An Exploration of Nihilism: Deathconsciousness

Probably the most straightforward track on the album, Telephony is a pretty good track all around. It documents a man trying to build a telephone, that’s very hard to make, saying

“If science is half the man it says it is Then I can build it.”

This machine being one to talk to the dead. This is implied in lines such as “I can build a door” presumably to the other side, and “If I could just hear your voice”. This song represents overwhelming grief and sadness, so much so that the protagonist can’t move on. He has to be able to talk to his lost one again. Ending with him his contacting his target and the ghost saying “When the world hates a body, it just throws itself away to a place where our hands can’t reach”.

While I’m not entirely sure what this is supposed to mean, I think it’s about running away from problems. It throws it away, “forgets” about it, it dose not face it. Much like our protagonist not facing the harsh reality his lost ones are gone forever and hanging on, not moving forward.

Who Would Leave Their Son Out In The Sun?

Coming after Telephony this track makes a lot of sense. Not in sharing a narrative but in a thematic sense. it starts with lines such as “It’s time that all these things that I do, no matter what, become things of the past”, the speaker wanting to move on from his actions. That being becoming a better person or moving on from a sate of strife,

“But there aren’t enough archangels in the sky to come down (and) to make me feel right.”

He can’t get away from his regrets, heaven can’t even help him. This being very shoved in your face with honestly one of the best lyrics I’ve heard, “What point is there in pushing on, when all you push against is a brick wall?” This track also has a lot of religious references, the title being a reference to Jesus on the cross. A lot of lyrics imply that the speaker blames God for his state, with the final line being

“Everyone spends some time on the cross, I just want to make sure it’s not a total loss, So, deny me three times, or hurry up and f****** decide.”

The singer is not strong enough to take responsibility, change or learn from his suffering. He sees it all as pointless suffering unjustly thrown upon him.

There Is No Food & The Future

Being the only two other instrumental tracks on the album I decided to lump them together. There Is No Food is an amazing track. While it has words in the song they are unintelligible over a large amount of distortion. Their cosmic electronics put me at ease in this seeming huge environment which is turned into a panic as the frantic scratchy words come in. It feels like dying alone in a place no can hear or get to you. The Future in comparison is alright. Their quick looming electronics imply a sad industrial future for civilization. The track is nice in the ears but I find it dose not live up to the rest of the track list.

Waiting For Black Metal Records To Come In The Mail

Long time coming, a song about “the Industrial Revolution and its consequences” and the government. One of the best tracks on the album, it sounds angrier than all the previous tracks. It takes a more metal aesthetic, while not exactly furious it’s still a bit more hard hitting. In the first lines of the album in describes a vast sea of stars, “the stars can swim a thousand dark miles”.

Representing a nearly endless amount of discoveries and knowledge, but “we knew that would happen any way you drop that pitch-black pall”. They cover up these discoveries to keep us blind. They do this to “propel [their] national machines”, keeping us blind so they can profit on us. “Giving us all the disease, but not the vaccine,” they present problems to drive us apart so we can’t see their sure intentions. This is further exemplified in the line “I would give anything for a cool glass of water without this poisonous oil”, perhaps referring to the fluoride they put in the tap water.

The last line I want to draw attention to is the following:

“There’s no air anywhere it’s all money now.”

They are replacing things we need to live with money, trying to profit off our very lives. I think the title sums up this track pretty “black metal” meaning the end of a dark time much like the themes of dark metal itself, hatred, death, and violence. “Mail” refers to a money-making system or a stand-in for capitalism. Waiting for the end of exploitation from capitalism.

Holy F***ing S***: 40,000

Best song on the album hands down with the title being a reference to Warhammer: 40,000, which makes more sense when I explain. The main theme of this song is apathy, mainly not feeling it.

The famous Space Marines from Warhammer are described by the wiki as “feeling little compassion for those they have termed ‘mortals’ in comparison to themselves.” They are augmented humans made to be humanity’s last and strongest line of defense. The first lines state the following:

“Everything you do is planned out in advance”, much like the warriors future is just to protect humans.”

Again, “we are machines that eat and breathe and look really cool,” an obvious reference, but apart from the comparison this song is about falling out of love. Becoming harsh to the world around you. We see this lack of feeling in “But I’ve replaced my heart with metal parts”, his heart becoming more cold and distant. The earlier line of looking cool is changed to “We are machines that breathe and weep and look really good trained to kill”, does he weep for those he has harmed or the ability to feel sympathy for those he has harmed? He even expresses a want to go back to when he had morals “Send me back in time and I’ll bring us back in line, just tell me who’s mother I have to kill,” but in saying so reveals more of his depravity.

The song ends with the lines “I’m fine like I’ve always been, except I don’t remember-when, my conscience didn’t act up again,” so much time has passed he can’t remember when he has not done or thought of a bad action.

Deep, Deep

Much akin to Waiting for Black Metal Records To Come In The Mail, this track is more fast paced and more rock inspired. It has amazing mixing with the vocals, guitars and electronics. This song lyrically is hard to talk about because of certain….. explicit themes, so I’ll try my best. The first verse is a very pessimistic view on sex. Describing it as a selfish and lonely act, comparing it to an animalistic way of love making,

“Out on the floor, one stretches out its hands, into the small of a back, and as they circle the room, as they circle the floor.”

This is explored further in the chorus when the singer calls out to Jesus saying “Jesus Christ, why is love so lonely?” The sexual themes from the first verse practically come to completion in the second. After this “self-centered” and ” animalistic” action is done you have a baby, but the view continues to darken. In my interpretation the line “All water on earth, evaporates into steam and erupts from the ground” is a stand in for human life.

All humans die and are buried. He follows this with “Like I did it all myself, one feels a lack of love and there’s no limit”, he brought this life in the world just to die and suffer, and he feels bad about it.

In the final lines he says “How do we reconcile our deaths”, how do we make lives have meaning, how do we make them matter?