When Anas Ibn Malek Abid listened back to “King of the Undying” recently, he decided to start over with the guitars. The 8:47 instrumental originally appeared on Duat, his 2017 solo album, though he now says the performances and production no longer reflected what he wanted the composition to sound like.
Speaking exclusively to AFRICA.ROCKS, Abid explained that part of the frustration came from the guitar he had used at the time, a Schecter Omen 7, which he later moved away from: “I had sold my 7 strings guitar between the moment I had recorded it and the moment I decided to send it to Daniel of the Liquid Studios for the mixing and mastering,” he said. “I’d been frustrated with it in retrospect. I had recorded it with a Schecter Omen 7, and over time I realized that guitar didn’t align with my playing style or my sonic identity.”
After returning to Ibanez guitars during the recording of this year’s Escape Velocity EP, he felt the difference immediately: “I switched back to Ibanez recently with which I recorded my latest EP Escape Velocity and I felt the energy and fire growing back again for that kind of low tuned sounds,” he told AFRICA.ROCKS. “The instrument responds to my phrasing differently. You can hear more nuance, more of my actual ‘voice’ coming through.”
The rerecorded version of “King of the Undying” includes entirely new guitar takes and additional melodic sections. Abid and Daniel Thabet also changed the recording process itself. Rhythm guitars were quadtracked, with four layers recorded for each section, and all guitars were captured as DI before reamping at Liquid Studios in Vermont.
According to Abid, the setup gave them more freedom during mixing and editing while keeping detail in the performances: “We’ve used digital solutions, two tracks with Line 6 amplifier simulation, and valve amps using the well known Peavey 6505 boosted with an overdrive,” he said. “We got the best of the two world.”
Musically, the track still moves through the same ideas that shaped the original version. Dissonant piano sections drive the opening minutes before the piece shifts into guitar-led passages built around Balkan and Irish melodies. Progressive metal riffing and shredding sections continue to run through the arrangement alongside jazz undertones and folk-inspired sections.
“The track itself merges opposing territories,” Abid explained to AFRICA.ROCKS. “Technical piano and jazz undertones anchor the opening before yielding to guitar-driven narrative across Balkan and Irish melodic territories. Shredding sequences and typical progressive riffing a la Dream Theater interrupt these folk passages, creating tension between virtuosity and emotion, rawness and fury.”
He also spoke about the title and why he kept it unchanged for the rerecorded version: “On one level, it speaks to persistence, something that refuses to die, that endures through transformation,” he said. “On another, it’s about the undying dialogue between technical complexity and human emotion, between cultures, between silence and sound. The ‘King’ isn’t a conqueror. It’s the composition itself, sovereign in its refusal to resolve neatly.”
The rerecorded version of “King of the Undying” arrives shortly after Escape Velocity, which marked Abid’s first solo release in several years. Both releases were produced with Daniel Thabet, whose work with Abid also stretches across AIM Project, EnomaE and SamJna.
Buy/Stream “King of the Undying” on Bandcamp.
