Introducing ourselves.

[Raziel X]

Well, the genesis of my stuff wasnt as simple... it pretty much began as an irregularly-rhymed, numetal inspired poetry. Then I remember I had like half a year time when I didnt write anything, and then the machine started and never really stopped
The change after that "short" break were significant though, my poems were literally huge in extent, lines long as hell. While the early stuff was more in the face, later it got frigid cold, very dark and gloomy stuff, with sparkles of hope spread throughout. I actually finished a book, and titled it Death makes an artist... Took me 7yrs to finish it (almost) and it has 7chapters. First two are early stuff. Third is where it started to look huge. Fourth chapter has my longest lines to date, as far as I remember, and is a lot personal too, deals with a lot of issues from my past. Fifth one is the last one finished, that one is somewhere between the fantasy outfit of a lot of stuff and personal level. Sixth is maybe most experimental one. Seventh is a natural conclusion, with some hints of the future stuff in it here and there, with my flagship cycle "Dark master within..." (title taken from In the presence of my enemies pt.2 by Dream Theater, though the cycle itself doesnt have much in common with it as for theme).

So yea, in the first book, stuff is personal, but the fantasy/dark veil hides it well, it is a lot about rich and dense atmosphere, the language contributes to it a lot. Worked on that one 2002-2009 (january).

Started working on the stuff for second book in January 2009, but officially I proclaimed it a book in works only in March 2009, it was then when it got its title "Legacy of the snake...". This one is a lot more personal, sharp, a lot more aggressive and flesh-cutting. While the first one was more about trying to get on feet, heads up and standing own ground, plus a lot of inner clean-up, this one brings into the light a lot of filth, blood, pus (in metaphorical sense of word)... In second book I almost completely rely on 6line ababcc strophes, as they make it comfy to write a lot of new stuff effectively

Feel free to check out my stuff, and here is a recent one, like maybe two days old, exclusively in here:

"Wicked upon a star...

My sorrow, oh gloom, why do yee offer me blanket
again, weaved of her eyes, hair, images and
words, always resounding with her heart's beat,
slowing down the count of the days, then
opening the stream, with a pinch of salt
into wound-breathen pumping soul.

My sidewalk is paved with disappointments
and small victories that get lost
under hot black pitch anyways, you my only ardent
triumph, a fire amidst outcast's winter and ghost,
the one left from them all those
who promised to accompany me, help me arise from yet another comatose.

At least one infection-bed still perdures
and keeps on polluting once cleansed areas with scenes
of fresh disease and pus, each time beyond former measures,
hold my weakened carcass walking till I locate by any means
this cancerous source, share the mystery even though
no one knows it yet, not even myself, as much as I am pieced and torn.

Regular paper autopsy, head blown into a star-shaped flower,
petals sounding oozy as vials of my body slip
down, and mix and steam, stew's stench more poignant each hour
that passes, to find the origin of its taste I need a dip
of my own... my hope, oh cure,
after this disgusting bath let clean my soul, to celebrate our love pure."

Btw if you have any questions about my poetry, feel free to ask them either in here or directly via my Windows Live Messenger

 

[HaTikva]

That's a great writing! Yeah, I recognise myself in some of your words. Like starting off and then suddenly finding that direction to go. My poetry tends to be very gloomy and raw as well, but it's mainly because I write whenever I feel anxious or depressed. I'm not a full-time depressive, although some would maybe draw such conclusion if they only read my writings without knowing the person who wrote them. I do try to find that balance between despair and hope, but somehow after a while I just said f* it, I'm gonna write whatever's in my mind. At that point my poetry became bleak ; but nonetheless I hope people grasp the message in it.

Have you gone as far as publishing? I am looking for a way to do it, but the problem is copyrights. I am determined to keep the copyrights of my own work in my own hands, I don't wanna end like some befriended artists did: giving away the copyrights and not able to re-distribute their own work when it got out of print. I would like to publish some of my writings, but I only want to work with a publisher that lets me keep full control of the copyrights. That's the tricky part. But well, sooner or later, ...

