For Black Spikes, the world of ‘Ydos’ was already taking shape before much of the music had even been written. Agni recalls an evening when she and Sime sat down and started discussing the kind of world they wanted to build around the new material. Human vices quickly became the foundation, and from there the band began imagining the demons that would inhabit it — even working out details such as their colours and visual characteristics. “We even created names for the demons,” Agni explains. “And then we just, you know, during the other process, like we had to find out how this demon sounds like.”

That concept also became a framework for how the band worked. While Agni and Sime were primarily responsible for the conceptual and visual side, Yaga brought most of the main musical ideas, with Mazvis contributing his own ideas and helping steer the songs in different directions. Rather than everyone trying to do everything, Black Spikes have found their own way of fitting the different pieces together. “It happened that in the team, each of us, we are having like very significant role in the band,” Agni says. “But we’re basically responsible for quite different things.”

The result is an album where the music and visuals are closely intertwined, something the band has noticed audiences picking up on as well. From the demons themselves to the colourful visual identity surrounding ‘Ydos’, those details are clearly more than decoration for Black Spikes. “It’s really nice,” Mazvis says, when discussing the fact that listeners notice the smaller details. “You’re not trying to like do something small and actually people notice it.”

Musically, Ydos also sees Black Spikes pushing further into the eclectic side of their sound. The band experimented with electronics and samples alongside their metal foundation, with some songs growing from riffs and others starting from a sample that caught their attention. “Half of the album was like, we have a riff. Let’s build around that. And half of the album is like, ooh, look at this cool sample I found,” Mazvis explains. That freedom didn’t mean every idea ultimately made it onto ‘Ydos’. Several songs were left aside because, while there was something interesting in them, the band couldn’t find a place for them within the album’s story. A concept can give a record direction, but it can also tell you when something doesn’t belong. “Sometimes you have this, like, main idea what you’re writing about,” Agni says, “but this idea not necessarily is very good with the concept.”

The band’s continued commitment to Lithuanian lyrics is another important part of making that story work. While ‘Ydos’ incorporates some English phrases, Black Spikes have found that their native language simply brings something different to the songs. At the same time, they are conscious that an international audience won’t necessarily understand the lyrics, which is why they provide English translations and captions alongside their videos. “There is a story behind it,” Agni explains. “So, it’s important for us still that… I know that people don’t understand the lyrics. But I really want that they could, you know, understand the story behind it.”

Now, however, the story is about to leave their hands. Agni is excited to finally release the album, although she is already thinking about the daunting blank page waiting afterwards. Mazvis has a different kind of challenge ahead: rediscovering songs that were written months ago once they return to the stage. “Some of those riffs and some of those songs were literally written a year ago,” he says. “I don’t even know how to play them.”

For now, Black Spikes are looking forward to their album presentation show in Lithuania and rebuilding their live performance around ‘Ydos’. The wider touring plans are still taking shape, but after the experience of their previous European run, they’re clearly eager to get back on the road. As for ‘Ydos’, the band has done its part. The demons have been created, the songs have been written, and the visuals have been built. Now it’s time to let their “lost children” go and see what happens when listeners finally get to enter the world Black Spikes have spent so long constructing.

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