The song "The Hunter" came about after browsing through this book on Alaskan Survival stories. There was this short story that caught my attention about an old hunter who goes out on a hunt, and basically everything goes wrong for him. It takes place up in Alaska in the 1960's, at that time there were still people who hunted for their own food and that was how they survived. This guy goes out with one horse and supplies for a week or two, right at the end of fall to gather food for the long winter ahead. A terrible snow storm hits early, which he's not fully prepared for, and takes him off guard. He is stranded at his base camp for almost a month. The weather is so treacherous, he'd die if he tried to head back home. His horse quickly dies on him and he starts to run out of food fast but he keeps saying to himself, he's been here before, hell get out of it somehow. By the end of it you're really rooting for the guy to survive and make it back home. He finally musters up the courage to brave the weather, but eventually old man winter gets the best of him and he dies out there. It was an amazing read and inspired me to write a song based on that. The lyrics would tell the story and the music would be the soundtrack for the lyrics, like a soundtrack to a movie. Each riff goes with what's happening in the lyrics. I've never wrote music before with a theme in mind, so it was very fun coming up with stuff as the story goes on. That song really set the tone for the rest of the record.