This album has a lengthy history, serving as both a prequel and sequel.

It all began in the years between 2005-08, when I was working on a follow up to my first album, “Swan Soliloquy of a Deehtrelict”. I had recorded almost a hundred demos. Some were finished songs, while most were unfinished sketches. Around this time, I had been fighting writer’s block because I wanted to change The Scroll’s sound from a bombastic style, to more nuanced form of songwriting. I now call these recordings my “Block Sessions”.
Some of the tracks that were recorded during this time were early versions of ‘La Pieta! La Grazia! La Misericordia! La Distruzione!’, ‘I Wish I Was a Robot So I Wouldn’t Give a Rat’s Ass About Your Codswallop’, ‘This Modern Bonnie and Clyde Thing’, ‘Witness’, ‘PSYOP Baby’, ‘Despair’, ‘Manchild’, and ‘A Mermaid Gasping for Air’. All these songs were not chosen for my second album (…and the man who sees his own wraith…) because I felt that they still needed work.

In 2010, a year after my second album’s release, I started working on my third album. I had enough finished songs and sketches from the Block Sessions to fill up at least 2 future full-length albums.
Unfortunately, while I was exporting a song from my digital 8-track recorder, the machine screwed up and froze all my work inside. This meant that I could not save or export anything. So all the hundreds of hours of work were now caught in a stubborn machine.
I tried getting the thing fixed, but the retailer couldn’t do anything about it. They told me I had to reinstall it, thus losing everything. I refused to do that.
After a few days of depression, I decided to forget about recording altogether.

Fast-forward to 2012…
I felt the itch to record my third album. “Constant Public Humiliation” was recorded in two weeks with new recording software, so my screwed up 8 track recorder was not needed. Two songs from the Block Sessions, ‘Polygamy (Problems with Wife #3)’ and ‘Dance Dance on GHB’, appeared on the album. They were somehow salvaged from the machine (I forget how).

Fast-forward to 2016…
I found a demo of an early version of ‘Jinxed for Love’ on a burned CD that I had recorded back in 2005 during the Block Sessions. I decided to put it on my fourth album, “It Will Never Come, Lover”.

Fast-forward to 2020…
I had just finished recording two albums, “Zizi Mortel” and “The Doppelgänger is Unburdened”, and felt that I had a third full length album in me.
I recorded early guitar sketches of ‘The Dizzy Redhead in the Tides of Mont Saint-Michel’, ‘Today is a Great Day to Start Loving Yourself’, and ‘The Origin of the Superstition is Unknown’.
Before I could complete those songs, the pandemic (and other factors) ruined me financially. I tried to continue to record, but I was too sad about the state of my life, at the time. Still, I did find the energy to record one track: ‘Aerobic Agony (Hex 3)’.

Fast-forward to 2022…
A lot had changed in the matter of a few years. I wanted to continue to work on my 7th album. I decided to go through the Block Sessions on the 8 track recorder to get some inspiration. I knew couldn’t export the recordings, but I could at least listen to them. I was surprised to see that there was a lot there that was worth working on.
Instead of re-recording songs, I decided to reach out to my recording artist buddy Pierre to see if he could salvage my Block Session songs from my machine. Thankfully, he succeeded in getting most of it out!

Now that I could finally work on the Block Session songs, I immediately decided to complete two tracks that were meant to be on my third album: ‘I’m Back and Off the Crack’ and the original version of ‘Love is Boring’. I immediately added them to the re-release of “Constant Public Humiliation”.

Next, was the new album…
In winter of 2022, I completed the ‘The Origin of the Superstition is Unknown’, and then focused on Block Session songs ‘Witness’, ‘PSYOP Baby’, ‘Despair’, ‘Manchild’, and ‘A Mermaid Gasping for Air’. The last three have some of my original vocals, which means I’m harmonizing with my 20 something self. Weird.

I decided to wait until the winter of 2023 to continue my sessions. ‘The Dizzy Redhead in the Tides of Mont Saint-Michel’ and ‘Today is a Great Day to Start Loving Yourself’ were completed first, then I did the rest of the Block Sessions: ‘La Pieta! La Grazia! La Misericordia! La Distruzione!’, ‘I Wish I Was a Robot So I Wouldn’t Give a Rat’s Ass About Your Codswallop’, and ‘This Modern Bonnie and Clyde Thing’.
Feeling inspired, I recorded three new songs, ‘Dull Yeyo High’, ‘Glaze (Hex 2)’, ‘FixMeLoveBrokenLove’.

Finished. Done.

My 7th album, “Adorations from the Gutter of a Crumbling Empire”, is an end of a chapter of sorts. With every release, I’ve always resorted to using older demos to make up for at least a third of the music. Now, with almost no more Block Session demos left, there is a “clearing of the house” feel. The well is dry. All is sold. Now it’s time to move on to new music. A blank slate. Carte blanche.

“Adorations from the Gutter of a Crumbling Empire” is not a concept album. Lyrically, it’s diverse and touches on many things like world corruption, being uprooted, pure love, broken love, love with a yakuza, emotional numbness, loving yourself, shallow love, love vs religion, love in corruption, the lies of superstitions, despair, not growing up, trying to feel love and… Jamie Lee Curtis in Perfect?
The music and lyrics are very much The Scroll, but there is an added trauma in the undertow. I hear it and feel it. Between the notes and the words.

“Adorations from the Gutter of a Crumbling Empire” was meant to be my third album but became my seventh, embodying both old and new, a fusion of my history.