Sacred Scavenger

Even with my holiday getting more and more close to its end, I've been working hard on lyrics, music and the sorts all week. That is, however, not the most essential thing that I want to write about in this entry. Before anything else, I want to tell the world (starting from the few reading this, hehe) that despite being a Christian all my life, I've spent the last few days mainly changing some of my more or less bad ways into good. I've practiced purification of my mind and body, in a way, by some deep thinking, remorse and communication. It's not like I've killed someone or anything (:P), don't worry - I've just realized that despite calling myself a believer and having chosen the path of Jesus I haven't really acted like it during the last few years. Being a teenager or being busy with other projects is no valid excuse to this. I have now started to pursue a change though as I said and I can already feel its consequence - the calm, warm and confident effect that makes it seem like I've found faith just now for the very first time. :) Even if my road will be even harsher now that I'm a "proper" Christian, I am proud of taking the right moral turn in my life.

The spiritual change mentioned above was strongly encouraged at the start of the week as I went back to P.O.D.'s albums Satellite and The Fundamental Elements of Southtown half-accidently to find inspiration and groove I had been missing. At this point I have to admit something non-spiritual that I also regret in my life as of yet - not reading lyrics to most songs. It's ironic because as a lyricist and writer myself - and as a rather good one in my opinion - I don't often look up what exactly is said in a lot of songs I really love and as English is only my second language, it is impossible to understand everything right off the bat. Anyhow, this had been the case with FEOS as well for the most part and so I really enjoyed reading Sonny's raps and vocals in further detail as I listened to the once again refreshing record (I had done this once before in my qualm/interest last December, but that was too long ago for me to remember much of the wording, after all, it isn't all that simplistic :P). After P.O.D. I moved on to some System of a Down in the middle of the week as I wanted to write strong, even slightly political and straightforward lyrics for the demo named Scoff I actually finished instrumentally on Tuesday. Once again I took time to not only listen but also read what was going on. I took a new kind of atmosphere by going to the unheated sauna to sit and write, listen and read. The outcome was quite a success. Before I show you the lyrics, though, let me finish up this story. System of a Down wasn't where my notable listening experiences ended, you see... As a big fan of the Finnish band Major Label (look up my posts from early this year if you don't know what and who I'm talking about) I got curious about the band's guitarist/vocalist Arto Tuunela's other projects on Thursday. I knew about him having a solo project called Pariisin Kevät (Spring of Paris) in which he basically composed pop songs with naive kind of lyrics. Though innovative, I wasn't ready to get more down with this project in particular. Instead, I looked up two of his older projects - one where he used the alias Samuel Tubak, and one called Helsinki Blues Driver where he supposedly collaborated with an unknown electro-ambient musician. These projects blew my mind, particularly the second one. Tuunela doesn't just seem to have the ability to produce, mix and record for other artists, play basically any instrument and juggle between several different projects in the same time (half of which are not his own), but also have stunningly versatile content in his separate works. None of it is complex, it's all quite simple really - but in the same time, so different. Without any further efforts in trying to bore you, I'll conclude by saying that I really like his style no matter where he takes it. Even the performance videos and interviews I've seen give a very humble yet artistic picture of him, and regardless of me sounding like a fan boy, this guy is my new musical idol.

To get back to what I've actually been working on this week, here are the lyrics for Scoff like I hinted there in the last paragraph. Please do tell me what you think. ;)

Golden rings, suitcases of hope, burying their faces on hands of coke

Choke, every enemy with power they don’t in reality ever even touch to hold

The revolution is crying to be set off its cage, it’s a cage ruined with money and fame

And the selfish, somewhat privileged plays of zest accepted by the worldly brain

But hey, does that advertisement truly gain any real families or children to pay

for education, food and brainwash, you seem to deny being known for no lies

The bombs you build are nothing but disguise and foolishness towards bloody goodbyes

Tell me, how come aren’t you kicking me in the chest but causing all the pregnant women to get so depressed?

Love, you tear it off

The seed, of what we are

SCOFF

Stream of fall is everywhere, pain in the moonlight uncarved

Filling air with smoke and skies with lust martyrs die, liars remain alive

And pools of purity, dwell in unstoppable poverty

Without harmony, this corrupted corrosion floods our sources for life and how we want to DIE

So rip off your shirts to destroy the market

(Love, whoever’s around you)

In the name of this Earth, kindness shall overcome hate in the end

Struggles are short and painful, but our creations will last

The plea of candle wisps and enlightened houses

deserve more than pity and scoff

Now, we don’t call each other beautiful, beauty escapes us, we’re material too

Wearing grins we never smile, unless it’s to get us some more wine

THE STREAM OF FALL IS EVERYWHERE, SELLING HUMAN LOGIC,

ARTIFICIAL TRUST TO CHILDREN!

SCOFF [x4]

(Tear it off.)

What I'm really interested in is whether or not it's too aggressive or out of my usual style. I have also finished the lyrics for Blue-Fragmented Pilgrimage as well as its instrumental for the most part. With several riffs hanging over my head concerning a possible worship song, you could say that I'm doing progress in a good pace.

On the side of all this, I've been reading a new book and trying to complete some things that I still want to complete before school begins again. These include such things as barbecue, going to (a heated) sauna, playing floorball, watching movies, eating chocolate, going to the beach and so on. I also watched the fifth and sixth Harry Potter films this week caused by a sudden caprice. Shh, don't tell anyone. :D

I'll catch up with you once or twice more before high school starts to torture me.

PS: Shyoul is back with a fresh new member, making us a quartet. Tell all your friends.