Saccharine Slumber, Strider

By Shwan (
,
,
).
Cover art by Gryotharian (
,
,
,
).
Released 12/19/2021.
Duration: 3:05.
Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Read artist commentary.
Artist commentary:
Shwan:
Inspired by Sweet Dreams, Timaeus. I like the chill instruments and atmospheric chords from the original and wanted to do something similar.
Gryotharian:
This ended up being some of the most work I've ever put into an art piece. I had the original idea for it long before it was finished, of Ult Dirk holding the broken lantern over a sleeping younger version of himself. At some point the skull got added, and the whole piece became very... I dunno how to describe it, like classical? Archetypical? Something like church stained glass, or a tarot card, and I gave Ult Dirk a halo type thing. Then a very unfinished version of it sat on my desktop for several months, just the rough outline with the colors blocked in. I slowly chipped away at it, adding details like each poster and book and the window, until finally I decided that I'd better finish this up, and did all the shading and lighting and everything in one incredibly long day. There's an alternate version without the highlight sketching, which I was unsure about, but Shwan said they liked this version better, so this is the version on the album.