#alternate name was Dona Eis Requiem

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

O’er All The Weary World: Extracts From a Diary

February 7

It’s weird, the things that survive the apocalypse.  The building had been torn apart before we got there, ransacked by scavengers I assume, but this notebook’s fine, and I even found some pencils.  I’m not really sure why I’m writing all this, but I guess it’s something to do.  None of the old stories about the end of the world ever mentioned the boredom. Although I suppose being bored is better than a few months ago when everything was really falling apart.  No one could accuse that of being dull. Just frightening.  

News doesn’t travel at all anymore really, but we know people are still dying.  Mark and I have been avoiding cities mostly because of that, although there’s better food there.  He’s trying to learn how to hunt; the animals may be dying too but they seem to be doing better than us.  There are still deer around.  That’s something at least.  He’s not very good at it though, and we don’t have any guns or knives or anything.  We’re trying to make traps but ugh it’s going so badly, I don’t know how much longer we can do this.  It’s still too cold for anything to grow, if we don’t warm up soon it’ll be the end for us.  Or more of the end than it’s already been.  

Mark and the baby are asleep, thank heavens.  We still haven’t named her, Mark was right to suggest we hold off in case she dies. This isn’t any life to raise a baby in. Still, it’s been a month and she’s still here, and she’s surprisingly healthy.  Maybe she’s here to stay.  There are a lot of good names out there, why not give her one to hold on to?

I’ve been thinking we call her Eve.  I’ll talk to Mark about it in the morning.  

 February 21

The food we found at our last town search ran out two days ago.  We haven’t been able to catch or find anything else.  I can’t say I’m surprised.  Or upset even, I knew this would happen eventually.  It’s the apocalypse, who are we to survive? Silly little city couple.  

Eve is crying.  She’s just as hungry as me and Mark.  I wish she wouldn’t.  I want someone else to find this diary, maybe write in it, but no one will do that.  Who could do that? Who’d be left to do that?

 February 23

We’re walking to find Mark’s sister Sarah, but really we’re walking because there’s nothing better to do, and I’m writing because there’s nothing better to do while walking.  

That’s basically illegible isn’t it.  It doesn’t really matter.  

A lot of people are walking.

We stopped at a house two evenings ago, the rest of what used to be a suburb was abandoned but there was one family left there, a family and some random kids they had picked up. I collapsed in the doorway.  I can’t remember much of what happened but they had food somehow and a torn mattress and I woke up that evening not dead, which to be perfectly honest I hadn’t expected.  

The house was warm, they had covered up holes in the walls with old blankets and there were a lot of people all crammed together.  One of the kids, Oswin I think his name was, told us all stories to fill the evening.  He had a whole bunch of them stored up in his head, one of the little girls told us, and he’d tell you any if you asked.  She looked happy, happier than I’ve seen anyone look since it all started.  Maybe the kid’s stories are really that good.  

There was one I liked, about two sisters.  One of them vanished, stolen by an evil king, and the other had to go and find her.  

I miss Mary.  I don’t know if she’s dead.  She probably is.  When we were little I was the only person who could understand her, I had to translate for our parents.  Now even if she is alive I’ll never see her again, Delhi could be the moon and it would be easier.  At least if she were on the moon I’d be able to see her every night but I can’t and I don’t know if she’s alright and you know what sometimes I just can’t bear it, sometimes I think it would be easier to just stop, not even to do anything drastic, just to stop moving, stop looking for food, stop walking because I can’t do this anymo

 Evie woke up hungry and I had to feed her.  I wonder if she’ll be as happy as the girl in the house.  Even after everything.  I’ll tell her the story about the sisters, I think.  That’s something at least.  I think she likes stories.

 March 13

There’s news being passed around about camps setting up in big old buildings, shopping malls and hospitals and service stations.  Places for people to settle down in, at least for a while.  We haven’t run across any but we’d like to.  Mark’s shoes are falling all apart and his feet are getting cut up, we need to find something better.  

Oh, but this is something! About a week ago we met a woman who was travelling our way, so we joined up for a little while.  She taught us how to set real traps and how to skin some of the animals around here, and she gave us a flint and steel because she had two and our matches ran out a week ago and she said we needed to be able to make a fire. Yesterday she branched off from us saying she was headed east.  We could have gone with her, but Sarah should still be south, at least that’s where she was living last, so south we’re still going.  

But! we made a trap today and we caught a rabbit! We’ve just been living off what we’ve found in old buildings before, this is the first time we caught anything, so it’s really exciting.  And we skinned it and we took out all the insides and we’re cooking it now over a fire. Evie’s laughing and clapping her hands, she loves fire, and Mark looks much less tired now he’s off his feet, and I certainly am, I feel better than I have in days.  

