly washes from the soul the dust of everyday life. I highly believe in that. Their music was so vividly energetic for me. Metalcore genre holds so much power and strength, on the physical, emotional, psychological and mental level. As music expresses that
which cannot be said and on which it’s impossible to be silent, I came up with an idea of an apocalypse scene.

• What’s your message in your design?

My main message in the design conveys different perspectives which I’m going to elaborate as follows: A- The album name inspires me so much Eternal Rage. It could be an eternal rage of a cosmic cataclysm finally takes control where the human beings live. It basically depicts the rage of nature upon what people set up to be structural organizations and buildings, while a person there stands in awe watching how the wrath of nature arouses where the humans call it “natural”. B- Watching what one builds being destroyed, while standing tall like a mountain there, it depicts another meaning of strength and stamina. That no matter how destruction goes around and spreads throughout the whole world, one must stay strong and have faith that this too shall end as well.

Edited by: Bishoy Nader.

The track is from the album “Old Grindfathers and Their Grind”, released in the summer of 2013 as a split album, which was their style with their previous label FAT ASS RECORDS. They’re now recording at MAD LION RECORDS.
Musically the track is a straight to the point; without an intro in typical death metal quo with a grind core touch to the vocal’s style and drum blasts. The guitar style consists of two high-distortion riffs along with an attempt to lay a melodic tincture which was lost in the brutality of the track.