By Witch's Cadence witchscadence Bandcamp WitchsCadence Twitter YouTube YouTube.
Cover art by anxiee.
Released 11/25/2023.
Duration: 7:30.

Listen on Bandcamp.

Read artist commentary.

Tracks that Judgement By Genocide references:

• Oceanfalls by Ray Mike
• Big Bird Ate Grandma! by Witch's Cadence
• Emotional Moment by Ray Mike
• Long Ago by Frost Carter
• Winged World by Ray Mike
• Monstertown by Kusoro
• Peaceful Pirates by Hadron
• For the Greater Good by Witch's Cadence

Tracks that Judgement By Genocide samples:

• BOIDY_LAUGH.wav by Witch's Cadence

Lyrics:

(PURIFICATION, IN PROGRESS.)

(PURIFICATION, COMPLETE.)

Artist commentary:

Witch's Cadence: (booklet commentary)

Here it is, the great finale of the album. The 7:30 beast of a song (at least for me, haha). The idea behind this song is that it’s about The Merciless, one of the celestials whose last act was to kill every living being on the face of the world.

At the start I used Ray Mikey’s song “Oceanfalls” since it’s kind of for the past and history of Oceanfalls I think, or it could be like a main theme, either way I used it. I imagine this beginning section shows the Merciless with his love, the human princess. Then at 0:31 it takes a turn for the worse, his love has died, and he must revel in this knowledge.

I then made a motif of my own, this one represents the merciless himself, and it is surrounded by two different motifs, one is a short segment of “Emotional Moment” by Ray Mikey being played over and over again, to sort of represent his emotions growing stronger and stronger, and one is a surprise motif that we’ll learn about in later Volumes... Then the laugh, boy do I love insane laughs, also the rising diminished chord, it’s just a good buildup, I think. I hope. I think.

At 2:01 I brought in a reference to “Long Ago” by Frosty Mac from Volume 2, for the cool history buffs out there, I guess. Then to represent the winged (as he descends from the moon to go on his rampage) I used the suspended notes from 0:37 in “Winged World” from Ray Mikey’s solo album on the lead guitar, and sort of tried to represent the little piano arpeggio like figure in the other guitar sound. This part is all of the winged fighting against him trying to well, not die. And then I brought back the Oceanfalls them, a confidence boost perhaps? Until, once again, we get The Merciless’s theme come back in full swing, with sirens to boot. Quite an imposing figure methinks...

The little Atari voice that says “purification in progress” is in reference to the rpg maker game OFF made by mortis ghost, where in the battles some of the backgrounds say those very words. Then right back to the Oceanfalls theme.

Now he’s on the monster’s land, and he’s shredding through all of them as they do their best to fight back. But then the music picks up! It’s a bit more confident and pompous, I think. I can’t know for certain, but I imagine the monster monarch to be very confident in themselves. I used a bit of monster town at 4:35 because of Wight’s suggestion for that as a monster motif, and I think it works quite well! Until the monster monarch is slain by the merciless, well, mercilessly. Then right back to The Merciless wailing on everyone.

At 5:32 I used some of “Peaceful Pirates” for a human motif (also at Wight’s Suggestion) (Thank you Wight, very cool!) So, we get some of the humans fighting back, and I imagine they have someone try and rally them to fight, though it couldn’t be the princess (she’s kind of dead as was already established). But then the music fades, I imagine at this part The Merciless is hiding and flying around in the shadows as the army of humans looks around, until it breaks out into bombastic insanity. Eventually it ends that section with a horrifying, “PURIFICATION, COMPLETE” and it ends with a final repeat of the Oceanfalls theme, as The Merciless considers what he has done. What does he think of it? Idk only Nights knows, and we probably never will haha, but I still think that it’s a cool song, and I’m glad I made it.

nights: (booklet commentary)

I actually never thought the day where someone makes music for a very, very background character would come, but here we are! What a brilliant, well thought-out piece this is.

I’d just like to say that I’ll definitely show the story of the Merciless to everyone some day in a work different from Oceanfalls, and perhaps find a way to integrate this wonderful music within it when I do so. Thank you for creating such a nice album, Witch!