Billboard has the exclusive premiere of progressive metal band Soen’s new video, “Lucidity.” The track is from the band’s upcoming third album, Lykaia, arriving Feb. 3 on UDR Music.
“The song represents a time in my life when I unconsciously walked toward self-destruction,” explains drummer Martin Lopez. ” ‘Lucidity’ celebrates to an extent the death of that lifestyle and the birth of a new era. It’s dark but comforting. The music is soft and dreamy but carries the tension of a past life full of mistakes.”
“Lucidity,” as well as most of Lykaia’s music, was written by Lopez and vocalist Joel Ekelof. “Everything about Soen is a collective effort, but Joel and I have been the main songwriters since the beginning,” says Lopez. “We put our song ideas on the table.” Bassist Stefan Stenberg, guitarist Marcus Jidell and keyboardist Lars Ahlund “help us come up with a proper structure and add their personal touch to the music.”
While “Lucidity” is a quiet, pensive song, the rest of the album is “more uptempo. But we aim at maintaining a balance throughout the album, meaning that some of the elements of ‘Lucidity’ are present even in the heavier uptempo tracks,” says Lopez.
Watch the video for “Lucidity” below:
“Lykaia focuses more on emotion than our previous records,” observes Lopez. “It’s a modern-sounding progressive album that we decided to rely solely on the human touch instead of leaning on computer tricks and technology. We chose to avoid being part of the artificial soundscape that surrounds the music scene nowadays. We gave up the idea of reaching sound perfection and instead concentrated on making an hour of honest and emotionally charged music.”
Soen will embark on a European tour at the end of March with fellow progressive band Madder Mortem. Dates are listed below:
March 29: Copenhagen @ Stengade
March 30: Hamburg @ Logo
March 31: Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands @ W2 Poppodium
April 1: London @ 02 Academy Islington
April 2: Haarlem, the Netherlands @ Patronaat
April 3: Krefeld, Germany @ Kulturfabrik
April 4: Cologne, Germany @ Underground
April 5: Frankfurt, Germany @ Das Bett
April 6: Berlin @ Cassiopeia
April 7: Wroclaw, Poland @ Stara Piwnica
April 8: Kosice, Slovakia @ Colosseum
April 9: Graz, Austria @ PPC
April 11: Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Orto Bar
April 12: Vienna @ Arena
April 13: Munich, Germany @ Backstage Halle
April 14: Pratteln, Switzerland @ Konzertfabrik Z7
April 15: Paris @ Backstage O’Sullivans
For more information about Soen, visit the band’s Facebook page.