Her name was Iosune, and I hope she finds her son.  

 May 2

Attacked on the road, Mark injured, probably dying, lost so much blood, God God God what do I do

 May 3

Mark unconscious I can’t move him God knows why I’m wasting time writing this

 May 4

We lost all our food to whoever it was who attacked us.  Mark couldn’t move, broken leg and ribs, deep lacerations.  

Earlier today a foraging party found us.  Their camp is in an old hospital, they took us there, I’m sitting outside the doctors’ room now.  

Another woman took Evie, promised she’d feed her and take good care of her, so I’ve been left alone. I don’t know how to feel about the rescue to be honest, if Mark dies then maybe it would have been best for me and Evie to also

Absolutely not we are not thinking like that.  It is better for Evie to live.  And I need to make sure she does.  

 May 5

Mark stable but unconscious. The people here are kind.  Except for the doctors’ assistant.  She’s kind of a bitch.  

 May 6

Mark has woken up, and the doctors (there are two of them here) say he’s going to be ok.  He’s eaten something, and he’s still really pale but he held Evie and he talked to me so that’s something at least.  He’s asleep right now, holding my hand, so I’m trying to keep still while writing this so as not to wake him.  

I really thought he was gone.  I thought everyone was gone, I thought everyone would be gone.  I thought we would all be dead by now.  Maybe we were meant to be.  

But we’re not.  

 June 27

Honestly there are days when I wish we stayed at the hospital.  I know we’re still trying to find Sarah, but the road is long and hard and life was much more stable there, doesn’t matter how little time we spent staying.    

I’m writing this while we walk, Evie’s on Mark’s shoulders.  It’s warm but not too hot, right in the middle of summer, so that’s something at least.  The trees are good shade as well.  Sometimes I can’t believe there are still trees, but there are and they’re wider this year than they were the last.  Can you imagine?

 July 10

It’s my birthday.  I only realised this afternoon.  Last birthday I had a party, all lights and champagne and friends.  All my friends.  And Evie was barely showing.  Perhaps my friends are still alive.  I hope they are.  I hope they’re doing as well as they can.  And Mary, Mary has to still be alive, and the doctors at the hospital, and everyone there, and Iosune, and that family with all the adopted children, and the old man we met on the road who gave us shoes for Mark because he had picked up a spare pair and the young couple we passed who sang to each other to keep up their spirits and the group of teenagers with that massive dog who loved Evie so much.  I believe they’re alive.  I believe they’re well.

Mark and Evie sang happy birthday to me, or at least Evie babbled along.  The evening was warm and we had food.  It was a good day.  

 September 13

It’s getting colder, and we still aren’t near where Sarah used to live.  I think we’re lost.  Even Evie is cranky.  We haven’t given up though.  That’s something at least.  And it’s not raining.    

 November 26

It’s snowing.  

I suppose I should be worried.  It’s making everything wet (and heaven knows it’s hard to keep things dry even when it’s sunny), and it’s freezing and I have no idea how we’re going to keep Evie bundled up enough.  But somehow I can’t be worried.  She’s never seen snow before, and she won’t stop staring at it or trying to catch it.  It looks soft.  It feels soft too.  Mark almost made a snowball before giving up half-way through, looking sheepish, like he was acting without thinking.  

I’m gonna throw one at him.    

 November 26 – Evening

Evie’s first snowball fight is something, I suppose.  And that’s what we’re living on right now, somethings.  

 November 28

We’re staying in Sarah’s old almost-not-quite-dead suburb, only a few houses still lived in.  She’s gone, but one of the men says he saw her leave, so she may not be dead.   No children here, so everyone’s fussing over Evie like she’s the world’s saviour.  An old man saw how red my hands were as I passed her to him to hold, and gave me an ancient pair of knitted mittens, all dirty and frayed.

I made an excuse and ran away to cry, I’m afraid.  I’m still crying, Mark’s with the baby and I’m hiding at the back of a house writing this.

I honestly can’t remember when I last cried.  There’s not much time for it during the apocalypse, funnily enough.  

They’re not even very good mittens.  

They’re green, I think, underneath the grime.  

I’ve got to be getting back, they were cooking something over the fire (a lot of animals have started wandering back into the cities, everyone’s gotten good at hunting).  It smells good, even from here.  

 December 2

They’re singing.

