John Explains Concept Behind Trilogy Of Albums

Existenz

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Nov 12, 2004
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“The whole thing started in 1999 when I decided I wanted to write a metal album. Before that I concentrated a lot on studying composition, instrumentation and orchestration so that I would have the right knowledge to get involved in film music. My love for film music led me to write an album that followed a story, rather than writing a few songs and then use the most appropriate tracks for the album. The story grew though and I realized that it would be better to get it done on three albums. The titles of the albums were there pretty much from the beginning, along with their content (story wise) and a general idea of the musical style too. The concept behind the story that runs throughout the albums doesn’t necessarily run from A to B, but is used as a vehicle to described issues that I wanted to talk about through the Biomechanical music

‘Eight Moons’

The concept of ‘Eight Moons’ is about fear and our ability (or lack of ability) to fight against it. It goes through human emotions and describes a life of a down and out guy who is waiting for a painless death, in order to be freed from his frail body. On the verge of death he finds hope in the darkest place of his mind.

The inspiration for this came from a real situation. I read about a Brit who was captured in the Middle East and was tortured relentlessly. He said that the only way he could survive the torment was by retreating within himself, as it was the only way that he could maintain his sanity. I also wanted to find a metaphor for the everyday horror we call “life”.

This album is about the fight of your darkest fears i.e. drug addiction, abuse, and if you think about it we all live under different circumstances that define our universe. A problem to me could be how to sort out my bills on time, while someone on the other side of the globe is dying from starvation or torture. These different extremes create very different perceptions of life, and almost even create two different worlds.

The songs travel through the state of mind of the character with ‘The Awakening’ which brings him to his reality . The album progresses to the point where in the end he re-awakes to our reality and the cycle goes on and on until he breaks him self from his torments.

‘The Empires Of The Worlds’

On the second album ‘The Empires of the Worlds’ the character from ‘Eight Moons’ becomes what he was previously fighting against. He falls in to the trap of the ancient command that has been running through our veins for ages, which dictates the entire Human race and drives it to commit horrific atrocities in the name of God, Money, Country. This is a constructed reality for a justification of a meaningless purpose and the character re-awakes as the album gets closer to Absolution and realizes the truth with the tracks, DNA Metastasis (=) Survival (=) Existenz.

The track ‘Absolution’ is about the character’s struggle for spiritual ascension through realization, and ‘Disintegration’ is the end of all things, as he becomes pure energy in order to obliterate evil. As I said earlier, it’s all a metaphor through a futuristic angle. This album explores the fact that we as humans are driven to conquer anything that has a different genetic code than ours. The ancient command that resides in our genetic blueprint commands us to expand our existence like a virus. Blinded by everyday life we refuse to accept that our so-called ‘reality’ is a mixture of transmissions and non existent problems thrown at us so that we can’t see the horrific consequences of our will to dominate.

We mask the horrors of reality with what we call 'modern life'.

This concept was written to reflect these issues on a personal level so that the story of the album is not some kind of a fictional situation - even though it is a futuristic story - but it becomes one with the listener, as these issues derive from real life.

‘Cannibalised’

The last album ‘Cannibalised’ talks about the human spiritual death and draws on the fact that the spirit is in constant decline purely because we don’t care about anything other than our own skin. And those who do are lured into the internet where thoughts have become easily lost. You can just log out and the problem isn’t there anymore. On the ‘real’ world we are bombarded by images of new things to consume, and in the meantime society becomes more and more violent, slowly returning to the roots of its primal instincts.

Back to the animal state. Emotionless.

The story is told from the perspective of somebody who realized there is no way out of this reality, and Cannibalised is the acceptance of the death of his spirit. Every song is a different take on his emotions. The songs don’t run like a story but describe different thoughts as he plunges into darkness".