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brianwhitedarkdaily-blog · 7 years ago

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Metal Meditation: Threshold’s Divinity

In this episode of Metal Meditation, I’ll be dissecting the song Divinity, a bonus song on Threshold’s album, March of Progress.

Writing this meditation was an interesting process that differed greatly from my usual method. I believe that the meaning of music and art is in the eye of the beholder (or the ear of the listener) and that each of us can walk away with a different message. I approached this meditation with two slightly different interpretations which resulted from a mistake in my hearing of one of the lyrics. What I heard was, “Don’t give God the chance to confuse you.” When the actual lyrics are, “Don’t give doubt the chance to confuse you.” As you will see some of my interpretation relied on “God” being used in this line as opposed to doubt.

However, as I thought more and more about it, that particular word did not change my analysis as much as I had previously assumed. This completed the circle bringing me back to where I started. But since life is in the journey and not the destination, I kept to my original interpretation and explained the logical and emotions steps in-between. Such is life. As Joseph Campbell once wrote, “From to the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb we come, an ambiguous, enigmatic incursion into a world of solid matter that is soon to melt from us like the substance of a dream.” And so we go, round and round, arriving back where we started.

My other reason for detailing this interpretive journey is to illustrate how language can change our perceptions of events. With that said, here is my meditation on the song, Divinity.

Original meditation based on lyrics: “Don’t give God the chance to confuse you.”

I selected this song because its message recently became important to me, validating some of the philosophical and spiritual ideas I had been working through. I’m a firm believer that you can hear something a hundred or a thousand times and not truly hear it, and then one day, at the right moment, your head and your heart hear something that speaks directly to you. That is what happened here. I’ve been a long-time Threshold fan, and had listened to this song hundreds of times, but because of some of the things I was working through, one day these lyrics jumped out at me. The pacing of the song, the delivery, everything took on a hyperreal significance.

I also believe that spirituality is personal, as are people’s beliefs in and about God. However, the term God, has become almost useless in defining one’s personal conception or belief in a higher power. In fact, depending on one’s definition, it could be material, immaterial, consciousness, universal, personal. I don’t know what Threshold’s definition is of God, but in the context of this song I took it to embody the institutionalized definition of God often present by formalized religion. Therefore, it is not a specific, personal definition, but one that is impressed upon you by others, i.e. institutions, religions, government, authorities etc. Taken in this light, I believe the song is making the point that we must allow the concept and definition of God to arise from our own individual spirituality, and not allow so called authorities to dictate our belief in God or define our relationship to such a being.

The song also outlines a spiritual path that brings those who tread it to a realization of their own divinity. This revelation then extends further and allows for an appreciation and understanding of the divinity in others, revealing how each of us is a part of a much larger collective divinity.

Let’s examine this revelatory process in the context of the song:

As one man’s will declines Gone are his reasons and rhyme At odds with awkward evens Stand your ground to be believed in To those who already shine How did it feel when you switched sides I guess I'll know, I guess I'll know, given time.

This begins the realization of one’s divinity, which grows out of humility and the belief that you are one part of a much larger whole. That humility also allows us to admit that we do not understand or have an answer for most of the truly important questions which further allows us to accept that we don’t always need an answer. Somehow things take care of themselves without us having to impose our will on them. The will being spoken of here is the will to power, to enforce our will on others or on situations which we don’t have control over but want to feel as if we do. When we stop doing this, and humbly accept that we don’t know the best thing to do in all situations, we can say goodbye to our, reasons and rhymes.

This idea reminded me of one of my favorite lines in the original Point Break Movie where Keanu Reeves new FBI boss tells him, “You know nothing. In fact, you know less than nothing. If you knew that you knew nothing, then that would be something. But you don’t.” Knowing that we don’t know, opens the door for a dawning revelation. And that is something.

This new found, not-knowing, puts us, “at odds with awkward evens.” Originally, we wanted everything to line up, to make sense, but we can see that even though those things still look the same, feel the same, they don’t line up in our minds the way we thought they should. In the light of this new realization we must understand what the proper use for our will is.

“Stand your ground to be believed in.” If we stand our ground, we will begin to believe in our own divinity. This is a, “fake it till you make it,” scenario in which we, “act as if” with a true belief in ourselves that will follow as a direct result of this organic process. For this to happen we must first plant our feet firmly, grow roots, and commit to staying the course. We will not be dissuaded or distracted.

When we examine ourselves and reflect on this process, how did it feel when we crossed that line and started seeing the world as an open book that we hadn’t read or understood yet? When we saw for the first time that is contained miracles, and could be perceived by each person differently? But the process is still ongoing. We have received the water of revelation through a fire hose and have not had the time to fully synthesize these revelations into our worldview. So, we must guess. We’ve just been placed at odds with awkward evens and we don’t know exactly how we feel and hope that it will become clear given time.

See this side of me, these humble offerings. From this well, hope still brings, my enemy. As my pride lays crumbling, so down comes everything. With a heavy heart, this sadness brings, my destiny.

Some of these lyrics are changed subtly throughout the song which shows the spiritual progression that ends at the realization of one’s divinity. We are starting to see a new side of ourselves. Our humility has opened a door. Hoping that we can know everything, and give this ineffable experience words, is the enemy we battle at this stage. We are closing ourselves off to some of the epiphany by believing it must be revealed to us in such a way as can be explained intellectually. Additionally, we believe that it should fit into and/or enhance our current worldview. This is pride, bedeviling us at every stride, saying that we should be able to codify this experience in words. As our pride crumbles, as we struggle to understand, everything around us has shifted and we have not yet developed a new vocabulary to understand what we are experiencing. This can be terrifying, and we wonder what we have lost, and if we can get it back. This brings sadness. On the road to revelation poets have called this transition phase, the dark night of the soul. We know we are on the right path, something deep within us assures us of that, but we feel alone.

It's one man’s will to rise So precise, the predictable line Anchor the body, and prepare to breathe in deep Can you see what's in my mind The reaching point, of reaching pride. Although it's hard, I guess my heart can't lie.

See this side of me, these humble offerings. From this well, hope still brings, my enemy. As my pride lays crumbling, so down comes everything. With a heavy heart, this sadness brings, my destiny.

We are still in that dark night of the soul. We have to hunker down, take a deep breath and realize that this too shall pass. The reaching point of reaching pride is where we begin to draw the line and understand that no matter how many ways we try to figure this new world out with our old knowledge and previous methods, it just won’t work. We’ve reached beyond our mind’s ability to understand such experience. We must accept that this is a hard road, but our heart tells us that we are on the right path, even though our intellect tells us that this is incomprehensible nonsense and that we must turn back. The heart, however, knows that this is impossible. Once the revelation is received, turning back and attempting to see things the way we used to, is impossible, doing so will only lead to further sadness. Here again our hope is our enemy because we have not fully accepted that we must move forward. Intellectually, we continue to believe that our previous views and ideas will be returned, and we can escape from this dark night. Once we accept that the only way out is through, we reach the next stage.

Seasoned minds will bring, these humble offerings. From this well, hope still brings, my purity. You've seen me stumbling With a thankful heart I spread my wings Divinity.

Here is the turning point. Seasoned minds are those that have given in and accepted the world as they now experience it. They can now perceive the humble offerings of the world. And instead of hope being the enemy, it has now become purity. It is changed by understanding the humble offerings that can be enjoyed in the light of experience, and does not have to be intellectualized, categorized, or even understood. The miracle of life is our purity, openness, indefinability, and ineffability. We have had to stumble through the dark night of the soul if we are to receive these gifts. If we don’t, then we never experience the revelation. On the other side of the veil, we experience the essence of who we truly are. We then thankfully spread our wings and experience our divinity.

In the quiet of the mind The fog of memory is formed The gravity of its charge States that you reclaim it Amongst the trails here you will find Visual echoes that conform To the divine in all its parts This path you have laid it.

In the quiet of the mind we reflect. Memory is the illusion of who we are. We believe it defines not only who we are, but what we could be. The gravity of that weights us down, saying that we have a persona to live up to. A tiger can’t change its stripes, was the lesson we had been taught, but we now know that was a lie. We can reclaim our lives by freeing ourselves from memory. These historic memories become the visual echoes that push us to conform, but because of our understanding and acceptance of our divinity we see how we created this path for ourselves. There is no one else to blame either for our past or our future. We have the ultimate responsibility for our lives and how we choose to live them.

If you were ever needing proof, just follow now your inner truth, to guide you Don't give doubt (God) the space to confuse you, there's no room in here.

I believe we all have an inner voice that speaks to us of truth, and when it is not warped or clouded by our desires, it informs us of our true path. Not only do we have to be truthful enough with ourselves to hear the unclouded whisper, but then we need the courage to follow that voice.

“Don’t give God the space to confuse you.” Don’t allow religions or governments or the concept of God to confuse you and make you believe you are not divine. Don’t allow these ideas to convince you that you are wrong.

That questioning, pessimistic voice you hear is that of your ego, the engrained beliefs of society or family. It is the voice of the doubter, the quitter, the mundane banal automaton of society. Here is where we must be honest, and allow our hearts to guide our divinity and stand in truth, regardless of what “God” may say. The voice of the “doubter” represents the echoes that attempt to conform to the old perceptions. But the new visual echoes and sounds, conform to the new divine persona. If we allow this one belief to take root it will echo through the whole of our divinity.

If you were ever feeling moved, to shape this coming life renewed I excuse you, as your guardian, I choose you, to me it's clear. I excuse you, we excuse you, we all excuse you, we won't lose you!

