Here's the new album! I'm really proud of it musically, since it's probably my most consistent album in terms of sound (with basically just one outlier) and I feel like it really works as a whole better than as individual songs. I also tried some new things, while doing some things I hadn't done in a while, and it just ended up being how it ended up being. The lyrics are by far the most political I've ever written (although not in every song), which is of course not everyone's cup of tea, but I just had to do some venting. So, yeah, there are a lot of leftist and anti-authoritarian lyrics on this album... and some other stuff.
1. Coronation
2. Apotropaic Atrocities
3. Blind Basileiolatry
4. Cancerous Chrysopoeia
5. Dignified Dogmata
6. Parastasis
7. Webs and Nets (feat. Jared Spry)
8. Over Clay and Blood, Flowers and Fire
9. Elusion and Somnia
10. Penetralia
11. Sanctum Sanctorum
12. The Dolour of Pomegranates
13. Crucession
14. Umbra
Click on song titles to listen on Youtube, or click here for the full album.
Free download on Bandcamp, as always. Also on Mediafire if you prefer that.
And now I'm going to ramble a little about the lyrics of all the songs. I'll keep it reasonably short, though:
"Coronation" is about, well, you know, the coronavirus. Mostly about how it'd already be over if politicians didn't care more about making money than saving people's lives, and how it's been used by authoritarians to pass bullshit restrictions that'll last long after corona while doing little to nothing to actually stop corona itself.
"Apotropaic Atrocities" is about people assuming the worst about each other, always picking the most uncharitable interpretation about everything, and how everyone is a part of society, etc.
"Blind Basileiolatry" started out being just about the Taliban, obviously against them. It kinda expanded and eventually ended up also generally being about how people justify and glorify violence, oppression, etc. with religion and nationalism and other bullshit... but also about how spirituality could be a force for good, if different religions got along and agreed to disagree.
"Cancerous Chrysopoeia" is just a song about the destruction of the environment, and how no matter what individuals do, as long as governments and big companies keep polluting, it's not going to stop getting worse. Might sound pessimistic, but I mean, I'm convinced rich assholes would keep killing the planet even if only for their own amusement.
"Dignified Dogmata" is about people who (pretend to) self-flagellate over every little thing they or their ancestors have ever done and who constantly give others shit for shit they or their ancestors have done, and who pretend to have an impeccable moral compass while at the same time being OK with all kinds of injustices as long as they don't get their hands dirty, and are narcissistic and high-and-mighty and all that stuff. You know the type.
"Parastasis" isn't political at all, it's mainly inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy (or at least the Inferno part of it... which I read once forever ago so I don't remember much), and generally about Hell in a kinda ambiguously erotic way? Or something like that, it's the most abstract song on this album as far as lyrics go.
"Webs and Nets" is mostly about cyberbullying and catfishing, with an angle like... go ahead and catfish me, I don't care if you're lying, and it's fine if you cyberbully me, you'd only be hurting yourself in the end; but also pretty explicitly about how it's still bad. Obviously I don't want to be cyberbullied or catfished, so it's mostly just edginess... but there's a little bit of truth to it, as in if it's very obvious trolling it doesn't really bother me, and I don't even want a real-life relationship so if someone was catfishing me, it wouldn't be that big a deal.
"Over Clay and Blood, Flowers and Fire" is just an anti-authoritarian song, with some stuff that isn't really obviously political but also some that's pretty obvious. It doesn't matter much what kind of economic policies an oppressive government has, and even less whether authoritarian individuals are right-wing or left-wing, because authoritarianism is bad. It may well be more effective than non-authoritarianism, but that doesn't make it good.
"Elusion and Somnia" is just an imaginary love song, or... not necessarily a love song, but a song about beautiful women. I'll admit it's inspired by real-life women, who I never even tried to date or anything, and in hindsight I'm almost certainly happier because I didn't. I don't mean that in a sexist way, it's not like I'd try to actually date a dude either. But writing weird lyrics about love and sex? Of course!
"Penetralia" is about priests molesting kids, obviously condemning it. I wrote the lyrics after it was in the news how the Catholic church in France had known about the stuff going on there for decades but kept covering it up, which isn't even surprising anymore but still manages to piss me off. It's not just Catholic priests, either, and it's like... maybe repressing your sexuality like that isn't healthy, and leads to shit like this? But the song is just a "fuck you" to priests who molest kids.
"Sanctum Sanctorum" is just an outro to "Penetralia". Originally it was one song, with the outro being just ambient guitar stuff, but I decided to add harpsichord, piano and organ and split it into a separate song.
"The Dolour of Pomegranates" is a song inspired by Salvador Dalí's painting Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening and the film The Colour of Pomegranates. So, yeah, it's kinda surrealist with some "symbolic" stuff as well, but also specifically about that post on Tumblr where someone thought pomegranates were gore. That post is something that I think about from time to time.
"Crucession" is, probably unsurprisingly, about priests. Yeah, again... but this one's about their conservatism, and more focused on Orthodox and Lutheran priests who pick and choose their bigotry specifically so that they can remain homophobic (while coming off as kinda homoerotic themselves with their passion for Jesus), and in some other ways adapting to the changing norms to appeal to people. Also how they're clown-like in a way, you know?
"Umbra" is about sleep paralysis, but in a way compares conservatism to sleep paralysis. It's not a necessary interpretation, though. Thankfully it's been a while since I've had proper full-blown sleep paralysis, but even the lesser form where there's no hallucinating sucks, and my literal first memory is of sleep paralysis.
You might wonder why I don't just publish the lyrics, but... nah. That's not something I want to do with most of my music even if the lyrics are meaningful, because it's still pointless and it's not like the lyrics are actually deep or anything. If you can make them out, you can, but if not, that's not detracting from the music. Unless you think it is, but in that case my music probably isn't your cup of tea anyway for the most part.
ANYWAY, if you listen to the album, I hope you enjoy it! If not, that's fine too. It definitely is my most "normal" and simple album, but at the same time my most "sloppy" so that can probably be offputting even for the few people who usually like my stuff haha.
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