Elias sat in his bedroom studio, the glow of a single monitor reflecting off his face. It was 2:00 AM, and he was stuck. He had lyrics—raw, emotional lines about a personal "ceremony" of moving on from a past version of himself—but his own guitar riffs felt too thin, too "standard rock."

: Shimmering, reverb-heavy lead lines floated over the heavy rhythm section, creating a sense of "beautiful chaos." The Creative Spark

He went to YouTube and typed in a specific mood: Deftones type beat . He wasn't looking to sound exactly like Chino Moreno; he was looking for that specific —down-tuned, heavy guitars paired with ethereal, swirling textures. Finding "Ceremony"