Track Premiere: House Of Atreus – ‘Zealous Inequity’

Since 2011 House Of Atreus have wielded a brand of melodic death metal that’s all but lost to the modern world. Finding inspiration in ancient Greek history, and other such arcane subjects, and boasting a sound something like members of Bolt Thrower and Thou Art Lord covering Iron Maiden, House Of Atreus immediately garnered a lot of attention for deftly brandishing this particular style of death metal.

Now, with a demo, an EP, and a rock-solid debut album, the Minneapolis-based quartet have only themselves to blame for the sky-high expectations surrounding their sophomore album.

It’s our pleasure then to bring you this sneak peek at From the Madness of Ixion, House Of Atreus’ sophomore album, with the track “Zealous Inequity.”

“We had a lot of fun writing this track,” says bassist/vocalist Anxietous Nero. “All the riffs are solid head bangers. It was different at first; this was the first song where our drummer [Ogre Thumos] rejected a composition as it stood. He was like man, ‘I’m sorry but this shit sucks.” When [guitarist Anhedonius] Wrath and I took the riffs back in and re-wrote it the last time, we all knew immediately upon playing it that the composition was nailed. Which isn’t something that Orge gets often. There’s other favorites on this album, but I’d say this is probably the most fun to play live presently. Our new guitar player Russell Crowe can’t stop humping buckle dents into the back of his guitar when we play it.

“One thing we accomplished well in this song was our use of 6/8 to 4/4 time throughout. The transitions flow decently after hours of punching holes in walls and calling each other various gender related atrocities. Wrath’s autistic, laser-like focus with a couple of these riffs is also notable and, if you listen closely, you can hear him screeching. One riff I wrote in particular was bland hot garbage, and he turned it into that monstrosity at the :50 second mark. It plays well rhythmically with whatever the hell you call the bass doing there. I think you could tell there was a lot of care for directing climaxes in this song. And generally, Wrath lives a pretty climax free lifestyle. The lyrics behind this one is a sort of vision through an imperialists eyes. A noble finding contempt for those who would use exaggerated social machinations of complaint and inequality in attempt to tear down a largely successful empire. And all that old school turned modern day allegory, ya heard?”

“Zealous Inequity”

From the Madness of Ixion will be available October 12th on CD and LP formats from Iron Bonehead.