We heard from the last group of people about a camp in an old service station where Sarah might be, there were rumours of it anyway, so we set out.  We’re definitely getting close to something, we can’t see any buildings but the wind is coming from before us and there’s this sound on it, and I couldn’t figure out what it was until I did.  I think they’re singing.  I think it’s hymns, advent songs.  Dispel the shadows of the night.  Rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.  Last winter I didn’t even think about Christmas, we had lost too many people to celebrate anything and being heavily pregnant in the apocalypse is not a good state.  We were all just waiting to die and Christmas seemed out of place for that.  

The singing’s getting louder as we get closer.  Mark’s carrying Evie (and on a side note, look at how good I’ve gotten at writing while I walk! I can actually read my own writing now!  Maybe in a few years Evie will be able to read it too).  They’re listening as well, he’s humming along quietly. I haven���t heard these songs in so long.  Let us find our rest in thee.  I can’t believe I recognized them, I can’t believe they’re still being sung.  

Mark just started, almost shouting out the melodies.  He hasn’t sung in a year, I just realised.  He used to sing all the time.  He sounds different than I remembered, he sounds better.  We can see the top of the camp on the horizon, or I hope that’s what it is, we’re just following the music now really.  I’ve heard stories of how awful life is in some of these places, but how awful can it really be if they get to sing?  We’ll only know when we get there, I suppose.  All we can do is hope.    

The hopes and fears of all the years.    

I guess it’s Christmas.

@inklings-challenge for the Inklings Christmas Challenge

This story is part of my End of the World series. 

[nuclearblastuk]

The Bards’ Tales: A Blind Guardian Chronicle

Blind Guardian are one of those bands which you will not have gotten far into heavy metal without coming to know. You will have seen their records in shops. You will have seen their logo on the fronts of t-shirts, on the backs of hoodies, or proudly stitched into a denim vest. You might have heard their music played in rock and metal bars. You may even have caught a glimpse of them performing live from far across a festival-ground somewhere. To many the music and imagery of Blind Guardian epitomises the power metal style, and while it is fair to say that Rainbow and Iron Maiden are the real progenerators of the power metal aesthetic, Blind Guardian certainly codified many of the elements which you might hear in contemporary power metal titans and label-mates Battle Beast, Beast In Black, Rhapsody of Fire and Sabaton – high-register wails, fast and technical musicianship, symphonic layering and a conceptual approach to album arrangement and composition. To fans they need no introduction of course, but in celebration of their thirty-fifth year of making music and the remixed and remastered reissue series now available on Nuclear Blast, it seems only right to tell the chronicle of the Bards’ tales.

To see the full remixed and remastered reissue series:  nuclearblast.com/blindguardian-reissues All Blind Guardian albums are also available on picture-disc vinyl and on CD.

Our story begins in Krefeld, Germany (1985) where four young bards – Hansi Kursch, Andre Olbrich, Marcus Dork and Thomen Stauch - have just completed their first work under the name of Lucifer’s Heritage. As though caught under the spell of a premonition, that work was entitled Symphonies of Doom, foreshadowing a grand masterwork to be completed some three decades later by Hansi and Andre - the Blind Guardian Twilight Orchestra’s Legacy of the Dark Lands. The opening song ‘Halloween’ would, in time, become ‘Wizard’s Crown’ and feature on the debut album Battalions of Fear. Marcus and Thomen would before long part company with Hansi and Andre - though Thomen would, of course, be soon to return. 

A second demo under the name of Lucifer’s Heritage would be put to tape a year later in 1986 - also called Battalions of Fear - in which Hansi and Andre were joined by Christoph Theissen and Hans-Peter Frey. All the songs on the second demo, with the sole exception of Gandalf’s Rebirth (which is now available on the remixed and remastered version), would in due course find their way onto the Bard’s debut album in a rerecorded form. These demos are notable for their musical acuity, in spite of the limited production facilities available to them; listeners today will recognise them as falling within the bounds of a fairly straightforward speed/thrash metal style, quite unlike the elaborate arrangements the Bards are known for today - though there is some indication of things to come amongst several of the high-fantasy themed tracks. Before long, of course, Lucifer’s Heritage would be no more. The Bards, unwilling to succumb to the beckoning evil of Black Metal record sales, cast off their Satanic moniker and – under the inspiration of another wandering troupe of bards, Fate’s Warning, took up the name Blind Guardian instead.

