Black Breath

Album: Horrified (1989)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Black Breath" was written by Matt Olivo and Scott Carlson, and is identified as being written in the early part of the album-filling process. Given the usual pace of Repulsion songs, this one is so slow that it almost qualifies as a waltz!
    In the book Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, Matt Olivo describes the process of collaborating with Scott Carlson: "As far as songwriting goes, there were a couple of different modes that we were in back in those days - sometimes Scott would come over with pretty much a whole song, which I would contribute a riff to. And then sometimes I would come to Scott with a couple of ideas, and then he would add a couple ideas to it." Olivo identifies "Black Breath" as one of the best songs to come out of this process, explaining that it came together "like coca powder and milk."
  • Also in Precious Metal, when recalling the most vivid memories of the studio, Scott Carlson says, "When I started to cut the vocals, the engineer just fell out of his chair laughing. I think the first song that I did was 'Black Breath,' and he was sitting in there with Olivo and he literally fell off his chair and was rolling around laughing when I started singing. So that didn't really make me feel all that comfortable, but luckily Matt and Aaron were there, so I just looked at them and went for it."
    In fact, Scott Carlson was recovering from a case of strep throat when they started recording Horrified. He kept practicing anyway, and when he recovered enough to record, he discovered that his voice was able to get into a higher register. This was considered a blessing, as he'd always been self-conscious about how deep his voice was before.
  • Entombed also did a cover version of "Black Breath" on their 2002 compilation album Sons of Satan Praise the Lord.

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