I find myself slightly late to the party, wanting to talk about Quadeca’s most recent album, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper. Released on July 25th via X8 Records, Vanisher, Horizon Scraper (shortened to Vanisher for ease), is Quadeca’s fifth and arguably most anticipated album. Considering the project has been out for over a week, maybe more, depending on when I finish writing, I’d usually feel a little apprehensive about completing a review at all, as most journalists have already covered all the bases. However, through Vanisher, Quadeca has created this lush and thorough universe that has a fixed story, yet leaves room for creative interpretation and deep discussion. His fanbase is blossoming like never before, with Vanisher still being widely talked about rather than being slipped right back onto the shelf of other 2025 releases. This passion is what inspires me to write my review on Vanisher, Horizon Scraper.
[ Vanisher, Horizon Scraper Front and Back Cover Art ]
On a base level, Vanisher is a modern apocalyptic folklore that follows a man who sets sail alone in search of freedom, but unknowingly drifts towards ultimate destruction. He is guided by the wind, vibrant memories, and a crackling radio. This escape he once romanticized begins to unravel as he progressively begins to lose control, becoming obsessed with this unreachable horizon. As the world starts to fall to natural disasters, the sailor is challenged with myth and reality, watching as the legendary sea serpent Bakunawa consumes the moon. In his final moments, he manages to grasp a piece of the horizon, effectively triggering a world-ending tsunami that ends the story as we know it.
If you’re feeling confused by the synopsis, don’t stress about it. The world of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper, is vast and relies a lot on you paying attention to the album's instrumentals, lyrics, and coinciding music videos. However, through this review, I hope to leave you with a slightly better understanding of what you may be getting yourself into, alongside expressing my general thoughts and opinions, which sometimes may come off as glazing, but they certainly don’t call Quadeca a ‘creative maverick’ for nothing; his work deserves the praise.
[ Photo via Brendon Burton ]
‘NO QUESTIONS ASKED’ is Vanisher’s opening track. It begins very coastal, with a textured soundscape of shakers, lightly plucking guitar and a comfortable drum rumbling through the speakers. It doesn’t take long for the suspense to start building, with a deep piano beginning to assert its dominance at the forefront of the track, inviting in new layers of shaking metal and crashing waves to find their place in the mix. ‘NO QUESTIONS ASKED’ acts like a prelude to the Vanisher story, providing this simple introduction of what to expect as the album continues on. Through those coastal sounds, listeners are placed directly at this empty harbourfront, as if they can imagine the brash waters crashing against the rocky shore. As the track progresses, the clear sky becomes overcast, exactly how it is within Quadeca’s skillfully directed music video, and the mugginess of the weather seems to ward off other sailors, leaving us directly with our muse, the open sea, and the voice in his head repeating “I’ll be there when no one is”.
Moving into ‘WAGING WAR,’ we’re introduced to an establishing moment in the album. It’s here where we see our sailor make the decision to embark on his journey, ultimately deciding he is better suited for a life at sea than stuck on land. The song’s title, ‘WAGING WAR,’ acts as a double entendre to describe the actions of our sailor and the movement of his newfound passion, the sea. For the sailor, he may be dealing with this mental turmoil that has left him at war with his mind. In an attempt to ease it, he decides to take on the war of the ocean, substituting one battle with another. Alongside Quadeca, OLEKA provides a set of vocals on ‘WAGING WAR’, which acts as this additional perspective to the story, another voice on the matter. To me, her vocals act as Quadeca’s, the sailors', moral rock, and perhaps represent a past lover that he uses to keep himself grounded. When you take into account the fact that her vocals become washed out at the end of the track while Quadeca’s only grow louder, listeners may realize that, regardless of how much she may linger and attempt to change the narrative, the sailor will always have the final say on his life, even if his decision may not be the right one.
‘RUIN MY LIFE’ offers this moment of grace after two theatrical and productionally heavy songs. All the footage surrounding the track pictures the sailor out at sea as he begins to navigate this new way of living. There’s this simple yet gorgeous acoustic guitar that plays throughout the bulk of the song, often existing without any additional instrumentation. Its exclusive sound is this subtle reminder of our sailors' loneliness and isolation while out at sea, as after packing only the essentials, he wouldn’t be able to have anything more than his single instrument. Initially, none of this seclusion and minimalist life seems to bother him, with Quadeca declaring, “So I might have to ruin my life to make it mine”, a justification for his actions. However, there’s a moment in ‘RUIN MY LIFE’ that feels nightmareish and regretful, where over and over the question “What have you done?” is posed.
This spiralling anxiety reaches a halt in ‘GODSTAINED’ where immediately, the sailor stumbles across a message in a bottle, one that directs him back to shore, left to confront everything he left behind, everything he was attempting to run from. Being the first single off Vanisher, ‘GODSTAINED’ has had a lot of time to sit and simmer with listeners. Even now, the fans still seem to hold a fond place in their hearts for the bossa nova-style track, even if ‘GODSTAINED’ now sits lower on their rankings for the entire project. When revisiting the song in context with the rest of Vanisher, I found myself appreciating ‘GODSTAINED’ even more than before, as its placement in the story is rather important. It acts as almost this restarting point, paralleling ‘NO QUESTIONS ASKED’ in terms of sound. This time, however, instead of jumping headfirst into the idea of sailing as an avoidance tactic, our sailor seems to overcome and move into a rational state of mind, returning to the land.
