Relinquish The Light (Remastered)

Pull The Strings

December 1st, 2025

10 tracks

40:05

Relinquish The Light (Remastered)

Dying Breath

0:00

4:20

Return To The Frozen Moon

Pull The Strings

All her life she wanted to be an astronaut Fate would be kind, yet cruel Fast forward: expedition to the sun Ready or not, here it comes The sacrifice of the willing A monumental hunger There's something wrong with the force field (with the force field) No... No Things shouldn't be so difficult Once I get back home (like a naked foot stepping into magma) I will just take flight Return to the frozen moon The solar exodus has begun Race back to the satellite Back to near a vestige of safety Close to home We sought to find what's inside the core All who died now once had tried, but burned The core The core The sacrifice of the willing A monumental hunger There's something wrong with the force field Time's run out Evaporated in an instant Melted, burnt to thin gas

4:51

Cornus Florida

Pull The Strings

Just like clockwork the world changes season And every month fades away The memory of my youth is long gone Records of fondness disintegrate When every moth has found its flame And every false god is exhausted A glimpse of futile adoration passes Through existence into black Wherefore my heart beats everlong Blinking out of existence my only thought Green forests sway under the moonlight Not withstanding lust for the bleak fall And in the image in the back of my mind Two doors stand opposing Behind the first one is a love for life Behind the other is a noose hung high Goat lord give me strength not to die Death would be better than infection "I" Dogwood tree standing barren in the summer With evergreen forest surrounding Deep underground may it's roots never wither The only symbol of hope I have left Why does it all feel incomplete Is there strength yet to be donned Is every morning dew soaked lawn yearning Just the same as people killing the world Infected wretched, anthropic pestilence Worshipping brands and vehicles If there's a way out, a drain plug to be pulled Then that is what I'm searching for If there's a way out, a drain plug to be pulled That would be better Better than you and I Death would be better than this Bring me to that abyss Death would be better than this

5:50

In The Worst Way

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In the worst way... A psychopathic love took hold Though craziness is a term of old Many scarring memories in my head I hate it and I want you gone from this place In the worst way In the worst way In the worst way In the worst way All the years have passed away I still can't wait to end this pain In the worst way In the worst way

2:25

Hinnom

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Breathe your last breath Sink into the valley of Hinnom Synchronicity of being and sin Duplicity or innocent? Hold onto yourself Ashen one not yet dead Brazen, grasping for life's drip Phasing out, losing it Cycles of abuse Hellscape made just for two The inner city montage of killings The single mothers making no living A part of every good person left Withering, decaying Beds of chaos offer no hope Starving mouth agape Ready to swallow Hold onto yourself Ashen one not yet dead Brazen, grasping for life's drip Phasing out, losing it Chaos bedding close to home Ouroboros synchronized

3:29

Aurora

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Winds stronger than you've ever felt them before Frigid winter night Notice that the sky that is usually black isn't black tonight The town engulfed as if in flame Flame from the sky People stop to wonder in pure wonderment The elements dance to and fro The elements dance in the night Besieging our eyes The lights rain down from the aether You could almost touch the streaks themselves Their knees begin to weaken as the heavens wail The last vestiges of human amazement Not a single nihilist can turn away Is there more than meets the eye when the heavens dance? Is there beauty great enough to make this all worth it? Breaking through the barriers of the heart Is there beauty great enough? The last vestiges of human amazement Not a single nihilist can turn away Is there more than meets the eye when the heavens dance? Is there beauty great enough to make this all worth it? By the night - through the lights Is there beauty great enough...

5:01

Ghost Of Lust

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Lurking in the back of the mind Subliminal messages behind the eyes There's no respite from it From her The ghost of lust lives here In the corners, drawing near No safety from her evil clutches fierce Be careful what you wish for You'll get it Cease hungering for death Cloaked in intimacy and affection

2:45

Severed From Life

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Can't you see There are no redeeming qualities in us There is no paradise on the other side Yet it's better to die Rip my life out of this husk A greater purpose - a fucking joke The crown of death I long to wear it Lifeless and cold I sit upon the throne of nothing The very image of the human soul If it existed Would be a vanity mirror Rip my life out of this husk Leave me to decay in the open For all to mock For all to mock Left Left alone on this false crusade Shed Shed this mortal coil I finally rest Drag my essence through hell Suicide, take my life Entropy of the mind Put a bullet through my skull and give me my own nirvana The black calls and I must go home My only wish, please grant it No fucking more