This is a renewed life. A new life. We are understanding our divinity in order to reshape our lives. The song seems to go along a path where we must conform to a larger divinity, “God” and that we can be excused from that, adding that we are the sheep in the Biblical parable that will inevitably be found and saved by the shepherd. I don’t personally agree with this idea so I have an alternative interpretation. This shaping represents a belief in separation, seeing ourselves as individual egos that are not a part of the larger universal consciousness. In this interpretation, the song is stating that this is alright. That belief may not represent the truth, but we have chosen to stay in the playground of the illusion and enjoy our belief in separation. It doesn’t change the reality of who we are, only our perception. When life is viewed as a game that we choose to play, we recognize our divinity, but also realizes the nature of the game, the illusory quality of it. Given that our guardian, our higher self, can excuse us for wanting to indulge in playing the game as if separation was possible, we are excused from judgment. For there is only oneness and love. To judge is to enforce a belief in separation.

See this side of me, these humble offerings. From this well, hope still brings, my enemy. As my pride lays crumbling, so down comes everything. With a heavy heart, this sadness brings, my destiny.

Seasoned minds will bring, these humble offerings. From this well, hope still brings, my purity. You've seen me stumbling With a thankful heart I spread my wings Divinity.

One last time we relive the cycle, seeing sides, making judgements, seeing opposites and the unexplained as enemies until after going through the dark night of the soul when we transform into seasoned minds. Maybe this is not our first time around. Maybe this is a point where we realize that we’ve had previous lives, that we are reincarnations of other ideas, an ego looking to evolve and that is what seasons us. But through our stumbling, we eventually stand out on the precipice looking out over our sea of memory and are grateful for all the things that brought us to this moment, allowing us to spread our wings and identify with our divinity. Our true Selves.

* * *

So that was my original meditation. Here is the addendum after learning that the lyrics were, “Don’t give the doubt the chance to confuse you.”

Addendum

My mind was changed as I went through the process of writing this meditation, and I realized that the word doubt and God being transposed did not change my interpretation of the song as much as I had originally thought. I thought the lyrics, “Don’t give God the chance to confuse you,” was telling us to not allow beliefs in a higher power to stop us from realizing our own divinity. I later recognized that this type of belief and its ability to confuse us is simply a specific form of doubt which could have so many different forms in an individual’s life. Therefore, after much deliberation and thought, I concluded that it really didn’t matter one way or the other. “From the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb…”

In the end, my various interpretations ended in changing my journey towards a fuller understanding of this song and what it meant to me. I realized, as I vacillated from one interpretation to another, that in many ways my perceptions had clouded my ability to see the truth when I imposed my will on the lyrics of a song. Once I read the lyrics, I almost decided to just throw the meditation away, and move on to the next song. Therefore, I must admit that I never would have come up with the interpretation as it now stands had I heard the word Doubt instead of God to begin with because it wouldn’t have intrigued me in the same way. Maybe that was my inner divinity delivering a message to me in the only way it knew I could hear and accept it. Or as the great sage and artist, Bob Ross would say, “No mistakes, just happy accidents.” Indeed!

Hope you enjoyed the journey. Till next time.

Enjoy!

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www.darkrevmedia.com/thedarkdaily

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brianwhitedarkdaily-blog · 7 years ago

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August 2018 Listening List

This month I finished the first drafts of what I think will ultimately be the first two books in the Quantum Mystics series. For those of you who know about my writing process, that means that I have filled a few notebooks with chicken scratch that I now have to decipher, type, and edit. It is only the beginning, but a strong beginning, and I’m very excited by the story, characters and concepts. With that said, I’ve continued to increase the length of my Quantum Mystics Playlist. Here is what I listened to this month.

Conquer by Soulfly – Max Cavalera is one of my favorite musicians in metal. I love both his singing and guitar playing. His ability to mix musical styles, add off-key elements like ritual drumming and tribal singing and deliver them within the context of a sonic gut punch is amazing. His work in Sepultura (Roots is my personal favorite), Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy is nothing short of brilliant and has truly raised the bar for metal. This album is the typical/atypical Soulfly album containing all the elements I’ve come to expect from Soulfly. Songs like, Fall of the Sycophants, and For Those About to Rot are pounding metal tour de force songs, while the somber, dark, Touching the Void with down-tuned guitars leads you to the edge of the abyss, begging you to touch the void and discover what is hidden there. What more can I say? That’s the one that made the list.

Bitter Tears by Nemertines – I may have said this before but Nemertines produces music that is the embodiment of every dark emotion you have ever felt. If depression and sorrow had a soundtrack this would be it. Now this may not sound like a ringing endorsement, but I place Nemertines’ music into the category of dark beauty. It is rare that I encounter music that can bring about such powerful emotions, and Bitter Tears elicits exactly that. However, don’t stop here. If you’ve never been exposed to Nemertines before check them out on Bandcamp. A full album will take you from tears of sorrow to smiles of joy and you’ll feel every emotion in between with gut wrenching power. Nemertines is true musical sorcery.

Valonielu by Oranssi Pazuzu – No odd music playlist is complete without something from Oranssi Pazuzu. I’ve talked about this group’s ability to alter your state of mind by hypnotizing the listener with its rhythmic bass lines and then jar you awake with screaming guitar. So, for more in depth analysis of this band’s effect on my writing check out previous listening lists and Horn & Dagger Dark Tunes. For this playlist I chose Vino Verso, witch has an awesome guitar riff to start things off, hypnotizing you with its consistency as it draws you into new quantum realms of the multiverse.

ObZen by Meshuggah – I could write books about Meshuggah and their influence on my writing. Meshuggah is the gold standard for progressive metal. They have a distinctive sound that is always recognizable and Fredrick Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom are two of the pioneers for eight string guitar playing. They have used those two additional low end strings to vibrate their thunderous music into a new dimension. And no one can bellow and scream like Jens Kidman. Did I mention the bass and drums are awesome too? ObZen is a “Best Of,” album. Every song is awesome. Combustion, Electric Red, Bleed start off the line up and it only gets better from there, which is why the last song, Dancers to a Discordant System, is my favorite and the song that was added to the list. By the way if you really want to appreciate Meshuggah you have to pay attention to the lyrics which will mess you up in a whole new wonderful way. For those who believe Heavy Metal is for knuckle dragging angry idiots who just scream obscenities and don’t know anything about music, two things. First ….none taken! Second, you’re just not listening hard enough. Put on some headphones, listen to the nuances, read the lyrics and be prepared to have your mind changed.

Mirror Reaper by Bell Witch – Bell Witch is a new group for me. This 83 Plus minute epic song is atmospheric metal at its best, incorporating the influences of Yob, Sunn O))), and Neurosis. Patience is key, the buildup slow, methodical, and haunting, but your patience is rewarded. This is well worth the listen and delivers plenty of musical gems that make the journey worthwhile.

Evolution by Once Human – This was a great find that I ran across while perusing the Metal category in Napster. Great guitar, orchestration, singing. Nothing surprising here just a good solid metal album. I have not listened to their other albums yet, but am looking forward to doing so.

Tales from the Beyond by Mob Rules – I’ve enjoyed Mob Rules’ music for some time now. In this album they have added a mythic element to their music. I have not had time to delve into the lyrics, but the feel of the songs is reminiscent of some of the mythic tales told by Iron Maiden and Yes and even channels some of those sounds into their music. The Dykemaster’s Tale has some guitar riffs and leads very reminiscent of Maiden a la Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Good album and well worthy of a listen.

Podcasts:

Didn’t listen to anything new this month but have a few saved to my YouTube playlist that I hope to get to next month.

That’s it for this month.

Enjoy!!

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brianwhitedarkdaily-blog · 7 years ago

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July 2018 Listening List

I began working on a new project this month that I hope to turn into a book series called Quantum Mystics. As a result, I searched for a lot of music that embodied the chaotic, surreal themes of the scenes I was writing. Some were calming and dreamlike, others were action packed, and still others were weird and psychedelic. I started to create a playlist of songs pulled from the albums I listened to while writing the story. The bands and albums themselves don’t differ much from my normal listening, however, I did spend more time listening to instrumentalists that I have not listened to in a while, and found new gems in some staple favorites.

Orange Mathematics by Frontierer – I had listened to this album once before and simply dismissed it. It was still downloaded on my device and I was scrolling through looking for something different and decided to give it another listen. I think my previous dismissal was due to the fact that this is extremely heavy, jarring music. When this album starts, it feels like a gun going off next to your ear right as you are about to fall asleep. I also believe that the sounds of pick scrapes, screaming, and high pitched, distorted, high E guitar bends manipulates your brain waves and makes you instantly insane. Which, as it so happens, was exactly what I was looking for. As a result, I found a new appreciation for this album and band. Collapse was one of my favorite songs and was what I picked for the playlist.

The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection by Yngwie Malmsteen – If you’ve never heard of Yngwie then you’ve just never heard some of the best classical metal fusion ever created. Yngwie is a master, both musically and technically. His chops have stood up to the test of time and he is still at the top of the list of one of the fastest players of all time. Some may disagree, but I also believe he expresses a true passion for music and his songs are the type that stick in your brain. Black Star an original Malmsteen instrumental classic was the song I chose for the playlist and displays everything that makes Yngwie great.

