Q:  These songs are rather diverse, with interesting lyrics.   What is the band’s writing process?

A:  Mic

There are many different styles of songwriting and they are all good, how can one say one man’s art is better than another.  I saw an REM interview where someone asked about lyrics and Michael said they were complete non-sense just fit the melody of the song, they meant purely nothing.  In their case the groove of the song outweighed a need to convey any meaningful words.  I saw Gene Simmons once talk about how important a catchy hook and anthem type words were to radio success.  That’s cool too, it works for them.  Many artists start with music and a formula for structure, verse, hook, chorus.  They may write the whole of the music before penning a word.  Or maybe they add a melody to the music, and someone else writes the words.  There are many ways to write music.

We always start with lyrics.  I have a notebook as does Mark filled with various thoughts, sometimes a one line theme, other times some larger structure of words like a poem.  They are expressions of how we feel, something that pissed us off, or whatever.  The word structures often inspire some form of a melody and from that pretty quickly riffs that fit the melody form in our heads, and we are off and writing.   I sit with my guitar a lot and just create stuff.  Various riffs pop out that I like and I record them and store them away in my riffs without a home bin.  As songs form I’ll go that could really use this thing here I came up with last week…we dig it out and it fits.  So you have words suggesting a melody, which suggest some riffs and structure, and sometime piece parts of other things you are working on turn out to fit well in this context.

Q:  What are these lyrics about; some of them sound angry or hateful?

A:  Mic

We have a lot of lyrics that express our views on various social topics, and issues.  They get misunderstood at times sadly.  If I had to explain each song’s lyrics I’d explain them as such:

Disease Within  This really summarizes the album, the band, our philosophy in one nice little package.  It points out our view of issues in modern society; the disease within it.
Lyrics and vocal by Mic.

Deception of the Masses  This song is about how easily charismatic leaders can mislead their people, inspire them to do horrible things, and so on.  While it uses an audio clip of George W. Bush over an Iraqi anti-American rally, it really is not specific to any single person or incident.  It is more of a warning of how history repeats itself with such leaders.
Lyrics by Mark, dark vocals by Mark, high vocals by Mic.

Call to War  This song was inspired by watching Lord of the Rings, how mindless the Orcs rushed into battle following their corrupt leader blindly…it reminded us of how we fight wars too often today, flawed rationale, propaganda, the influence of oil…
Lyrics by Mark, dark vocals by Mark, clean vocals by Mic.

Invincible People  This song is about the stupidity of many people around us who were raised in this kinder and more gentle politically correct time.  They seem to lack boundaries and understand consequences and too often you see them participating in ridiculous acts that lead to theirs or others serious injuries or deaths.  And sadly we love to watch it, YouTube, reality TV, Jackass.
Lyrics and vocals by Mic.

Dark Moment  This is a song really about someone who had it all and threw it all away on a drug addiction, at their final high, hesitating, reflecting, then slipping off into the abyss.
Lyrics by Mic and Rachel.  Vocals by Mic.

Abuse  This should be pretty self explanatory.  It started as David’s small set of words about a bully (the front verse in the song).   I edited it and began writing music to it and it started suggesting to me something more on a grand scale; the anger, loss of self esteem, etc., coming from prolonged abuse by a loved one.  I wrote the rest of the words and music in minutes.
Lyrics by David and Mic.  Vocals by Mic.

Killing Time  This one is a play on words but does really mean that it is time to kill.  It is about the people who convince themselves that their cause is worth killing, and how they will remain in infamy for years to come.  It specifically profiles an abortion clinic Dr. assassin and cult compound religious leader in a final showdown with the Feds.   Each is delusional in their faith and bastardizes their religion for their own gains at the expense of others.  They think they will go to heaven based on their acts but in reality we all remember them for what they really are and what they did.  Perhaps this is what hell really is; leaving an ugly black mark on Earth before you check out.
Lyrics and vocals by Mic.

Modern Diversity  Its kind of an anthem song.  Diversity taught today is all about neutering who you are, being plain, so you can’t offend anyone.   It’s supposed to be about accepting everyone being different.  There’s so much about political correctness and watering everything down so one person’s feelings don’t get hurt.  Long gone are the sacrifice of one for the greater good.  It is now sacrifice all for the one.  It’s completely backwards logic and it dumbs down society and makes us all pretty boring lazy people.
Lyrics and vocals by Mic.

Hypocrite This song is a poke at Hollywood and other high profile elite people who find the need to link up with some cause like save Darfur, and tell us all how bad we are for not helping more, when in reality their support is more about their image, or their tax evasion, than any true feelings about helping the less fortunate.
Lyrics by and lead vocals by Mic.  Backing vocals Mark.

Unholy War  The front audio of this song are clip about the Catholic Church sex scandals overlaid with the Westboro Baptist Church rantings on killing “fags” and hating all of America.  These are the nuts who protest fallen service men’s funerals calling them fags and screaming death to America.  Both are depressing statements about how organized religion leads to the corruption of the followers’ minds, and the great evils it has done, from the great inquisition, to conquering the new world, the crusades, the holocaust, etc.  It is pretty straight forward suggesting there are those strong enough to stand on their own and think for themselves and do what is right, not what they are told, and those that follow and can be led to do great horrors.
Lyrics and vocals by Mic.  Guest vocal by David.

Hollow  This is about guilt and grief over having lost a loved one and realizing how little time you spent with them.  You question everything you did, and didn’t do in this process.   You just want to crawl into a hole somewhere in the fetal position.  It's very dark and very personal.
Lyrics and vocals by Mic.

In a nutshell we write about our feelings and issues that affect us all.  We are not right or wrong.  The whole point is that it’s OK to have a view and to express it.  Hopefully it gets people thinking and that really is what we need, more rationale thinking.  Question what is really right in your heart.  Question authority, question blind following…think for yourself and don’t worry about what other people say or think.