The introspective ‘AT A TIME LIKE THIS’ comes after the sailor has perhaps spent a bit too much time on land, where the sailor, in his loneliness, begins to hyperfocus on this fear of growing old. This looming feeling brings the sailor back out to sea, officially abandoning the idea of a life on land. He wants to explore and see the world more before his sand timer runs out. The somewhat jazzy end of ‘AT A TIME LIKE THIS’ allows for a smooth transition into ‘MONDAY’. Released as the second single, ‘MONDAY’ stuck with me immediately, as there's a beauty that graces this track both lyrically and production-wise. I don’t think many listeners will struggle to enjoy ‘MONDAY’, with it holding this universal appeal. During this track, we find our sailor yearning for a former lover, possibly someone who was formerly keeping his sanity in check. I say this as ‘MONDAY’ serves as this darker turning point in the story, where the sailor is “losing my [His] grip on the runway”, slipping away from his reality into a sea-induced psychosis.
‘DANCING WITHOUT MOVING ’ leads us sonically into a world that is musically heavier and more grounded, with the flute beginnings and small breaks in between acting like a red herring. Everything about ‘DANCING WITHOUT MOVING’ is lush and rhythmic, a bit of a standout on Vanisher… something that I cannot say for ‘THAT'S WHY’. Though I don’t believe there's anything inherently wrong with ‘THAT’S WHY’, it wasn’t completely my cup of tea, despite the familiarity circling the track. It’s a prominently vocal-based song, forcing listeners to pay attention to what Quadeca is trying to say. If you’re driven by music based on its meaning, what the worlds hold, this could be the perfect song for you. However, if you prefer something more dynamic, I’d steer my ship in another direction.
There isn’t a lot to say about ‘I DREAM ABOUT SINKING’, not because it’s a horrendous song, but because it serves as a complete instrumental interlude. Have you ever been to an aquarium or museum where the lights are dimmed, there’s an ominous glowing blue hue in the entire room, and there are these deep ocean sounds flooding out of the speakers? If yes, then hold that memory close when you listen to ‘I DREAM ABOUT SINKING’ as it captures this essence perfectly. The textures and layers of this track are nearly overwhelming, striking this anxiety-inducing feeling right into my gut. Quadeca has managed to translate the duality of the ocean sonically. On one hand, we’re hearing the serene, crystal clear, and near dreamlike elements, and on the other, you have this eerie feeling of drowning, your lungs filling with water as you sink like a rock. ‘I DREAM ABOUT SINKING’ is about being at peace with your own demise.
‘NATURAL CAUSES’ snaps listeners immediately back into reality, leaving whatever peace we found behind. This is paranoia, this is erriness, this is someone being aware that they are out of their mind, but absolutely nothing to stop it; it’s completely out of their hands now. Everything about ‘NATURAL CAUSES’ freaks me out, especially the bell tolls, as although I know they’re there, I never expect them.
Now, I have a plethora of personal favourites of Vanisher, but nothing hits me quite as hard as ‘THUNDRRR’. This song is INSANE. It’s so vastly different than anything else on the project, which means it should stick out like a sore thumb. However, ‘THUNDRRR’ just acts as the climax to the entire plot and album, where something deep down finally snaps, sending the sailor into this ego-driven crashout. Some people online have compared ‘THUNDRRR’ to the sailor hitting his breaking point and believing that he is a true god or deity, and I adore that concept, as it makes sense that after all this time isolated, surviving on the dangerous sea, the sailor believes he could be nothing less than holy- comparable to Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. Musically, every single instrument we hear on ‘THUNDRRR’ is strong. From the high strings to the bass, and of course the drums, Quadeca proves he “loves to steal the thunder”, capturing the natural sound and spitting it back out in the form of a song.
Our godly sailor gets challenged by a real deity in ‘THE GREAT BAKUNAWA’. The Bakunawa is a myth from the Philippines that focuses on this massive dragon that is known as the moon-eater. In myth, it’s been known to cause lunar eclipses alongside other natural disasters, being this powerful force of nature. Danny Brown, who is featured on the song, sings from the perspective of Bakunawa, while Quadeca continues the sailors' perspective. There’s this great push or pull between the two, as the sailor is somewhat put back into place, with Bakunawa reminding the sailor that he is no god, he is only a man. While we are unaware of the full battle that goes on between the two, we do know that Bakunawa brings the sailor to his demise.
‘FORGONE’ is a roughly seven-minute track that details the sailor's last moments before death. It’s a piano ballad that reflects on everything the sailor has gone through, both before and after he hit the sea and the loss of his love, giving us a conclusion to the winding story of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper. As much as I wish I could say ‘FORGONE’ perfectly wraps up the album, with the sailor's body being washed back out into the sea to die among the waves, the standard version of Vanisher has one final song titled ‘CASPER’. Sung by Maruja, ‘CASPER’ is this post-death song that transitions us into Vanishers' official conclusion, one that is hollow and bare. Personally, I believe that ‘CASPER’ leaves Vanisher on a strange note, as compared to ‘FORGONE’, ‘CASPER’ lacks the theatrical and conclusive elements you would expect from such a well-thought-out album like Vanisher.
Outside of the slightly disappointing ending, it’s clear that Quadeca has not only made a great album but a thoughtful piece of art. From the effort and care put into the lyrics and production to the sheer amount of effort it took to film the accompanying movie, especially as Quadeca decided to learn how to sail for full authenticity, Quadeca proves that he is not only a standout musician but a once-in-a-lifetime creative.
You can listen to Vanisher, Horizon Scraper now on all streaming platforms.
You can watch the full Vanisher Horizon Scraper Album Movie HERE.
You can find tickets to Quadeca’s upcoming tour HERE.
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