Opening to the sound of Mellotron flutes and vocals as well as whirling synthesizers, we are led to a narration by a text-to-speech voice (Charles UK) talking about an “altered future.” In this world we are without death and the human need for rest, though it’s increasingly black—digital black. “Welcome To An Altered Future” welcomes us to the third and final story of Murder of the Universe, (released June 23rd, 2017) entitled “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of The Muder of the Universe.” Stu explained the story like this. “…the third chapter is ‘Han-Tyumi and The Murder of the Universe’…I don’t know, I’ve been reading a lot of things lately. Some people say, a lot of people say that humanity’s greatest threat may be, at this point in time, A.I.” The song operates as an intro, even being called that during the album’s production.
Like it does on the album, “Welcome to the Altered Future” opens up Jason Galea’s music video for “Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe.” Its segment of the video shows red LCD text above a bleak, brown Earth.
The first known performance of the song was on 2017-09-23 during the Audiotree Music Festival in Kalamazoo. The song would be played throughout the rest of 2017 at the start of their shows before spiraling into a medley of Murder of the Universe material: “Welcome To An Altered Future” > “Digital Black” > “Han Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg” > “The Lord of Lightning” > “Cellophane.” “Welcome…” continued to be played into 2018 where it would be pushed back to the beginning of their second sets alongside the medley. However it would fall off setlists completely on 2018-03-16, even as the band played the rest of the suite live.
Before the marathon show on 2024-08-17, “Welcome to an Altered Future” was reportedly soundchecked with a transition into “Digital Black.” While the band did play the suite that night, it did not include “Welcome…” at all. Instead, it would appear a month later during the band’s marathon show on 2024-09-01. Here it was played with the rest of the suite for the first time ever following an over three hundred show gap. This also marked the first time any Murder of the Universe suite was played in its entirety. While this proved that the entire story was possible, the only other performance of “Welcome…” that year was an unusual pairing with The Silver Cord song “Theia” on 2024-09-09. 2024 performances utilized the synth table “Nathan” rather than relying on the non-modular keyboards of previous renditions.