Battalions of Fear  (1988)

Battalions of Fear is the first album to bear the Blind Guardian name, and while for the most part it retains the speed and thrash metal techniques of the Lucifer’s Heritage demo tapes, it remains a distinctly Blind Guardian artefact - for it is in this second chapter of the Bard’s story that the Blind Guardian aesthetic is first established; the lustrous gold logo and hooded figures adorning the cover, the unapologetically grand narrative approach to storytelling through lyrics, and the utterly diverse selection of sources from which stories are told – from the enduring inspiration of Tolkein and Stephen King, to the passion of Christ and the Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan administration. Thomen Stauch returns to the fold on drums, while Marcus Siepen takes up rhythm guitar duties: this line-up would remain unchanged until 2006’s A Twist in the Myth, beyond what many would consider the ‘classic’ Blind Guardian period. There is much for latecomers to the Blind Guardian story to take from the Bard’s debut: it remains the purest expression of the speed and thrash metal influences which run at the core of the power metal sound which Blind Guardian were the first to forge, opens with fan-favourite and long running live-staple ‘Majesty’ and, for the adventurous, the current remixed and remastered version is appended with the Symphonies of Doom demo, featuring the Bard’s early tribute to Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

Follow The Blind  (1989)

Just as Battalions of Fear now concludes with a direct reference to Monty Python, the 1989 sophomore album Follow the Blind opens with one: Inquisition samples the monk’s chant from Monty Python and The Holy Grail (“Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem”) This sets the tone appropriately, for Follow The Blind sees the Bards shifting towards an even more heavily themed and thrash-orientated sound than on Battalions of Fear, apparently brought about by their exposure to U.S. thrash metal royalty, Testament, at the 1987 Dynamo festival. While the Bards’ consider this to be their weakest album as a result of the emphasis falling on musical intensity, fans who also share an affection for this heavier sound are unlikely to depart from Follow the Blind with any disappointment, especially from live staple Banish From Sanctuary and anthemic live sing-along Valhalla, whose studio-take features the stylings of Kai Hansen, of Helloween and Gamma Ray fame. Hansen would lend his talents to the next two Blind Guardian albums too, featuring on the songs ‘Lost in the Twilight Hall’, ‘The Last Candle’ and then‘The Quest for Tanelorn’. Curiously, at the time the Bards were reluctant to include Valhalla on the album, now a fixture and highlight of their live performances; much like Black Sabbath’s hit-single Paranoid, it was written towards the end of the studio session, and was only included to make up the running-time for the album. Revisiting Follow The Blind, dedicated Blind Guardian fans will find the Bard’s first references to fantasy writer Michael Moorcock (“Dammed for All Time” and “Fast To Madness” are based on characters from the Eternal Champion series) and another Stephen King inclusion (title-track “Follow The Blind” is based on the authors collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman.) However, listeners of all persuasions will find joy in the closing number, a medley of The Regent’s Barbara Ann and Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally; the very embodiment of the performer’s maxim, “Always leave them laughing.”

Tales from the Twilight World (1990)

While Battalions of Fear and Follow The Blind certainly laid the foundations for what would become Blind Guardian's signature sound, Tales From The Twilight Hall builds upon this groundwork substantially. Any pretentions the Bards might have had towards being just another speed/thrash metal band, with some classical and high-fantasy themes, are abandoned. This album is the start of what many would consider to be Blind Guardian’s golden-era, and with it perhaps even the genesis of the power metal style. The album’s cover art marks the beginning of a fruitful working relationship with Andreas Marschall, who would create the iconic cover art for the next three studio albums too. In order to record this seminal album, the Bards constructed their own studio to spend more time working on it, and this time was indeed well spent: we can hear them, for the first time, embracing singalong choruses and rich storytelling verses from track-to-track and incorporating acoustic guitars and synthesized instruments in order to reify their world-building efforts. This album is not yet, however, a full-blown concept album - such as we will see later in the Bard’s tale. Rather, the album's diverse themes treat of Moorcockian characters, Gandalf's death at the hands of the Balrog, and subsequent reincarnation, and - supposedly - E.T. ("Goodbye my friend, goodbye!") The lighter-brandishing melodies of fourth track, Lord of the Rings, stand testament to the maturity of song writing which generally permeates this album. Had the Bards ended their journey at Follow The Blind, one might speculate that Blind Guardian would have been no more than a footnote in the grand heavy metal story: Tales From The Twilight Hall places them at the genesis of true fist-pumping dragon-riding power metal.

Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)

Succeeding the success of Tales From The Twilight Hall  is Somewhere Far Beyond, which largely reaffirms the originality and spirit of that breakthrough release. The cover art depicts a circle of time-travelling Bards - which would, in time, earn the band their nickname - assembled around a gyroscopic timepiece, establishing the tone perfectly for the distinctly modern stories which the Bard’s recount on this album: the science-fiction of the Replicant’s story in Blade Runner, a journey through the haunting, surreal world of Frost & Lynch’s Twin Peaks, in addition to the now familiar Tolkein, Moorcock and King inspirations. The album also features several bonus tracks: a cover of Queen’s Spread Your Wings, an escapist’s manifesto, Satan’s Trial By Fire, which tells the story of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks as well as an alternative mix of Theatre of Pain from the album itself. This album is particularly notable for its widespread and international critical acclaim, reaching #1 in the Japanese charts. This chart-topping success in the East would beget the Tokyo Tales live album the following year.

