Reign of Shadows is the climax of the album, the one song on the record that goes fully monumental. A full symphony and an SATB choir chanting with operatic intensity, dynamics that move from ominous whispers to thunderous crescendos. This is the peak of the night, the moment the veil is thinnest and the shadows rise.
Candles flicker, winds ignite, pumpkins grin in ghostly light. Reign, reign, reign of shadows, reign. Spirits call, the lost remain. The bridge builds layer by layer, section by section, like a choir assembling out of the dark. Down in the dark, the shadows rise. Under the moon, the shadows rise. Higher and higher, until the whole company lands together on rise, rise, rise.
I made a deliberate choice that this would be the only track that goes this big, and it is one of the most important decisions on the whole album. Other songs that were reaching for the same monumental, full-choir sound got pulled back on purpose, Phantom Parade among them, so that nothing competes with this moment. When you build toward one true peak instead of five, the peak actually lands. If everything is the climax, nothing is. This is the top of the mountain, right before the album lets you back down to earth.
Here is the fresh-music point I care about most with this song. When people imagine Halloween music, they picture something small and silly. They do not picture a cathedral of voices and a full orchestra treating the season with awe. But Halloween has that in it. All Hallows’ Eve is ancient and enormous and a little holy. It deserves at least one piece of music that reaches for grandeur. So I wrote one. Move over, novelty hour. There is room on the Halloween shelf for something that gives you chills in the best way.
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Coming next: my Christmas album, A Folklore Christmas. Pre-save it on Spotify and it drops straight into your library on release day.