'ALL EMPIRES
FALL' DVD - RELEASE DATE: 12/15 MARCH 2010
PRE-ORDER HERE:
METAL BLADE RECORDS,
AMAZON.CO.UK,
AMAZON.COM
FIRST MESSAGE FOR 2010:
A new year
begins. The older we get the faster the years seem to click by.
Edging us nearer to the grave with every second. This year I have
really had a sense that every moment in your brief flicker happens
but once. The sun only dawns on you a finite amount of times. I
stood in awe of Tintorettos paintings on the ceiling of the Scuola
Grande in Venice only 2 months ago and thought are we so selfish as
men to think we deserve another state of consciousness, a heaven.
Although beautiful they depict a world of
faith I find it impossible to penetrate. I can understand it, we
fear death so had to create some way to circumvent it yet his bones
lay in the ground like any other. Pauper, prince, faithful or
faithless. The promise of eternity somehow the reward for what we go
through in life. The fear I understand, the faith I do not.
Not far from Thessaloniki is Mount Olympus. I
can see it looming ahead of the highway from the backseat as the
rain steadily beats down. I brought the Irish weather with me to
Greece. This is the seat of the Greek Gods. How are the gods
different only more human than the Christian god I ask myself. Maybe
more natural but represent perhaps no less an attempt to understand
our fragile relationship to life and how we cling to it. In your 20s
you are certain of your own immortality, yet as we creep towards
middle some of the atheists become agnostic. No doubt I am the last
in line of millions of ‘artists’ and I use that word sparingly who
have tried to put pen to paper and make sense of death. What has all
this got to do with Primordial? Well my friends it seems that every
lyric for the new Primordial album seems death obsessed, steeped in
faithlessness, weary and wary of spirituality. Of course this may
change tack as the months go by and year zero for album number seven
comes closer but right now this might just be the most personal set
of ramblings I’ve put to paper. Rambling…seems the right word for
this blog.
Band stuff? The final viewing of the dvd is
tomorrow as I write this. The release date is now March 10th.
You can find the first trailer on the myspace site and the second
will come next month. Most things that could go wrong or stand in
our way as usual have. Not least our fragile grasp of time, much to
the exasperation of our patient and penitent label. I’ve waxed and
waned lyrical about the dvd before so there really isn’t much more
to say other than you will see very soon for yourselves.
‘Spirit the earth aflame’ should be out just
after the dvd. The slightly re-mastered sound has given it the
bottom end and oompphh it lacked the first time around. It is
strange to listen to how fragile some of it sounds compared to how
the songs sound when we play them now. It misses some filth. The
bonus disc is a real odds and sods collection but also features some
songs no one has heard before. Rehearsals and live stuff from 92
that should be of real interest to ‘hardcore’ fans.
We have loosely set a timeframe of summer 2010
for the recording of the new album and a September release date. As
usual I have no song titles as of yet! There is always talk to
festivals and tours but right now we have to wait until January to
confirm a few things. Kaltenbach Open Air in Austria and Rockmaraton
in Hungary are confirmed and a few others on the precipice but we
will have to wait a few weeks to confirm them.
So I remember questioning the future of
capitalism in a former blog and no doubt it seems like we did
witness the end of the Reagan/Thatcher era of laissez faire free
marketism but looking at the markets it would seem that most of the
world is bouncing back quicker than many economists predicted,
either that or I’m just the victim of more spin. Of course millions
have lost their jobs but the worst-case scenarios seem to have been
put on hold. I’m not really sure if this is a good thing as it
simply has allowed the banks and governments, especially in the US
where the collapse was initiated (hedge funds etc.) to return in
some respects to their previous codes of practise. Greater upheaval
might have prompted bigger changes to society that the world needs
to face. Our level of consumption and growth simply cannot be
sustained at the current rate. The failure of the Copenhagen summit
for example would seem to suggest that. The economists and
politicians are aware but the markets seem to have bounced back with
some small element of glorious bad taste. The end of the American
century doesn’t seem to have happened and Obama’s Nobel peace prize
will I’m sure seem like the Emperor’s new clothes.
Ireland of course has fallen further than
most. Our brief ‘moment in the sun’ came crashing down around us as
the property bubble burst. Mainly due to mismanagement and endemic
croney-ism from the inception of the state in 1922 until this very
moment. The old institutions have come crashing down. Be they Fianna
Fail the ruling party for the guts of a hundred years, the Church
exposed as little more than a paedophile ring or the cohort of
property developers and bankers now being bailed out with public
money. All of this especially the political climate and revelations
of clerical abuse have really made me question my concept of
nationalism.
The reasons our forefathers fought for
freedom, every concept of nationalism and independence they held
dear were systematically revealed as nothing but romance. ‘Romantic
Ireland’s dead and gone, it’s with O’Leary in the grave”. Our great
thinkers, poets and intellectuals, purged in the formation of the
state or executed before it’s birth would turn in their graves at
the last century as we turned nearly half a million children over to
the institutions of the state to be abused, worked to death or
farmed out as slaves in all but name. To put it in simple terms, we
had a chance and we blew it. Like many Irish people right now I
don’t know if I can look society square in the eye, or at least the
instruments of the church and state without wanting to see them
burned to the ground. You can almost taste the betrayal, and it is
bitter sweet.
If the church had one neck I’d gladly wring it
If the state had one artery I’d gladly sever
it
All of this has made me question how I relate
to the concept of nationalism. To many the concept of nationalism in
the global free market without borders is somewhat of an
anachronism. Yet for those of use who want to see our cultural and
historical inheritance not crushed under the weight of capitalist
incentivisation or even the current middle class trend of Marxist
revisionism it leaves little room for idealistic manoeuvre when you
feel so wholly betrayed by the institutions of the state. Spending
your waking moments in opposition can be a tiring thing. It really
is no wonder Pop Idol is so damn popular, doom and gloom is indeed
exhausting.
It made me question, what exactly does the
Irish flag represent and why do we hang it from our amps onstage? Or
is it simply the last vestiges of resistance open to us in the
United States of Europe, which seeks to homogenise every aspect of
our culture or merely a smokescreen to stop us confronting bigger
questions. Confusing times but nothing that gives me any solace. I’m
sure we can expect some of the same questions in the next
Primordial.
What else? The recording of the Blood Revolt
album is finally happening. Jaws will definitely drop believe me.
Mostly the concept has been met with incredulous disbelief from
underground people. More mainstream and I use this term very
loosely, you could read ‘open-minded’ Primordial fans have found the
idea extremely interesting, it’s been the ‘not even born when the
Blasphemy demo was out’ underground brigade who seem to be unable to
get their small minds around the idea that Revenge/Axis of Advance
and Primordial are not as far apart as they seem and a musical
collaboration makes perfect sense. At least to us it does anyway.
Expect pure militancy and genuine extremity, not pastiche C. Moyen
cartoon Satanism. Carpet bombing courtesy of Profound Lore in the
States and Invictus Productions in Europe.
An odd blog for the end of an odd year, so
here’s to keeping those 2010 resolutions!
AAN
Playlist
Nick Cave/Warren Ellis - ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ soundtrack
Dokken - ‘Lightning strikes again’/’Up from the ashes’
Deicide - ‘Deicide’
Gary Numan - ‘Replicas’
Scythian - ‘Those who stand against us’
Grave Miasma - ‘Exalted Exhumation’
Souvenirs Young America
Rome - ‘Flowers in Exile’
Katatonia - ‘night is the new day’ |
