The idea for Fractured Destiny came to me about a month before the release date, as I was sitting and listening to the tenth track, The Depths. I had never made a song with quite the soundscape featured in The Depths, and I appreciated it so much that I decided to build a whole world around it. The idea was so inspiring that the songs came like lightning, which is why I am able to release it only a month after its inception. As an instrumental concept album, Fractured Destiny seeks to capture a story, using nothing but music. I had a very specific story in mind which I used as the framework for the album (a more detailed version of which can be found on my website), but the beauty of music is that its meaning is malleable; you're interpretation could be very different from what I sought to portray, and still be entirely accurate, spawned from the emotions that the music generates. As long as it makes you feel something, I'm satisfied. The story is as follows. There are three characters, represented by three themes that appear throughout the album. These themes are subtle, and they share some characteristics just as the characters share characteristics, but they are very distinct in instrument choices and musical ideas (I cover this in-depth on my website as well). The three characters are battling over control of a desert kingdom called Eremus. The first character is the Farmer, who is told by God that he will reign over the kingdom. However, he faces adversity that causes him to doubt the truth of the call. The second character is the King of the Sand, a power hungry lord who initiates a coup and seizes the throne. His obsession with power drives him towards insanity. The third and final character is the Conqueror of Worlds, a foreign war monger on the warpath. He has set his sights on Eremus and is approaching with his armies, much to the terror of Eremus' citizens. Against all odds, the King of the Sand manages to defeat the Conqueror of Worlds, and the Farmer defeats the King of the Sand, fulfilling his destiny and taking the throne. Unfortunately, the battle between the Conqueror of Worlds and the King of the Sand has nearly destroyed Eremus, leaving the Farmer with a crumbling empire that he must rebuild. Hence the name, Fractured Destiny. As I said from the beginning, the goal of the album is to get you to feel something, so I highly recommend listening to it all the way through, in order to properly identify the different themes and how they develop and work off of each other. Despite the short time-frame, I did put a high degree of effort into this project, and I'm very proud of the end result. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.