Conquering Dystopia by Conquering Dystopia – Jeff Loomis has been one of my favorite guitarists since hearing him when he fronted Nevermore. I believe I’ve written about this album before but the dueling guitar of Merrow and Loomis is simply amazing. It manages to groove while being technical, quickly vacillating from screaming solos to toe tapping riffs. This is one of those albums that can immediately change my state of consciousness, which is why I returned to it. Ashes of a Lesser Man and Lachrymose made the playlist.

Plains of Oblivion by Jeff Loomis – Don’t need to say anything more about Loomis’ guitar playing. On this album he displays his harmonic range and brings in some guest singers and players such as Ihsahn but the female vocal lead on Tragedy and Harmony made this song my favorite and made the playlist.

Concrete Gardens by Tony MacAlpine - It had been a long time since I had listened to Tony. I remember the early Shrapnel Record days with Keel, Paul Gilbert, Richie Kotzen and of course Tony with his debut album, Insanity, which was exactly that, insanity on six strings. Well Tony has added two more strings to his insanity and his playing has never been better. Added to his technical wizardry and shredding capabilities are some great riffs which pull you into his every expanding garden of guitar insanity. The King’s Rhapsody was one of my favorites, along with Red Giant. Both were added to the playlist as well as some of the songs from Tony’s earlier albumns such as Autumn Lords (Maximum Security) and Dream Mechanism (Tony MacAlpine).

Lesser Key by Lesser Key – Lesser Key was formed by x-Tool bass player Paul D’Amour and has a similar sound. This is a great album that drags you into its embrace with hypnotic repetition and excellent, occult lyrics. Folding Stairs and Parallels were the two that I added to the Quantum Mystics playlist but all the songs are excellent.

Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards by Joe Satriani – I am a longtime Satriani fan. He is one of the few artists I have seen multiple times in concert and each time was memorable. Aside from being an accomplished shredder and guitar virtuoso, Satriani has some of the “tastiest” rhythms and riffs of any instrumental guitarist I know. He has guitar lines that feel as if they should be sung and I often find myself humming to his groove rhythms as if they were refrains. I’ve not kept up with all the albums he’s been releasing throughout the years, but as I was looking for something different and I was writing about quantum mystics, the album title immediately grabbed my eye. As it turns out Wormhole Wizards is one of the songs I added to the playlist. It has a great funk rhythm typical of Satriani. It draws you in and keeps you for the whole song, adding subtle changes and awesome displays of guitar wizardry in the process. God is Crying, is the other song I added. There are many categories Satriani’s playing could be placed in, but I always put them into either Blues/Funk Fusion that makes you want to move, or slow, dreamy, captivating, awe inspiring music that makes you reflective and emotive. Songs like Circles, I Believe, and God is Crying fall into this latter category. Great album from one of my favorite guitar legends.

Alien Love Secrets by Steve Vai – Vai is another one of my favorites. If you are looking for odd music that can make you cry, dance, cringe, sing or have you asking “what the f*** just happened,” look no further. Vai has it all. Vai is one of the few guitarists that can make you feel like you just listened to a song that had lyrics but that you know didn’t. His guitar sound can be lyrical and at times he’s even made it speak by answering lyrically posed questions. But my favorite thing about Vai is he manages to always be fun and at times comical. If you have ever had the pleasure of watching him play, it is immediately apparent how much he loves music, the guitar, and what he is doing. He gives everything he has, and it comes through in his music. He is the only guitarist I can listen to and find myself actually laughing. I can’t explain how he does it so I’ll put it in the musical mystery category. Ya-Yo Gakk from this album perfectly illustrates his ability to make his guitar sing and laugh.

The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by Pink Floyd – Pink Floyd is something I find myself listening to when I want to get into a weird, psychedelic, philosophic mood. And I used these two albums to channel that emotion while I was writing because there are quite a few scenes in which the characters are exploring concepts that cannot be properly examined with normal consciousness. Hey You, from the Wall and Breathe, from Dark Side are the two songs that most brought me into this mode of thinking. In this case I didn’t pay any attention to the lyrics but went purely by the state of mind that was evoked while listening to these songs.

Savages and Savages (Instrumental) by The Dali Thundering Concept – Loved their previous album Eyes Wide Opium and this album extends their surreal technical wizardry to new heights. Their use of odd time signatures and the battle between thunderous bass, blazing squealing guitar, and growled vocals, keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next as you are taken on a jarring journey from, The Myth of Happiness to being, Blessed with Boredom, which does everything but bore you. As much as I like Sylvain Conier’s voice and lyrics the instrumental version of this album is awesome allowing you to focus on how truly amazing the guitar playing from Leo Natale is. I was amazed while listening to the lyrical version and then awestruck when listening to the instrumental.

Podcasts:

Didn’t listen to much spoken word this month. Even while driving I wanted to keep Quantum Mystics on my mind and stay on a roll. Music always allows me to retrieve an emotion or an idea, so I spent a lot of my commuting time listening to the playlist and going over the plots, scenes and characters in Quantum Mystics while listening to the playlist. I did listen to one lecture given by Robert Anton Wilson where he discusses his book, Prometheus Rising, covering topics such as neural linguistic programming, the eight neural circuits, and imprinting, in his often comedic but always intriguing way.

That’s it for this month.

Enjoy!

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brianwhitedarkdaily-blog · 7 years ago

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June 2018 Listening List

Another great month of music. Did not listen to as much variety this month as new albums from Ghost and Yob kept me quite occupied as well as some longer podcast binging.

1. Death Will Reign by Impending Doom – A little Vildhjarta, some Humanity’s last breath and a whole lot of energy makes for a great album. Drums are a standout on this album. Especially some of the interludes in the middle of some of the songs where they slow everything down and the drums become a deep heartbeat that is hypnotic, bringing you under its spell before delivering the crushing crescendo. Death will Reign with its slow, off-key string bends and tempo changes was one of my favorites. They have a new album coming out, The Sin and Doom Vol. 2, which I will be sure to check out.

2. Prequelle by Ghost – For the second month in a row I found myself enjoying music that I would usually consider out of my norm. Ghost fits into that category. At first listen it sounds very rock/pop which usually results in me immediately choosing something else but I was mowing the lawn and was too lazy to stop and find something else. So I listened to the album all the way through. And to my horror, somewhere about halfway through the second listen, I started to like it. Part of the reason for this is that I like Tobias Forge’s (previously known only by his stage persona Papa Emeritus until former members of the band filed a law suit, making his name public) voice and delivery. It has an odd quality to it where it lilts or changes in tone or pitch on phrases or syllables I wouldn’t expect, which made it different and piqued my interest. Ghost also makes good use of a lot of instruments. There was piano, flute, bells, and one of my favorites, saxophone (which I had missed on the new Ihsahn album). Rats is one of my vocal favorites. I love the way Forge spits out the word rats while rolling the rrrr, and Faith was my favorite from a guitar standpoint with a great solo.There were also some lyrics that I definitely took note of. In fact, the album was peppered with lyric gems, but here are a few of my favorites:

Witch Image

While you sleep in earthly delight, someone’s flesh is rotting tonight.

See the Light

But of all of the demons I’ve known, none could compare to you.

Everyday that you feed me with Hate I grow stronger.

Drink me, eat me, then you’ll see the light

3. Christ 0 by Vanden Plas – Vanden Plas is one of my regulars but I haven’t listened to this album in a while as it does not have the energy that many of their other albums have. However, Fireroses Dance and Getsemane are two of my favorite Vanden Plas songs which drew me to listen to the album again. Still great songs and worth the listen as they depart slightly from Vanden Plas’ usual operatic slash metal. Fireroses Dance has some great piano and excellent singing and is really more of a ballad than a metal song but carries a lot of energy with some beautiful vocal moments.

4. Oransi Pazuzu (all albums) – I know I’ve covered Oransi Pazuzu in previous months but last month I began using their albums as meditation music. I am one of those people that finds it much easier to get into a meditative state listening to complex music that has a great rhythm and is either instrumental or has lyrics written in a different language. This allows me to not focus on the meaning of the song and be drawn deeper into a meditative state while focusing on the complexity of the music. Oransi has all of these qualities combined with great rhythmic patterns led by great percussion and bass. In addition, all their songs have a surreal dreamlike quality to them adding elements that can conjure vacillating emotions of dread and elation while also hypnotizing you with the background beat. The fact that the vocals are sung in another language makes the voice another instrument in this beautifully dark cacophony. Never write Metal music off the list of meditation music selections. Other bands like Sunn O))), Rotting Christ and Stomb are other great bands to check out but thus far nothing has been as consistent and offered the range of selections that Oransi Pazuzu offers. If you are someone who has always had a hard time meditating, likes Metal, and are a little on the high strung side (such as I am) this may offer a great opportunity to try something different.

5. Our Raw Heart by Yob - For fans of the band you may already know that Singer/Guitarist Mike Scheidt had a brush with death last year due to various infections from diverticulitis and a bout of MRSA that resulted from the surgeries to remove the pockets of infected colon. Scheidt continued to write music during his recovery and his gratitude for making it through that experience seems to bleed through the songs of, Our Raw Heart.

Yob has long been one of my favorites and this album delivers signature Yob sound. In my opinion Scheidt has one of the most unique voices in metal. It’s one of those that when you hear it, you know who it is. There are moments of passion, anger, revelation and gratitude throughout the album not just a gentle rise but a roller coaster of sonic emotions. Which I can only speculate is much like the life of the band during the creation of this album.

Even the song titles speak to this emotional roller coaster Ablaze, Beauty in Falling Leaves (which is an extremely moving song), and In Reverie. Beautifully constructed album with everything that makes metal great. I am sure this will make it into a Dark Tunes or Metal Meditation episode at some point.

