At your command – Empowerment and odd time signatures

One of the most extravagant songs I ever wrote is “At your command”. An epic piece of epic progressive metal about empowerment and motivation. But what makes this song so special?

A ping pong collaboration

It’s hard to believe, that “At your command” has been written during the composition of another song. Messing around with odd time signatures, I suddenly had a guitar riff in mind that worked in 5/4. So I composed the drum rhythm and bassline around the riff, not noticing the rhythmic and melodic weirdness. I sent a draft to Chris, who wrote lyrics and recorded vocals in an instant. His lyrics motivated me to change the structure of the song. We reached about 5 minutes of track length after I added two more parts. Next, I wrote down the tabs for DJ, who recorded the guitars, and he came back with a cool idea for a solo.

Odd time signatures and polyrhythms

I did not notice the weirdness of that song until I wrote down the tabs and time signature sheets for the guitarist. I thought everything is 5/4 with a twist, but this song uses 6/4, 19/4 and 4/4. If this was not weird enough, I just notice, that the first piano part is playing in 9/4 whereas I change to a triplet pattern in the middle of the song, creating unintentional polyrhythms.

Fun fact: I struggled with polyrhythms for years, and now this song happened and felt natural for me. Maybe it just happened, because I didn’t think about it. I have been completely absorbed in the atmosphere and rhythm, that I just played something on top, not noticing that I’m doing triplets and septuplets.

Chords that don’t exist

You may be surprised about the fact, that the rhythm guitars play one chord except on the bridge. Most harmonies in these songs are illusions created by the arpeggios of the lead guitar and piano. All instruments together create tons of nameless tension chords.

Though “At your command” has been written and recorded in February and March 2022, we decided to add it to my album “Going My Way” which mostly contains songs from 2021. I just needed something positive and epic to close the album. You can listen to our song on YouTube and SoundCloud, too. I’d like to thank Chris and DJ for this awesome collab!