4:53

Dying Breath

Pull The Strings

Creeping from the back of the mind Towards the back of the eyes Through and out Into the room Of the hospital Awaiting doom Thoughts of why Didn’t I Make amends Be a better friend And son, sibling, and husband Dying breath Whisper “too late” Too late To make Things change Dying breath Whimper; nothing As I pass on Nobody is there Alone Alone Suffering is over But feeling is never coming back Feeling is never coming back Suffering is over Flame blown out Dying breath Too late To make Things change Dying breath

4:20

Hell Is Here

Pull The Strings

Bleak summer night Shouldn’t that be impossible Driving late takes my mind To the darkest places And all the while what’s expected of us Too much to fucking bear And what’s left of our souls When at the end of the day we have nothing left to give Black thoughts creep in There is nothing Nothing worth living for anymore I am sure Hell is here Demons confide In my ears tonight “Nothing else can be done, just give up, drive off a cliff” “You won’t regret it” And all the while what’s expected of us Too much to fucking bear And what’s left of our souls When at the end of the day we have nothing left to give Black thoughts creep in There is nothing Nothing worth living for anymore I am sure Hell is here Hell is here

2:57

Indigo (Realization)

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The falltime brings my heart home Evergreen and dying leaves mingle The feeling I get when smoking my last cigarette in the cool weather The scope of my life, zooming out and sensing pleasure All my life I've wanted to be loved by a reflection of myself And now I see, in the ending of this year, that isn't happening Not like that No, that isn't happening No, that isn't happening like that

3:34

It's hard to put into a short paragraph what Pull The Strings means to me, or what it even is. It started equally as a joke and as a natural conclusion. A joke, because my vocals in this project have always been quite strange, especially when I first figured out how to croak them out. And it's also the natural result of the experimentation that I apply to all of my projects, a distillation of my tastes and musical abilities.

I want to say a few words about what Pull The Strings is to me.

My whole life, I've dealt with severe depression. I didn't know that anything was wrong when I was a kid, but there was always this opaque sense of unhappiness. As I got older and found myself in abusive, traumatizing situations, I developed deeper illnesses. And when I turned 24, and I realized I was bipolar and autistic, I finally accepted that I am truly disabled, by any reasonable definition. Living and finding fulfillment in this society is very difficult for me, and music has always been my escape.

It started as a young kid, just me and my guitar, and heavy music. I found black metal at one point or another, and was fascinated. But it wasn't until I discovered post-black metal that I truly connected with the genre. That's the stuff that spoke to me, and would ultimately influence my writing for Pull The Strings.

So in time, I began putting my pain into lyrics, and my lyrics into song. The first Pull The Strings demo was Cornus Florida, which appears on this album. The lyrics reflect the bitterness that I was feeling, as well as the last hope for me on that particular day: seeing the blossoming dogwood tree outside my window, as I was pacing, writing this song. Sometimes, it's impossible to see through the screen of depression. But that day, that natural beauty was undeniable.

Pull The Strings has always been a progressive take on black metal, even in these earlier, more raw and primitive songs. It's not for everyone. The vocals are unique, to say the least. But I stand by this album. I know that for every critic, there's someone who will connect with it in a cool way. I want to say to anyone who's ever supported this project: thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was just my weird little side project, and now it's on cassette tapes and hard drives all over the world.

For the 2-year anniversary of this album, I wanted to revisit the sound of it, and give it some fresh life. I found my old lyric journals and typed out all the lyrics. I also had a track that I wrote during the same period of time that I never released, that I think is one of the best Pull The Strings tracks to date. That song, "Indigo (Realization)" is included here as a bonus track.

Black lathe-cut vinyl is available through ElasticStage. To order, visit: https://elasticstage.com/pullthestrings

Video retrospective on the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXfyNDX_1c4

Credits

All music and lyrics written and recorded by Alan Brucke, except for the guest vocals on track 7, which were written and recorded by Adrian Gutierrez

Relinquish The Light (Remastered)

Pull The Strings

Credits

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