 

[Raziel X]

Well, thats sth I have too... I think that a part of the atmosphere of my poems is the seeming imbalance between dark and hopeful parts... But it's only seeming... yes, in extent there is more darkness as it seems to the reader, but the more darkness there is, the more even the slightest sparkle of hope shines radiant... the more dark darkness is, the brighter shines whatever source of light there is, however small... and thats what I want, giving ppl that small but clear sparkle of light to guide them out of the dark...

http://www.inventa-international.com/inventa/?q=send_copyright

Here is a reliable agency... I think 200 € for 4yrs protection, and 320 € for 8yrs... they store your stuff, and provide legal protection all over internet in most countries of the world... aka if someone steals from you, these ppl sue the hell outta them


No I havent managed to get a publisher yet. But on my visit of US, I gave a copy to a professor who teaches creative writing at Valpo University in Indiana, and like month afterwards he sent me a reply, he liked my first book really much. Contacted him again if he would do me a certified manuscript review but he didnt reply unfortunately. But yea, I would like to get it published. As for now, I am selling it unofficially for 12 € / 15 USD for electronic version

Anyway, for more stuff check out my sites, I think you can find the links on my profile here... or add me mirokizak@live.com at windows live messenger and I can send you some stuff personally

 

[HaTikva]

Wow, don't pay 200€ for legal protection man! Well, I'm not sure how it is in Slowakia but usually, all countries have a governmental service where you can register the intellectual property of your work (this is for all countries who signed the Berne Convention, de facto 80 or 90% of the world). The government will then officially register your work, in some countries you get a certificate. Within most EU countries the property is valid until 70 years after the author's death. And best of all is that most countries' service for int.property isn't expensive. I paid approx 5 € myself last time

The one thing you must know is that intellectual property consists of (amongst others) moral rights , and copyrights (= rights to reproduce and earn money with it). While moral rights cannot be transfered, you just have to be careful with the copyrights, for example if you publish them online or if you approach a publisher, always make sure the deal includes a rule that you will remain in charge of your copyrights. The tricky part is that sometimes those deals include legal jargon which makes it hard to understand for a beginning writer.

Anyway, good to see other writers here!

 

[Raziel X]

Wow, don't pay 200€ for legal protection man! Well, I'm not sure how it is in Slowakia but usually, all countries have a governmental service where you can register the intellectual property of your work (this is for all countries who signed the Berne Convention, de facto 80 or 90% of the world). The government will then officially register your work, in some countries you get a certificate. Within most EU countries the property is valid until 70 years after the author's death. And best of all is that most countries' service for int.property isn't expensive. I paid approx 5 € myself last time

The one thing you must know is that intellectual property consists of (amongst others) moral rights , and copyrights (= rights to reproduce and earn money with it). While moral rights cannot be transfered, you just have to be careful with the copyrights, for example if you publish them online or if you approach a publisher, always make sure the deal includes a rule that you will remain in charge of your copyrights. The tricky part is that sometimes those deals include legal jargon which makes it hard to understand for a beginning writer.

Anyway, good to see other writers here!

I would rather pay more than having lame protection lol... I will try to do more research later when I have more time... Of course I would like to publish my stuff... so my poetry can reach out to more ppl and stuff...

Btw I might post my cycle "Dark master within..." in here if you want, though that one has 666 lines, so it might be quite extensive

you seem like a cool dude, I am on WLM or so almost all the time so feel free to pop in there at any time

 

[HaTikva]

The intellectual property provided by the governments is not exactly lame protection: valid until 70 years after your death, and you get some proof of ownership (weither it's a certificate or another form of document may vary per jurisdiction). Of course the best is to be backed by a publisher who takes care of all legal stuff, so that the poet/writer can concentrate fully on the artistic aspect... But I fear that's something only the professionals out there can afford

Something I need to research more in-depth is if countries offer some type of artistic exchange cross-border, or special working permit rules for those who are doing artistic stuff. As I said before I want to relocate back to the Middle East at some point. The economy of most countries is however in a bad state and working permits are very hard to get. How cool would it be to get a visa based on my artistic output? I know some countries have programs like that but I need to figure out how it exactly works. How cool would it be to have a tiny one person apartment in the historical heart of Istanbul and spend my days sitting by the Blue Mosque writing poems all day long? *dreaming away*

 

[Raziel X]

I think it is possible to obtain visa to certain countries based on being a writer, but for that you need to have at least sth published or at least registered in some nationally certified organisation of writers, so you can prove you are really a writer and not just some dude who tries to get somewhere.