One of my favorites from Yob and easily one of my favorite albums of this past year.

Podcasts and Lectures

Chaos Magick in Theory & Practice, Sigils, Tailsmans, Shapeshifting, Baphomet, Andrieh Vitimus - If you have never been exposed to the concepts of Chaos Magick this is a great introductory overview. The Leak Project has quite a few good episodes on different areas of the magick, philosophy and the occult. Vitimus, an author of practical magic books breaks down the theory and practice of chaos magic, removes a lot of the hype and fear surrounding the topic and genuinely tries to get people enthused about trying magick before assuming it doesn't work.

Gordon White -Chaos Magick Formula, Spells, Sigils & Manifestation Techniques - White is a very interesting character (I am too but I'm talking about Gordon now) and has some interesting stories to tell about interactions with royalty, secret organizations, and occultists. He also has a breadth of knowledge in philosophy, the occult, and magick and went through a brief history of magical thought, showing how these thoughts evolved to create the current currents occurring in chaos magic and other magical systems.

Real Enochian Magick - Matrix Keys That Work - Jason Louv - This was one of my favorite videos of this month. Jason Louv has written a new book, John Dee and the Empire of Angels, which he discusses during this interview. Although I have heard of John Dee as an occultist I did not know he was also a spy for the English crown, a court astrologer, and one of the original medieval magicians. One of Dee's claim to fame was working with a powerful scryer to talk with angels and documenting the Enochian language, or the language of the angels. Believe it or don't, this was a great story with a lot of intrigue. The book is in my queue to read and Louv brought this historic tale to life.

CHAOS MAGIC, THE OCCULT AND SHAMANIC SIGIL CREATION - There is a reason the title is in all caps, Grant Morrison, starts off this lecture with a scream and the energy only increases after that. If there is anyone that can get you to believe in Chaos Magic, and Sigil Magic and make you eager to give it a try, it is Morrison. Strangely enough I had never heard of Grant and was led here by allowing the YouTube algorithm to send me to dark places. Fascinating speech, but even more fascinating are his comics. After watching this I decided to read, The Invisibles, The Filth, and Nameless, and have quite a few more in queue to read. Grant is one of those interesting people that lives great fiction and then shares it with the rest of us in a unique way.

Grant Morrison - Talking with Gods - I usually follow my interests down the rabbit hole. One month it was Alan Moore and this month is was Grant Morrison. There is definitely an attitude and creative impression I get from watching Grant that I identify with. I also really enjoy what he has done with his comic writing and enjoyed listening to how he uses life to inspire his work and vice versa. I'm also naturally drawn to occultists and have always been intrigued with people's use of magic in their artistic, creative process.

That's it for this month. Working on a lot of new columns for Dark Revelations Media. I'm creating some new Metal Meditation episodes, which should be out next month. I'm also working on an entire new series called, Dark Parallels in which I explore topics such as physics, magic, psychology, philosophy, technology and popular culture. The first episode, Black Mirror, Morphic Resonance, Theories of Everything and Zombie Cats, speculates on the relationship between Rupert Sheldrake's Morphic Fields, Quantum Uncertainty and Entanglement, spooky cats that are both alive and dead, and examine how the interaction of these "things" can modify our perception of reality by comparing them with ideas presented in episodes of the popular science fiction show, Black Mirror. It only get weirder from there! So stay tune.

Enjoy!

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brianwhitedarkdaily-blog · 7 years ago

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May 2018 Listening List

Lots of good music this month from a few of my favorite bands.

Eat the Elephant by A Perfect Circle: Not a huge A Perfect Circle fan, however, I really like Maynard Keenan’s voice and will take any opportunity to listen to him sing but I prefer to hear him with Tool. This was still a good album with my favorite song being, Talk Talk.

FolkCore DeTour by Dirty Shirt: This is what you get when you put Russian, Hungarian, Eastern European Folk together with Heavy Metal. If you have not listened to Dirty Shirt before, start. And this is a great album to start with as it includes their best heavy, groove, folk, blood pounding metal songs. I dare you to listen to the whole album without finding yourself head bobbing, foot tapping, or breaking out into a full on mosh dance. Great rhythms, great use of eclectic instruments and styles. Favorites songs are Moneyocracy and Freak Show.

And Justice for None by Five Finger Death Punch: This was not the full on blood pumping, fist pounding tour de force that I expected, however, its still a great album. Trouble delivers a typical Five Finger Death Punch, Fuck you! to conformity, enemies, and those that stand in your way and is a standout of the album. Other songs like Sham Pain and Blue and Black deliver a more subdued message and delve into new music styles for the band. I also enjoyed their cover version of Gone Away. Maybe not what I was expecting but I would not say I was disappointed.

Five by Hollywood Undead: I’m filing this under guilty pleasure. I didn’t like the whole album but there are definitely some songs that I truly enjoyed even though I was loath to admit it. This does not fit into my typical dirge/death metal listening, however, I was quickly taken in by the groove, rhythm and rap delivery of lyrics. I was immediately attracted to songs like Bad Moon, Black Cadillac, and Bang Bang, which I’m convinced have been featured in some of the mountain biking films I like to watch like New World Disorder. This immediately had me associating the songs with mountain biking as I thought they went perfectly with the flow of riding which is what had ensnared me at a sub-conscious level. A lot of fun. And yes I did add some songs to my biking mix.

Amr by Ihsahn: This is everything I have come to expect and love from Ihsahn, with one exception. No saxophone. I was waiting for it the whole album. Aside from that the album capitalizes on everything Ihsahn is great at, down tuned, minor rhythms, and the constant fluctuation from clean to scream singing (although there was a little more clean than scream on this one). Favorite song is, One Less Enemy, which has this great riff in the beginning that carries through in various parts of the song. It also displays some of the tastiest guitar playing on the album.

Sonder by TesseracT: I was a little disappointed with this one to be honest. First off it was too short and second it did not seem to have the energy that Polaris had. Although I would say that Polaris is a tough act to follow. But the album did seem to lack the musical complexity and lyrical complexity of previous albums. Still great but not what I had been hoping for. King, with its screamed refrain, a crack of lightening to the thunderous signature TesseracT bass guitar, was a standout that delivered on the promise of previous endeavors but the rest of the songs are unable to capitalize on that moment and sustain it through the rest of the album. If this were the only TesseracT album I had heard, I believe I would have enjoyed it. The album only suffers when compared to their previous music. I also found out that the definition of Sonder means to come to the realization that each person is living a life as vivid and complex as your own - populated with their own ambitions, friends, worries and inherited craziness. I thought that was interesting which adds a different perspective for lyrics such as those found in, King: They’re taking away the freedom to be just you, But the sun always shines for you. They’re taking away the freedom to be just you! I will give the lyrics another analysis in the future given this context.

Podcasts and Lectures

Manly P. Hall – Invisible Entities & Secret Powers: I love Manly P. Hall’s books particularly, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. This lecture talks about secret organizations and the belief that they may use mind control to instill certain ideas and control behavior. Without even getting into that possibility, Hall focuses more on the damage it can do others to simply believe that such a thing is possible. If you can control other people’s thoughts (or believe you can) then you become paranoid that someone may actually have the capability to control your thoughts. This is how magical warfare emerges, all of which is based on a belief in something that may or may not exist. In the end, this belief acts very much like a placebo effect. You are told that x influences y and if you believe it to be true it becomes true via a self-fulfilling prophecy. mechanism. I thought it a strange lecture from Hall considering the books I had read by him.

Alan Watts – Just Trust the Universe: I thought this was a great lecture and I love Watts’ delivery and his ability to laugh at himself. In this lecture, he covered a lot of Buddhist concepts and revolving around the definition of enlightenment and the search for it. Based on the Buddhist saying, “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water,” Watts makes the conclusion that we do not have to work for enlightenment and then continue to work at it to maintain it (chopping wood and carrying water). Instead we come to the realization that there was never anything to do or search for. We were always enlightened and merely needed to come to the realization and remembrance of our enlightened state.

Terence McKenna – The Gnostic Astronaut: A great survey of gnostic beliefs and history as well as some of McKenna’s comments on its effect on modern mystical beliefs.

Robert Aton Wilson – Language and Reality: A great interview in which Wilson talks about the philosophy of language and how it shapes our reality. He then talks about his belief that words are spells that can perform the magic of modifying our perceptions and bringing our desires to fruition. In addition, he discusses how our use of internal language (how we talk to ourselves) can be used to program new behaviors and attitudes (neuro-linguistic-programming, NLP) saving us from previous patterns that may have been acting as barriers to enlightenment or happiness. He then discusses Timothy Leary’s 8 circuits of the mind. Very interesting!

I’ll end this month with uncharacteristic optimism and recite some lyrics from Five Finger Death Punch’s song Sham Pain which echoes many of the thoughts I’ve had over the past month.

All in all it’s a good life.

I got what I want. I can’t complain.

I’m living the good life.

I’ll toast to you now. It’s all sham pain

These lyrics reminded me of the saying, “A man complained about how much his toe hurt until he met the man with no feet.” We can find gratitude in anything if we choose to and for me I’ve slowly come to the realization that all in all it’s a good life. I suffer less than most, more than others. It’s all sham pain.

Enjoy!

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April 2018 Listening List

Came across some great new music this month and revisited some old favorites along the way.