Imaginations from the Other Side (1995)

Imaginations From The Other Side reiterates on the quasi-conceptual character of the two previous studio releases and, perhaps, ups the ante somewhat: the titular opening piece abstracts from particular imaginative stories and instead tells a story about imagination itself, referencing the childhood escapist-fantasies of The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Chronicles of Narnia. The album proceeds to tell the story of a child’s escape through a mirror to an Arthurian world of swords, dragons and crusades before being brought back to reality. This story is picked up again twenty years later on the Beyond the Red Mirror album, which tells the story of how the ‘other side’ has fallen into darkness, and the quest to find a way back. Imaginations From The Other Side is the last album to feature Hansi on bass, who would thenceforth give himself over entirely to vocal and lyric-writing duties. Two singles were released from the album, ‘A Past and Future Secret’ and ‘Bright Eyes’ which would secure the Bard’s a wider listenership, introducing the music of Blind Guardian to the heavy metal world at large.

Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998)

Blind Guardian’s conceptual inclinations reach an apex on Nightfall in Middle-Earth; a thoroughbred concept album from start to finish, telling a portion of the tale of Tolkein’s Silmarillion – middle-earth’s descent into the dark-age, preceding the events of The Hobbit. It is worthwhile to mention that the album antedates the Peter Jackson film-series by three whole years – the Bards were not riding in the wake of the Tolkein-wave of the early 2000s, but instead had helped to create it. Indeed, in a 1999 interview, Hansi intimated that – owing largely to the praise which Nightfall in Middle-Earth had received within the wider Tolkein fandom – there was some serious deliberation as to whether Blind Guardian might be involved in soundtracking the films. While this project would not - alas! - come to pass, Nightfall in Middle-Earth perhaps stands alone as a heavy metal concept-album adaption of Tolkein worthy of attention. The instrumentation, and arrangement around a core of scene-setting spoken samples, make this Blind Guardian’s most ambitious venture yet – both musically and thematically. This is the first album to be recorded entirely at Blind Guardian’s own studio, aptly dubbed the Twilight Hall Studios. It would not be remiss to say that Nightfall in Middle-Earth is an essential, if not the essential, Blind Guardian album.

A Night at the Opera (2002)

After the heavy-themes and grand-concept stylings of the four previous studio albums, the Bards change tack in an altogether dramatic fashion on A Night At The Opera, so called after the Queen album of the same name, itself named after a Marx brothers production. Just as Blind Guardian fans were beginning to know what to expect from the Bards, it’s as though they said - in true Monty Python fashion - “ ... and now for something completely different.” The result is an album which arguably owes more to the British variety-rock act than to U.S. speed and thrash metal. On this album we hear Blind Guardian at their most musically expansive, and correspondingly, the album marks a return to their earlier approach in which they broach an assortment of stories and themes, most notably: two tracks dealing with Cassandra and the Trojan war, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the Nazi propaganda machine and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s descent into a paranoid vision in which he is judged by saints. The galloping track ‘Battlefield’ has since earned the dubious honour of soundtracking the Heavy Metal edition of Adult Swim’s game Robot Unicorn Attack. The last of what most would consider to be the classic Blind Guardian period is marked by Live – a double-album comprised of recordings taken from their world tour, and the last before the departure of Thomen Stauch and their subsequent signing to Nuclear Blast Records.

Blind Guardian would go on to release three studio albums via Nuclear Blast, A Twist in the Myth (2006), At the Edge of Time (2010), Beyond the Red Mirror (2015) with their most ambitious project to date Blind Guardian’s Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands due out on the 8th of November this year. The album is a direct sequel to - and not the soundtrack of -  fantasy author Markus Heitz’s bestselling novel Die dunklen Lande (’The Dark Lands’) and will be a Blind Guardian first insofar as it features no electric guitars! You can pre-order the Nuclear Blast mail-order exclusive edition via this link: https://www.nuclearblast.de/en/products/tontraeger/vinyl/vinyl-boxset/blind-guardian-s-twilight-orchestra-legacy-of-the-dark-lands-mailorder-edition.html

 - written by Jack Moar (jack.moar@gmail.com)