I will look into stuff more when I move to US (which should be sometime before New Year)... And then I will also try to find more of stuff... and hopefully get my stuff published sometime...

Anyway here is link to Dark Master Within... (on my redbubble profile):

http://www.redbubble.com/people/razielx/writing/4515810-dark-master-within

keep in mind every strophe is 6lines with ababcc rhyme (so if there is more, it means the line is longer )

Let me know how you liked/disliked it

 

[HaTikva]

Well, I register my poems with the intellectual property service of the local government, so not sure if that qualifies for an arts-based working permit. I know the USA is quite flexible in that, but it's mainly Turkey and Israel that very much attract me to relocate to (and also to some extent Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco) so especially for those countries I'd need to look into this issue.


I will check out your site ; interesting writing style for sure I don't have a specific pattern myself (except for the gloomy undertone and autism-related subjects in my writings) although a metaphorical style of writing is how you could probably describe it best.

Where in the US you intend to move to? New York seems an awesome place to me. The rest of the country doesn't appeal that much to me but NYC is like one of those places where the whole world comes together. But as I said, my dream is to settle in Istanbul or Israel.

 

[StoneWoman]

Hello peeps!
I'm new here and had messed up the "introducing" business a bit when I first came to the forum, so Ananth redirected me here (thank you, btw ) and I just thought you can't join a forum without writing a couple of lines about yourself, so let's see.
My name is Elmas, I'm 18 years old, I'm of Turkish nationality but I've always lived in Romania. Anyhow, the environment and customs I've been surrounded by in this country have not yet managed to "kill" my love for the Orient and exotism in general, which also includes the urge to find original and Orient-influenced music to fulfill my tastes. So I've become an Orphaned Land fan, I've been listening to them for about one year and a half, but I've only just decided to join this board. Except the music, I also strongly appreciate their open-mindedness when it comes to "cultural blending", to call it so. Something truly worthy of being given as an example to the rest of the world.
I love lots of bands and artists belonging to a wide variety of music genres, but mainly I'm focused around "soft" metal I like progressive elements and melodicism and vocalists who actually prefer taking "the long way" insted of grunting their way to stardomness.

So yep, that's it, I suck at introductions, so I hope we'll all have a nice time here on the forum, so far, it's looking pretty nice, congrats everyone for choosing a band like OL as one of your favorites!

 

[Chanakya]

Hello Elmas

You'll find an incredible variety of Oriental music and metal with Oriental influences on this board thanks to some of the people here [ like Postmodernist - Anton and Morticia - Nathalie ]. This forum, inactive as it might be [as compared to GMD and COB], is filled with very nice and knowledgeable people and have very interesting backgrounds/stories to tell. I picked up most of my favourite Oriental music from this forum. Stalking Anton's posts, you'll come across a crazy amount of amazing music Romania seems like an interesting place. I had an e-buddy from Constantza.

A typical thing in this forum is to describe how you stumbled upon the band, and if you've ever seen them, so please do so

 

[StoneWoman]

@Ananth: Thanks so much for the warm welcome!
And yes, I've already checked out a couple of clips other users posted in the oriental music thread and I'm really planning to listen to as many as possible. I think middle eastern influences are so rare in metal nowadays, it's sad. And most of the bands out there who exploit them are pretty unknown. I, for one, shamefully admit all the bands I knew, related to this subgenre, were Mezarkabul, Almora and Şebnem Ferah (only because they were turkish, and Şebnem doesn't really have such an oriental-sounding dimension in her music as the other two ) and Arkan and Melechesh. But now I have a whole new "field" of bands to focus myself, thanks to that thread.

Oh, and Constanţa, so cool! I have many relatives there, in fact I was born in a city at like 50 km distance of it! Both cities are in a region that was under Ottoman influence for quite a while, so go go us!