Black Mass by Behold the Void: Djent at its best. This was a great find. Halfway through the first song I found myself unconsciously headbanging to the steadily pounding beat. There are some great 7 string guitar moments, channeling Vildhjarta and Humanity's Last Breath but with a unique touch that will, from here on, be known as signature BTV. Haven of Void, was my favorite song with a series of slow interludes followed by erupting guitars and ending in an explosively played arpeggio that is one of the coolest riffs I've heard in a long time. Great EP. Can't wait to hear more from this band. I think this will eventually be expanded upon as an influence to one of my novels on the DarkTunes Page.

Cold and Cloud by Leila Abdul-Rauf: This is slow and atmospheric with great female vocals. This was an album I relaxed into while meditating.

Medusa Truth Part 1 & 2 by Omitt: This is excellent atmospheric doom metal with great female vocals. I listened to these two albums a lot and really liked the blend of heavy guitar and operatic singing.

Varahtelija by Oranssi Pazuzu: I've already written a lot about this album and its influence on my new novel, Horn and Dagger, but for those of you who may have read some of my Metal Mediation posts you know that I often like to use certain types of Metal Music to meditate to. This month I tried out Varahtelija which has some very jarring moments that I equated with the strange bells and horns that are often used by Tibetan Monks during their mediation practice. This psychedelic album with its pounding rhythmic bass riffs leads you slowly into the black depths and then jolts you upward using harshly yelled Finnish lyrics and beautifully odd guitar moments. Turns out this was a great album to mediate to.

After by Ihsahn: I haven't listened to this one in a while but I believe Ihsahn is coming out with a new album soon which reminded me of how great his previous albums were. One thing I like about this album is Ihsahn's blend of clean and growled lyrics. But my absolute favorite thing is his use of the saxophone. Sometimes he can make it sound like a human cry of terror and at other times the weeping of a child. He was also careful not to overuse it. It was one of those elements that was added at just the right moment, where it felt like it completed the song, filling a gap that would have been palpable should it have been missing. After a first listen you anticipate it, wait for it, believing that it is coming, but he holds back and when it feels like it will never come, there it is, blaring through the song, breathing in new life. The Barren Lands and Frozen Lakes On Mars are my two favorites and well worthy of a listen.

Covenant by Unprocessed: First thing I noticed was the pounding bass, odd time signature changes, and great guitar work. Another great djent album. This one also had a healthy blend of clean singing and growling for those of you that like that juxtaposition. Looking forward to seeing more from this band.

Relive // Regret // Repeat by The Fallen Prodigy: Great sound. Great album. This reminded me of early Periphery with a blend of clean-and-scream delivery of lyrics with some great riffs that will have you headbanging in record time. There are also these great interludes where they slow everything down, change time signatures and deliver and explosive rhythmic riff to fill a pregnant silence. A good example of this is at the end of Extinct.

PodCasts and Interviews

I listened to lectures about philosophy and the occult this month.

Ram Dass - Here We All Are: This was great. I had never heard Ram Dass before and this took me by surprise. In this 2 hour lecture he tells his life story telling of his early interests, his becoming a professor, his experimentation with mind altering chemicals, and his journey of discovery which took him all over the world. Very powerful and moving talk which ended with him expressing his love of all, the unity of all things, and the power of living in the eternal moment.

Derrida & Deconstruction: Interesting lecture that tells the history of Derrida and the formulation of his deconstruction method. This falls more into the category of technical logic and less into metaphysics, which is my prime area of interest in philosophy, but still captured my interest.

Austin Osman Spare, Art and Magick Roundtable: This was a great discussion of Spare's history, occult practices, and art. For anyone not familiar with Spare this is a great place to start. He is a truly astounding occult character possessing an awe inspiring artistic talent. That he has largely been forgotten by history, is a shame. His individualistic, rogue approach to magickal and artistic expression influence the birth of chaos magic and continues to influence other occult systems and philosophy.

Yuval Harari: Techno-Religions and Silicon Prophets - This was a great lecture given by the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and explores how new religions will arise from Silicon Valley because of the faith we place on technology and those that create it. Covers varies technical topics such as virtual reality, artificial reality, and bio-engineering.

Yuval Harari on the Rise of Homo Deus - Another great talk by Yuval where he talks about the technical advances mankind is making and how this is bringing humanity closer to becoming gods in the literary sense of the word, in which we are creating novel beings capable of consciousness through computer science (artificial intelligence) and bio-engineering (cyborgs, implants, genetic manipulation). Definitely worth a view.

That is it for this month.

Enjoy!

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www.darkrevmedia.com/thedarkdaily

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March 2018 Listening List

As I have been training for the Spartan Beast that I will be running at the end of this month I spent most of my time listening to a playlist I put together. For a change I decided to simply include that playlist this month as I did not spend a significant amount of time listening to any new music.

As with last month I also included some of the YouTube videos I watched covering topics such as the philosophy of language and sacred geometry.

Workout Playlist

The Devil's Bleeding Crown by Volbeat

Got Your Six by Five Finger Death Punch

Jekyll and Hyde by Five Finger Death Punch

Under and Over It by Five Finger Death Punch (Yeah I know very Five Finger Death Punch heavy but try listening to this music and not be inspired to go crazy on something. Great workout music.)

House of the Rising Sun by Five Finger Death Punch

Universal Flame by Devin Townsend Project

I Just Want You by Ozzy Osbourne

The Sound of Silence by Disturbed

Scorpion Flower by Moonspell

A Fight I Must Win by Arch Enemy

Trouble by Five Finger Death Punch

Inside of Your Head by Vanden Plas

All in Your Head by Machine Head (This is the point where I'm trying to convince myself that the pain is merely psychological. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't)

Bodies by Drowning Pool

The Light by Disturbed

Indestructible by Disturbed

Prayer by Disturbed

Deafening Silence by Machine Head

The Venom Inside by Chimaira

PodCasts and Interviews

Noam Chomsky on the Philosophy of Language and Linguistics : The philosophy of language is not something I've spent a great deal of time on before but once I started I became very intrigued and watched multiple videos on the subject.

John Searle Discussing the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Philosophy of Language with John Searle

Terence McKenna on the Afterlife - I could listen to Terence all day long.

The Illusion of Reality and Sacred Geometry - This was a great introductory video on this subject. Short and sweet.

The Inevitable: The Next 30 Years in Tech with Kevin Kelly - I've loved Kevin's books since, Out of Control, and am still a Wired Magazine subscriber even though he may not work on the magazine anymore. This was a great talk with interaction from audience members which gave a very telling view of how a majority of people see technology and the hopes and fears surrounding the emergence of new technologies.

That is it for this month.

Enjoy!

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www.darkrevmedia.com/thedarkdaily

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March 2018 Reading List

Horn & Dagger Paperback edition is now available on Amazon. Additionally, I was able to complete the formatting for the Kindle edition which is now also available for pre-order, releasing on May 10th.

I was eclectic and frenetic in my choice of reading this month and was searching for different material. As a result I read a few books all the way through but in my search for the different, I also read some short samples, some of which I'll return to in the future. I am engaging in a new writing endeavor that I am currently calling Dark-Parallels, in which I attempt to draw tangents between various pieces of information ranging from technology, biology, physics, literature and popular culture. The article I am currently working on explores some of the parallels and tangents between episodes of the Netflix show Black Mirror, Morphic Resonance and the physics concepts of the uncertainty principle and entanglement. My goal is to begin releasing these articles on a new dedicated page of the www.darkrevmedia.com site sometime in May or June. So stay tuned. With that said here is what I read and partially read in March.

A New Concept of the Universe by Walter Russel: I was listening to a podcast in which the visionary artist, Android Jones, was being interviewed. He read a few quotes by Walter Russel and I was intrigued. This and his other book, The Message of the Divine Iliad, were two of the books that I only read samples of. Although intriguing they seemed dense with information and I knew I was going to need some background to the concepts being explored. This sent me to the other books on the list as well as some additional material I found on YouTube which I'll discuss in this month's Listening List. What I can say based on my cursory perusal of this book is that it details a new way of looking at the universe and proposes that consciousness gives rise to matter and not matter to consciousness. This will be a consistent theme explored in much of the material I read and listened to this month. I will be returning to this book at a later date.

The Message of the Divine Iliad by Walter Russel: Another book I only read a sample of. This one seemed to extend the mystical concepts that would be explored in, A New Concept of the Universe, and read more like a manifesto or a channeled writing similar to, A Course in Miracles. There was a lot of good stuff in just the few chapters I read and I will be returning to this one in the future as well.

My Big Toe: Awakening by Thomas Campbell: I was introduced to Thomas last month through a YouTube video of a conversation between him and the biologist Bruce Lipton which literally blew my mind. I immediately began to read the, My Big Toe Trilogy. However, I much prefer the flow of Campbell's speech to his writing. There were tangents and tangents of tangents that made it difficult to follow. In addition I was probably moving too quickly through the material which made it that much more difficult. As a result I got through the first book and half of the second book, Discovery, before deciding I needed to take a break. I will be returning to finish the Trilogy but these are definitely books that require slow digestion and an open mind.

The Self Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World by Amit Goswami: I had heard of Goswami's work while watching a talk on quantum uncertainty, entanglement and resonance. This was a great book. It slowly builds on the physical, biological, creative, and spiritual concepts explored to make them seem almost self evident by the time you read the conclusion. This book follows the main theme of this month, exploring the possibility that consciousness gives rise to the material and that a new physics that takes this principle as the foundation can change our perception of the universe. This idea, when extended, attempts to unify the previously separate worlds of classical and quantum physics. In Goswami's view the idea that there should be different rules for the very small and the very large is antithetical and needs to be resolved. His view is that a physics which starts with the core belief that the material is emergent from consciousness and not the other way around is an important first step. Great Book! I'll be reading more by Goswami, who has written quite extensively on topics such as these. My biggest challenge will be narrowing down the selection in order to chose my next read.

