Today, Poets of the Fall has shared a snippet of a very early version of their iconic song, Carnival of Rust, teasing back the curtain into what goes on throughout the iteration process.
In case you didn't know, 2026 marks the twentieth anniversary and the Carnival of Rust and the incredible song that gave the album its title. Perhaps their best-known collection, the piece is still a standout in the Finnish music industry two decades later and still rates highly on those community-driven music leaderboards.
Their songs usually go through two to thirty iterations before they're fully completed, and with Carnival of Rust, they hit gold on the fourteenth version. In today's teaser, the main riff is played with an electric guitar and at a slightly faster tempo.
If you're wondering why we're talking a lot about Poets of the Fall recently, you may know them by their alter ego, Old Gods of Asgard. Their collaboration with Remedy began in 2003, when their debut song, "Late Goodbye," was featured in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Later, they took on a different form, adopting the in-game name of Old Gods of Asgard for Alan Wake, Control, and Alan Wake 2.
Check out the full video from Poets of the Fall, HERE!
Transcript
Sound familiar?
This is an early demo of Carnival of Rust from around 2005
The main riff is played with an electric guitar.
The tempo is also slightly faster and the key is E.
It's a semitone higher in the final.
The lyrics already contain a lot of familiar phrases.
But we bet you can spit a few differences too.
This kind of sounds like the chorus we know, but also not?
This chorus would eventually become the 3rd chorus in the final version, with some lyric changes.
Typically each song goes through about 10 to 30 iterations until it done
Carnival of Rust (the released track) is vession 14