And how I came across Orphaned Land...I think it happened like two winters ago, I was just messing around with Wikipedia, I was in this frantic "I need to find new bands to listen to!" mood so I kinda browsed the whole website and I think I found Orphaned Land under the folk metal band list or something like that. The story is as average as possible, nothing special. My rocker friends are pretty much into "generic" bands, either classics or "oldies" like Megadeth and Slayer and Sabbath, this kind of stuff, OR newer bands, but really famous, Bodom, like you said, Dream Theater etc. etc. So there never was anyone to listen to more "underground" stuff and flood me with super-original, super-different, revolutionary bands. And with music like Orphaned Land, you know, in my opinion, you can only love them or hate them. They're not the sort of "lukewarm" feelings giving band. So whenever I link a song of theirs to my friends, they either go "WTF IS THIS" or they absolutely love it and ask about them and "where are they from and how long have they been playing for", that kind of stuff. But I think the whole charm lies in this mystical dimension of their music and the uncertainty of whether you'll fall in love with it or just sit and wonder where the combination of middle-eastern traditional music and metal came from. Where's the fun when you're Metallica and 99 / 100 people love your stuff?

Good lord. Wall of text, this one. Sorry, people.

 

[Chanakya]

No problemo.

Arkan is such a killer band. Muchas Gracias to Nathalie for promoting them over here. I hope to get Hilal as soon as possible. You should check out Bilocate from Jordan. They aren't all that heavy and have the very slightest of Oriental undertones. I hope you caught OL at Sonisphere.

You are very right about what people think of OL. A lot of the "metal" crowd here find OL too overwhelming to get into. Even I took a couple of months to digest Mabool, really. At the same time, when I promote the band to friends who don't listen to metal, they are easily enamoured by OL and I'm not even talking about easily accessible songs like Sapari. You're right. This music is so immense it quite literally opens up a new world for me.

BTW, long posts are the unwritten rule of this forum People here appreciate nice and long posts as well. I sometimes find it hard to keep up.

 

[Morticia NL.]

Elmas- a warm welcome to the forum! Great to see someone from Romania/Turkey here. Never mind about making long or short posts, any input is appreciated

 

[StoneWoman]

@Ananth: Thanks a lot for the Bilocate suggestion. I'm checking out some of their stuff right now, and, even though, as you said, there's a very mild dimension of "orientalism" in it, at least from what I've heard so far, they seem to have really nice piano parts/synths backgrounds.

And the reason why Orphaned Land or similar bands are not-so-easy to digest here in Romania is in fact a completely different one, if I managed to understand my friends' feelings right. Here we have this genre of music called "manele", which is mainly stuff of Turkish / Greek / Serbian inspiration, and when I say "inspiration" I don't only mean the style, but also quite a big part of the melodic line. To put it shortly, plagiarism. Anyhow, the so-called "cover" is far from being successful and the so-called "artists" who do this kind of music don't really get any attention or respect from the greatest part of the population. As a result of this general attitude, people have this tendency of rejecting anything that resembles that genre of music, even though basically the greatest resemblance lies in rhythmicity. And we all know metalheads can be really, really exclusivist people.
I don't know if I made sense or this is just some sort of rant only I understand, knowing the situation, but I only wanted to clarify this issue a bit. So, even though it may sound weird, this kind of music isn't too popular here not because of the fact it's too "different", to call it so, but exactly because of how often we come across it and how awfully the local musicians exploit it. Which, in my opinion, is such a sad thing, cause it makes people miss so much substance and emotion and a range of sonorities that you can't really find in any other music. Of course it depends on each person and their tastes, but it's a pity they're neglecting it because of "side aspects", and not the music itself.

@Nathalie: Thank you for the welcome!

So, it seems I might have quuuuuuuite a nice time around here. We don't really get any deep-ish conversation on the other boards I'm on, so this is quite a change. And I find it really constructive and motivating to just exchange views and opinions with people, involving argumentation and not just the "make a statement and then leave" kind of attitude. Thanks for that!

 

[Chanakya]

A jump to this thread would be appropriate methinks. http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/orphaned-land/557864-official-off-non-topic-thread-3.html