That's it for this month.

Enjoy!

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Horn & Dagger Goodreads Giveaway

Enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a chance to win 1 of 10 signed copies of Dark Fantasy Author, Brian White’s new novel, Horn and Dagger.

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/278357-horn-and-dagger

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Horn & Dagger DarkTunes - Part 4

Deathgrip by Fit For a King

The Deathgrip Album contained a lot of the ideas around redemption and salvation that are explored within the novel. But it was the song, Deathgrip that had me focusing on the concept that small cracks at the core of Erebos had begun to yawn further open, revealing the darkness that had previously been contained within. For instance we have the lyrics:

Foundation cracks The wounds are bleeding The end is calling The end is here

The Lady of Erebos seems to be the only character that truly perceives these cracks. She can feel them. She uses her magic to try and keep the darkness from spreading outward from these cracks. The fact that the island and it flora are what has transformed her makes her more in touch with the island creating an organic attachment to it that the other characters do not have. The Monk was born on Erebos but the process of his transformation is multidimensional and is not completely reliant upon his presence on Erebos. Then we have the Engineer. The below lyrics capture his beliefs and attitudes:

I will be the last one standing I can see the end It's staring right back at me I brought us here A place spent to waste my humanity

The Engineer believes that he has made Erebos a better place. His motivations may have even started out as pure and good. The question remains: Is it his ego and intellectual arrogance that turned him, making him culpable or had Erebos and its dark mistress the Norja transformed him and his followers into its emissaries of evolution? In one case the Engineer is motivated only by control and glory and in the other he becomes simply an actor on the stage with Erebos writing the script. Whichever the case the Engineer believes that he has spent his humanity on Erebos, not wasting it, but shedding it, revealing the deity contained within. That, he believes, places him in a position to determine its fate.

The Serpent and The Sphere by Agalloch

Agalloch’s, The Serpent and The Sphere, was a major influence on the ideas that shaped Horn and Dagger, as will be apparent when we examine some of the lyrical content. However, there are long period of dark instrumental meanderings over the course of this album that influenced the tone and atmosphere of the novel, creating the perfect sonic environment for the creation of Erebos and its inhabitants.

The Birth and Death of the Pillars of Creation

Towers... Deity forged architecture Swirling in and out of form Enveloped in the arms of dark matter Towers...mercurial and flowing... My work is done The tower at the center of Erebos is ancient. Is it deity forged? I won’t say. But it does possess a mercurial existence that swirls in and out of form, constructed and transformed by the dark matter that pulses at its core. Ironically, it becomes the intent of all the main characters to keep Erebos in a constant state of transformation, never quite allowing it to solidify into a state which each character believes will be detrimental to the spiritual evolution of Erebos and its citizens. Solidity means that one of the character’s dreams has become actualized, which is something none of the other characters want. For instance, the Monk wants to end the Engineer’s reign and return Erebos to a collective spiritual utopia where commerce and consumerism are not the governing influences. Actualizing this during the course of the novel seems impossible, therefore, the Monk would prefer to keep the island and himself in a constant state of transformation as long as it keeps the Engineer’s goals from becoming reality. Which then relates to the next set of lyrics:

Pillars... From an antediluvian bane Collapsing in and out of form Embodied in a cradle of absence Pillars...mercurial and flowing... My work is done

The tower is an antediluvian bane. It is ancient and at the point in time when we encounter it, its energy has been forced out of balance causing distress. It is only later that we realize it is a multidimensional object that has the capability to collapse in and out of form.

“Cradle of absence” is an interesting phrase. The tower is mercurial and flowing, is ancient, but it is also the infant bed of absence, of non-being. Taking another definition for cradle, the tower can be viewed as the origin point of absence, in a sense giving birth to the void of non-existence, of silence, of darkness. The tower acts as the pivot point for much of the action throughout the novel. Even when not present it has a way of influencing the characters and their thoughts and actions.

The Astral Dialogue

Languages of the gods, spoken in sidereal tongue Divinities of the stars Illuminate in runes of man

The markings on the tower could be considered the language of the gods. This language is not spoken but it is one that comes from the distant stars (possibly) with the intent of illuminating the minds of men. Does it also cast light on the language of men, their symbols and runes? Again, possibly.

Gods sire and propagate here Under divine law of the opus magnum Evolution of a language to come

The language to come is not spoken, it is silent, it is the emotions of the dark. The ancient beings came here to plant the seed of divinity. However, we don’t know who the real deity is on Erebos. Were these ancient beings monks, astronauts, mere vessels of divinity? Was the divine law being whispered from the Norja, was it delivering and evolving this new language through its ability to impart revelation to those that received its sacramental visions?

Dark Matter Gods Dark Matter Gods The abyss is the elder of time Dark Matter Gods The void is the archetype of being Dark Matter Gods The dark mass is the father of all

Darkness is a character in Horn and Dagger. You can feel its pressure weighing on you. Physicists state that there is more dark matter in the universe than ordinary matter. What rules and laws does such matter follow, what can it tell us about the universe, about ourselves, what happens when we expose ourselves and open ourselves to the raw naked power of such dark matter? Do dark matter gods exist in a separate pantheon of gods than the gods of the light we seek and pray to?

The abyss, no time, no space. It precedes time. This void, this nothingness, represents the framework for our being. It is not the meat suits we wear that we should identify with but the void that exists beyond the veil of flesh. This is the Gospel of the Dark Matter Gods, calling us to identify with the void, with nonexistence, making them the fathers of all.

Celestial Effigy

My allegiance is with the inner self The dark celestial voice of wisdom Beyond the dust that is this world.

The Monk constantly identifies with the dark voice that whispers to him. It is when he does not listen to it that he seems to encounter the most stress or confusion. The Norjans know only that dark celestial voice. They state that the Norja is in every cell of their being, its’ spores in every breath they breathe. The Norjans identify themselves by this darkness, which takes them beyond the dust that is this world. There is a voice adrift in the starless and marble black dark space A voice of wisdom and purity Beyond the vestiges of sanity There is a voice deep in the darkest places calling...haunting me... Where no light bears a shadow Where no time escapes unhallowed

If the Erebos Anthem had lyrics, these would be them. This magical island speaks with the voice of wisdom and purity but from a mouth that is not beautiful or welcoming. It speaks from the pit of insanity, for we must abandon our preconceived notions in order to properly hear what is being said from the darkness. There is beauty here, but it is not present to our eyes, it awakens different senses and we must take the leap into the abyss and allow the insanity to take hold. The revelatory voice of the Norja speaks only from the darkest places of the mind, calling you to listen, and once heard, it haunts you. As you identify with the void, the shadow is swallowed by the enormous pressure created by the revelation, creating a singularity, a black hole, where no light can cast a shadow, where no time escapes unmolested.

Vales Beyond Dimension

Between the vales of existence and the miasmic landscape of consciousness The fabric of being has withered away; no longer there waiting for me The Monk believes that when he bases his actions on conscious decisions, he is taking on more and more of his humanity. To heal Erebos he must be a deity, a superhero, to do this he must again become the Shadow Monk. To do this he must wither away the fabric of his being, identify with the deity within, which is revealed by the lines:

I have peeled away layers of my humanity No longer a being, the core of entity For each layer reveals the key to the gates of the multiverse As he peels away layers the Monk states that he is traveling back through the gates or stages of the system of the Order of Kur. Traveling forward through the gates he becomes a multidimensional being, a deity. When he travels backward he takes on more and more of his humanity.

Through the doorway of a shaman's reality A universe within the skull I always thought of the Hermit as a shaman. He is the character that exposes the Monk to multiple modes of perception and awareness. In a sense, he shares his reality with the Monk and allows him to see the universe with a new perception. Is perception reality? If so do we not all inhabit a universe that exists only within our skull?

The Hermit’s wisdom is more organic and rebellious than that of the Order of Kur. His magic relies more on intuition and anarchy then rules and regulations. For him reality is personal, which makes it an individual universe in which we are all creators through our observations of that reality. If taking the physics concept of the uncertainty principle into account where the mere act of observing reality is what actually forces the field of infinite possibilities to collapse into observable form as matter with measurable characteristics then we are the gods of the universe in our skulls and that the Ultimate God is the first/final, Alpha/Omega observer. He is the one that must exist for states of matter to take form. For without this ultimate skull there was a time in which no observations could exist and therefore matter was a formless soup, the void. Let there be light could be translated into, “Let me observe something,” and as a result the whole of existence took form under the creative direction of the first observer. We therefore perceive what we project and as the memory glass of the unicorn shows us, we see only the past.

Alas I stand at the threshold of dimension The macrocosm has revealed itself as a towering serpent spire The past has shattered...eons subsist only in countless shards The myriad cast of the vale; a thousand fold reflection

For the Monk the 13th Gate represents the threshold of dimensions. It is the veil he must pierce to awaken a new perception, giving him a new understanding of the tower and its Anthem. Once he penetrates the Gate the past shatters and there is only the future. But we are also reminded of the past by the memory glass. The magical, hardened feces of the Lady of Erebos which reflects only the past, containing eons of history in its shards, but even the past is modified by our perceptions and that all history passes through the lens of the observer, forever changed by it.

