The first motif of the song appeared back in 2011 — it’s still saved under the name 2011_1.mp3. At that time, we had just bought a new symphonic orchestra library, ProjectSAM Symphobia, which was a real breakthrough for us. We immediately started exploring it, playing with the sounds… and a motif was born that we instantly loved and that became the foundation for the future song.
The melody sounded mysterious and dark, with a hint of grim triumph, and it was very catchy — just one listen and it stayed in your head. Interestingly, sometimes all it takes for inspiration or new ideas is a new instrument. For us, it was Symphobia: exploring its sounds gave us a gripping riff and a memorable melody that eventually developed into a full track.
The first versions of the song were already quite contrasting: grand, dense orchestral sections alternated with quiet atmospheric gaps and pauses. After the first verse, there was a grotesque piano fragment, with a female voice performing on top, narrating the blurred boundaries between beauty and grotesque. After the second verse, the listener would hear a “bare” orchestra to appreciate the symphonic beauty, then powerful guitars would kick in — and you just wanted to headbang with all your might.
In this demo we recorded the male vocals of our friend:
...and the first lyrics:
This is more than just a box
This is key to the Underworld
World of pleasure Realised in mutilations.
The incessant hunger for
Inhibited types of love
Will be satisfied By cenobites completely.
Here you will be given
With the Despair and the Terror.
You will know how many ways
Exist for getting pleasure
By every part of your flesh.
The distinction between the ugliness and the beauty
Is washed away with your cold sweat and teardrops.
They will show us how to get outside the limits of human abilities.
A thousand little cuts
A hundred deep bites
The expansion of sensation to extremely painful points…
This is more that just a coition,
It’s the outburst of emotions.
O, lament Mystery -
The spring of Sacred Thoughts.
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All the tortures and aches
Due to steel hooked chains
Will be lasting Eternally.
I’ll be sincerely yours.
Take my body completely for
Making Love.
In 2012, the song went into the drawer and stayed there until 2020. Friends from the Kyiv band Ignea inspired us to bring it back to life. Together with them, we recorded the mini-album Bestia. Riding that wave, we decided to refine our music and share it with the world. We made a recording at the end of 2021… and then the war started, and all plans went off track. Despite this, we kept working, evolving the song and giving it a new life.
The new breakdown after the first verse became lonely, emphasizing hopelessness, isolation, and the inevitability of paying for insatiable curiosity and lust. The protagonist enters the Puzzle world, where a gentle, sad female voice softly warns: “Once you open the Puzzle, you won’t escape the Prince of Pain; you already belong to him.”
An interesting fact: the motif of the new breakdown after the first verse, lonely and cosmic in atmosphere, became the basis for the music in a mini-shooter. Even though it lasts about ten minutes, there are parts that give goosebumps.
The original theme appears at 01:10.
The bridge after the second verse was completely reworked. What was once the main theme at the beginning became an epic symphonic fragment with a powerful climax, presenting the Cenobites. At this moment, the track fully unfolds, and then returns to the main theme, slightly modified — the protagonist has already realized the truth of the Puzzle.
Contrasts were enhanced not only by timbres and lyrics, but also through the development of harmonies and drum parts. Vocal processing was arranged to reference the original Hellraiser movie — to capture the sound of a Female Cenobite.
And the final demo version recorded in November 2021:
The initial idea was a tribute to the legendary franchise, but over time the track evolved into a philosophical concept: questions of predestination. If inner demons are coded into your way of thinking, do you really have a choice, or will you inevitably fall into the hands of the Cenobites? The closing line "dirty seed spires within your reverie" subtly reflects this sense of inevitable fate and choice.
For Reap Souls, there are direct quotes from Clive Barker, references to Pinhead and his pleasure tools — chains and hooks. Immersion into the Cenobite world happens through the Lemarchand Configuration puzzle box: opening it, the protagonist gives his last confession to the grim Cenobite monks and enters their realm of pleasures. Among the characters is the Prince of Pain, aka Pinhead, the high priest of the Cenobites, while the other Cenobites collect souls for him to deliver to Leviathan. The listener goes through this journey alongside the protagonist: first curiosity, then suspense — the warning that your actions will not go unnoticed. Next, the prospect of losing your soul in exchange for pleasures beyond human comprehension unfolds, and the orchestral section shakes the listener, revealing Leviathan’s plan and his servants — soul collectors who seduce through disappointment, insatiable hunger, and lust.
The idea of creating an artbook as a CD alternative came in the fall of 2021. Our vocalist started learning to draw on a tablet, taking a course from November to December, drawing every day from simple lines and circles to complex forms. Even during a week-long trip home, which turned into three months because of the war, she kept working to stay sane.
For Reap Souls, the visual concept became a girl who underwent a Cenobite-style transformation: her internal organs are represented as gold and gemstones. She turned out both sensual and eerie — exactly what we needed. This artwork was prominently used for the album cover and merchandise, visually reinforcing the song’s atmosphere.
The design of the cube was based on the original ornament, but we redrew it from memory, infusing it with our own vision. First, we sketched the visible sides and then assembled them together to give the cube a realistic presence.
In the initial version of the artwork, the cube was levitating above the heads of the Cenobites, led by Pinhead. However, the Cenobites themselves looked too “clay-like,” so in the end, only the cube made its way into the artbook.