Selves We Cannot Forgive by Black Crown Initiate

Belie the Machine

A species was chosen to lie for. A species was chosen to tame. A brain stem, emotion, and devastation; logic suppressed, spirit stripped away. A human was told what to stand for. A human was told who to blame.

No questions for answers that retch for freedom; consumed in fire, mortar, and scorched clay.

When I listen to this song I imagine a group of gods sitting around a table having a conversation about how they are going to create a new species to act as pawns in a game in which the paws will be told a lie (that this is real) and the gods are going to use that lie as a means to tame and control them. They build a brain, fill it with conflicting logic and emotions which drive us towards devastation, suppressing rationalization and causing us to forget the truth (that this is all an illusion) stripping away our spirits. When they are done, they tell these game pieces what to care about and to invest their hearts and passions into these fallacious, useless things. Then, when what they care for is stripped away, they turn to the gods and demons for answers or to pass blame. This fabricated reality and its associated emotions are nothing more than a game that humans are told to invest in and take seriously for the fate of their very souls hangs in the balance.

The other character that always comes to mind when I listen to this song is the Architect in, The Matrix, which is more fitting when taking the following lyrics into consideration.

Belie the machine that hurts you and you are ashamed. Belie the machine that breaks you and you are to blame. Here lie all the lives deserted, kept from the light.

In the reality of this song we live in is a machine generated virtual reality disguised as reality. It hurts us and we lash out against it and are ashamed. We can’t accept our anger or this feeling that something is not right. This is an emotion that both the Monk and Unicorn can identify with. They know something is wrong but feel only shame that they cannot accept Erebos and its transfiguration. It breaks them as the machine breaks us and we feel we are to blame. This keeps us in the shadow of the lie, hidden from the light.

Black sky above and infinite below, manifestations we no longer know. This is not a dream; this indignity. Writhe internally. Wake eternally. Feign grace, save face at all cost. Now take our place with all that we’ve lost.

We must go internal to find the light. The outer world holds darkness above and below. Our true manifestations hiding within, the one place we dare not look. We tell ourselves this is not a dream, that to even think such a thing is insanity. If we make it past this to believe that this world is illusory, others tell us the thought is insane. We writhe but this writhing, this facing of the uncomfortable can lead to an awakening. But we must not show it, we must act as if we have been graced by the powers above. We are not special, we are not gods, we are only human and this attitude saves us from recrimination and being branded as insane. We must hide within the world of the normal, taking our place with the lost.

Belie the machine that hurts you and you are ashamed. Belie the machine that breaks you and you are to blame.

Vicious Lives

There is a scene in the novel where the unicorn is reminiscing about the long history of Erebos. This is the song I listened to while writing that scene.

Pouring out of you. They’re reaching out to you. The hands of love, the hands of liars; those that warned of this loss. Running next to you. They’re surrounding you. The other sides of vicious lives, the spirit of longing and loss. This spirit walks along a borderline.

The Monk is the hand of love and in a special sense so is Erebos and the Norja. The Norja has transformed the unicorn and all the inhabitants of Erebos. It is interesting that these same hands belong to lovers and liars. Do we lie to ourselves to believe we are in love with our lives? How is love tied to lying? Good question. Or are we lying that this love can go on forever? That love is all important, universal and eternal? If we are to believe that these loving and lying hands are ours then are we just blinding ourselves to those that have warned us of the inevitable loss of love. And as we come to heartache do we finally see that these others warning us of loss have been running next to us, surrounding us? These others represent the other side of these vicious lives. We are propelled to new heights by love only to experience its loss and then long for its return. It is this spirit that is most associated with that of the unicorn as she walks on the borderline between these two worlds. She is both lover and liar trying to fool herself and others that this world is perfect that it is not vicious but at some point she can no longer deny the sorrow she feels. She had believed that love was forever, telling herself the lie that there was no growth, no transformation, no death.

But there is nothing worth changing. Erase us. Erase us. But there is nothing worth changing. Erase us. Erase us. Please, there is nothing worth changing. Erase us. Erase us. Please, there is nothing worth changing. Erase us. Disgrace us.

She begins to understand that maybe things can’t be changed. The circumstances can be changed by the actors in this drama, but the vicious lives will remain. The system is corrupt, the infection is systemic, infecting everything with this realization of viciousness and as a result there is only on option; erase us. Start again. Annihilate and rebuild from uninfected material. Because that means that nothing survives, because it means that these vicious lives in the end come to nothing, the end becomes the ultimate disgrace. We are failures. Erasing us, disgraces us!

Becoming by Mustard Gas and Roses

This album was influential in the pacing of the novel. Most of the songs had this slow buildup to a dramatic finish which I mimicked in many of the scenes, especially those surrounding rituals of some type which would begin with the clearing of the mind, the defining or re-defining of the will, and then the act that would modify existence in accord with the will of the wizard performing the ritual.

Let It Roll and Closer were two such songs that create a rhythm that allowed me step into the flow the characters were trying to harness. Let it Roll, begins and ends with a clean guitar rhythm that is hypnotic. This is often how the Monk starts most of his journeys into the mystical. He often feels uncomfortable with entering new dimensions of sensation and consciousness. His only excuse for this is that he has been away for many years from Erebos and has forgotten himself and the wisdom that he had once possessed as a member of the Kur Order. Therefore, he seems to need this warmup period. He walks into these new dimensions slowly but when the shift occurs he enters the flow of a new perception and we find him performing super-human feats with ease, the ease that only comes when he identifies himself with the deity within, the Shadow Monk.

Threshold, has this type of jumbled tempo and time signature that I felt matched the chaotic moments that occurred while the Monk was in the process of transformation from one mode of consciousness to another. He is walking into a new mode of consciousness but there is this strange chaotic shadow state that exists between one dimension and the next, a type of mental and spiritual limbo which he must cross. The beat at the beginning of Threshold was the sonic backdrop for the stroll through this misty limbo. Right after that erratic tempo there is a frenetic but steady rhythm that matches the thoughts and actions of the Monk once he has entered the flow state. He is lost to this rhythm allowing it to channel his actions, muscle memory taking over and directing him.

Threshold also represented being at the jumping off place where you become willing to take that leap of faith. At some point you realize, “I can’t get there from here.” You can’t hold onto this branch and grab onto the next, the gap is too wide. You must take the leap, let go, and trust. This is a situation that many of the characters of the novel find themselves in. In some cases, they are literally standing on a precipice deciding if they are ready and willing to take that leap, and at other times it is metaphorical and they need to come to grips with the fact that to move forward they must abandon their previous beliefs and attitudes.

I listened to the song Closer while imagining the states of consciousness that one of the Engineer’s lab rats must go through after receiving the Engineer’s rage elixir. The song starts out with the slow psychedelic beat that sees joy in motion but as the Engineer weaves his spell, worming his way into the darker recesses of the Wastelander’s mind, that joy is quickly turns to anger. That anger become a fire that must then be extinguished and the only way to extinguish it, the would-be-assassin is told, is to complete the Engineer’s task. The way this song builds, creating a sonic wall of multi-layered guitar at its crescendo, reminded me of the way in which the Engineer would invoke his spell and then finally release this hatred-by-proxy into the world through his manipulated emissaries.

Eyes Wide Opium by The Dali Thundering Concept

This band puts out some great music with blazing, technical guitar work and thought-provoking lyrics. In particularly the concepts explored in the song Damocles resonated with me and the ideas I was trying to shed light on in the novel. For instance we have the lyrics:

In this fortress you call system our dreams will fall, even if all We’ve asked for is freedom, our fear has grown walls. We are spied and controlled, burning our soul. We’re tide and expose, free food for the fucking crows.

First, I thought of this from the perspective of the citizens of Gull, whom we are led to believe, live in blissful ignorance of the forces providing them with the comforts they enjoy. Although this may be true most of the time even the Engineer is forced to concede the fact that citizens must often play mind games in order to convince themselves that they have no role in the destruction of Erebos. They started out believing that this system was what would make their dreams come true. There was nothing wrong with the lives they had but suddenly someone had convinced them that they needed more, deserved more. This led to a system of more, a system that self-perpetuates, giving in sprinkles but demanding in floods. In this process, they forget what they had originally dreamed for, which was simplicity, happiness, and completeness. These were all qualities they had until the system took over. Now that system has built walls with bricks baked from the belief that acquiring more will lead to happiness. These self-constructed walls have enslaved them and the citizens are trapped by their own self-propagating, unquenchable, circular needs. It is a system that they themselves bred and fed and now must continue to feed. Those walls are now so tall they can’t see over them to the place they once were, and it is daunting to even consider scaling them.

Secondly, I thought about this in terms of our main characters, the Monk, the Unicorn and the Engineer. This trinity also suffers from systems. The Monk believes in the system of the Order of Kur, the Unicorn in the system of sacrifice and reward, the Engineer in the system of the status quo, believing that if it works today and you don’t change anything, it will work tomorrow, that the status quo can be maintained no matter what it demands. These systems also have their enslaving walls separating each character from each other and from the citizens of Gull. All they can understand now is their own wants and desires. Which bring us to the next set of lyrics: This world is sucked in the abyss, All events are major crisis. And here we are mesmerized, And here we are fucking hypnotized.

Erebos is being lost. As the forces at work tilt out of balance harmony disappears and chaos becomes the order of the day. At this point all events do become a major crisis because everything is out of proportion. Even while all this turmoil is raging the characters in this drama are mesmerized by their own expectations and desires. The citizens of Gull shrug their shoulders in blissful ignorance as they sell their trinkets and mushroom tea to tourists and gather for the playing of the dark Erebos Anthem. They are hypnotized, finding comfort in their own destruction.

Varahtelija by Oranssi Pazuzu

This is twisted, surreal, atmospheric-metal at its best. The bass drones in like a heartbeat to begin most songs, swallowing you into a trance to prepare you for the delivery of the epiphanies that are coming. The lyrics are in Finnish and I at first was tempted to find a translation, but as I listened I began to be taken in by the otherworldliness of the songs. Each became the scene of a tale that brought one to the edge of darkness, through the blackness of insanity, and then finally revealed the light of wisdom. The foreignness of the language increased these feelings in me and I realized that not all experiences can be transferred in words. I listened to much of this album during the various rituals that take place during the novel. They were perfect for setting the tone ushering in periods of trance like visions that the characters were entering. The otherworldly sound effects, the wavering of guitar filtered through wah, whammy, or flanger embodied the psychedelic surreal, transporting me into the scene. In particular, this album played a key role in the Norja Revelation ritual and chapter where our main character, the Monk, can only listen in awe to the strange utterings and chants of the Norjan Cult. This further pushes him into the dark unknown, awakening new levels of consciousness. For this reason, I decided to not read the translated lyrics for I wanted to maintain the mystical air that these songs so richly embodied.

Memorial by Russian Circles

This was another album that helped me to set the pacing of scenes while also infusing me with visions of the surreal places being visited. This whole album has an atmosphere that paralleled what I felt when traveling through Erebos with its moment of darkness and light, of sadness, joy, and awe. The songs I chose for the playlist, however, were Burial and Memorial.

Burial has a consistent rhythm which I always associated with the Monk beginning some ritual or event. The Monk continually likes to dip his toes into the familiar before embarking on a new path. He pokes fun at ritual and systems while embracing them. He sees himself as a rebel and as separate and different but it is impossible not to notice throughout the novel that he consistently engages in acts that he may not even consciously have a purpose for but feels compelled to complete anyway. The funny aspect of this is that he seems to purposely blind himself to the hypocrisy of these actions. But then something always happens which propels him into a new state of consciousness where he does tread new ground and becomes an alchemical anarchist. It is at these moments that he experiences peace. The other thing he experiences is a state he thought he would never feel again, awe. In the song, there is a moment where the pace picks up and there is this sound in the background that slowly rises like an alarm. To me this sound represented the energy of the universe, or in context of the novel, the energies of the Norja. It would whisper to the Monk at times but he would ignore it or shrug it off. Slowly, it would get louder, saying look at this, feel this, but again he would obfuscate and ignore. Finally, the energy would rise to a level he could no longer ignore and it would shift his entire perception, leaving him in a state of awe. In this state, he would understand that he had been deaf and blind to the Norja’s previous attempts and call himself and idiot, but would then frustratingly repeat the process. That is how this song spoke to me as I wrote the scenes revolving around the Monk and his inability to see the forest for the trees at times.

Memorial has a pastoral feel. This is the song I used to channel the feelings and emotions of the Lady of Erebos. There is a female voice singing softly in the background and it always conjured up visions of the lonely unicorn resting her head on the meadow grass or near the babbling brook of Unicorn Valley, reminiscing about the way the world had once been filled with magic and promise. This was, however, a utopia built upon the bones of her family and friends. Therefore, this reminiscing is always tinged with sadness. There had been a time of natural simplicity that was then disrupted by the addition of new beings which had brought in an era of peace and magic, and then the Engineer had issued in yet another era of technology and “prosperity” for which she also laments. In each era, she sees pain and is the only character in the novel with the history to understand such sorrow, which makes her feel alone. That is what this song inspired in me.

The Ape of God I by Old Man Gloom

This was another one of those albums that added to the dense dark atmosphere of the novel. Similar to Mustard Gas and Roses, I used this album for the pacing of rituals, but these were the torturous rituals of the Engineer. Songs like Simia Dei (Monkey of God) set the mood for many of the dark brutal rituals the Engineer performed in his lab. The title of this song is apropos here as well, for the Engineer is on a conscious quest to become a God. He associates God with the ability to transform or create other beings, steering their biological evolution. He built mechanical minions that are coded to protect and serve him, but more importantly there are the Wastelanders that he believes he has evolved through his chemical manipulations of the air surrounding the Waste. The Engineer may unknowingly, however, be the monkey of the Norja, the dark deity that reigns on Erebos. The more control he feels he has, the less he actually has.

Shoulder Meat, has a dark mood. It was the song I listened to when writing about the first time we accompany the Engineer into the bowels of his lab to learn of the awful experiments he is engaged in with memory glass and the Wastelanders. During the start of this song I picture the Engineer descending dark stone steps to the bottom of a dank basement where fires burn casting an eerie orange glow over damp stones. A scream echoes in the distance as the Engineer picks up a hammer and begins to pound it against glowing steal, the rhythm matching that of the ongoing terrified screams.

Polaris by TesseracT

Hexes

This is the song I listened to while writing the final chapter of the novel. At a general level the song is speaking of the hexes that history places on us. How our history can confine and cage us, believing that it defines us and that our present choices and actions are results of the past. But is that so? Can we not at any moment decided differently?

Is there something I should know Of the colors that you show? I remember those words In the back of my mind There is an old phantom Come close. Don't be afraid, It's stranger than you think Desperately opiate, weary Feverish host to us, teary eyed History hexes us History hexes us

The use of the word Hex here is significant for it is saying that history, both our global, local, and individual histories have placed a spell on us. Through its lens, we see a distorted sense of ourselves and our role in local/global history. This forces us to judge our actions and potential choices through this lens, which is a mistake as it further entrances us, robbing us of our power to choose differently. But every time we try to shake off the chains, we hear a voice in the back of our mind, the old phantom telling us we cannot overcome the hex of history. In a strange way this hex becomes familiar, it becomes an opiate that simultaneously calms and controls us.

It isn't a secret this mind's shrouded in history It isn't a secret this mind spirals in disarray It isn't a secret this mind shudders in mystery It isn't a secret I find terror in memory I think it is a secret that our minds are shrouded in history. The use of mystery, memory, and disarray are the tools used by the mind to allow us to keep it a secret, walling our conscious selves from this truth. If we saw it, we may examine it, which may not change what we do or the actions we take but it may make us aware of the defense mechanism employed. The downward spirals of our mind ensnare us in it whirling centrifugal insanity which leads nowhere as we shudder beneath the mystery of ourselves and our place in history until finally we find only terror in memory.

I live and breathe again These gory locks, don't you dare forget them Don't you dare. Don't you dare. History hexes us I breathe again History hexes us I live again

Memory haunts us. It is what is used to make us fear change. "Last time I tried to change I got f***ed." "Don’t fly to close to the sun or you’ll get burned." This is the age old wisdom handed down that enslaves us while masquerading as caution, rationality, or responsibility. But there is a way to remember these events, these gory locks, and still move forward and that is to have faith that things can always be better. You may fail this time, but if you are persistent you will win, you can fly to the sun and back allowing all of us that observe to understand how history has hexed us and in witnessing your breaking of that curse we can breathe again, live again.

Phoenix

I must change because I've been chasing shadows Change. Immersed in the night, desperate and taken Change. Run with the pride of a lion

This is a song I listened to while writing of the Monk’s encounters with the Weevern. These mystical forest creatures are pure energy that take form using the rocks, sticks, stones, and dirt of the island, similar to the golems of lore. These creatures revel in the bliss of nature and will only interact with those who have entered the flow of the true energy of Erebos. When the Monk is allowed to run with them he feels pure joy and realizes there is so much more to this life than darkness and shadow, that there are revelations hiding in the light as well. He must change. I picture him smiling joyously at that instant, running with the Weevern, a tear falling down his cheek, as he is awe struck by the miraculous moment in which he realizes he is exactly where he was meant to be, doing exactly what he was meant to do. There are few better feelings than that.

That is it! The novel is complete, releasing March 21st 2018 on paperback with the e-edition close on its heels. I hope you have enjoyed this journey, exploring the various music and concepts that inspired the novel. Horn and Dagger was a strange artistic journey for me filled with many pitfalls. It was the music that led the way through the darkness and inspired new visions that got me over the humps and kept the fantasy generation machine that turns in the deep darkness of my mind oiled and churning. I thank all the artists and musicians for their courage, dedication and inspiration.

This serialization and releasing of various volumes of DarkTunes while going through the novel creation process, was also new. I explored and dissected the influences of the various music in real time even though I did not always release the next volume till much later. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. For many of you that have read my blog and other novels you may remember that I penned Horn and Dagger prior to, In the Shadow of the Witch, but the complexity of the novel demanded deeper attention and I decided to complete, In the Shadow first. Therefore, this has been a two-year process (a lot has changed in that time) and has allowed me to really dissect my creative process and hopefully recreate it at will. With that in mind, I am also working on a series of blog posts called, Invent Creativity, that I will be releasing this year to demonstrate the various tools I use to put myself in a place where I am ready to receive the message of the muses and then do something with them. Stay tuned! Finally, I encourage you to check out the Horn and Dagger playlist and listen to it while reading the novel and feel free to reach out to me with new ideas for song selection or placement. Till next time. Enjoy! [email protected] tumblr: http://brianwhitedarkdaily.tumblr.com

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