Eisegesis (From Church Sickness)

 Don't hold my shoulders

or push my chest

to hold me from the

vision of our hell...

I need this clear sight

to feel complete

and envelope my

soul in brightness, trust. 

Fall away

from fellowship

and sever the ties

that bind us to blasphemous

lies from the 

pulpit of self,

they oppress our better

instincts for the procession. 

Sanctification

never looks so personal

unless you insist on lies.

Then build walls in

the houses where you worship

between brothers and sisters.

Failure in mission

to unite them,

your words are not Biblical.

Motivation is selfish.

Your understanding

is flawed in life.

Eisegesis is

unclean, you will die.

Slammed Shut (From Church Sickness)

 Not fed,

torn from faith

by men of

fierce hypocrisy.

Deny

his gentle guidance,

ignored

his call to service.

The failure of men

with empty structures

lay blame upon

the unaware,

to accuse of

blasphemic ignorance.

Convinced we'll go

at the taking away,

laughter at

the uninterred.

Your mouth is dry,

it never shuts.

Venomous bile

drips from the teeth

of your greedy maw,

molten hate called

love flows down walls

built on platitudes.

Slammed shut. 

Disbelief, Faith, Platitudinal Expressions of Piety.

I believe every Christian struggles with their faith. It's an unpopular topic to discuss in any meaningful way for whatever reason. This really does have to come down to an individual's worry of feeling judged by other Christians. I am a Trinitarian Pentecostal, which I'm sure I've said a million times... From what I've seen, read, and experienced, oftentimes Pentecostals are good at seeing what others are doing wrong and completely ignoring their own shortcomings. I've harped on accountability to other Christians at great length. 

Even when discussed amongst the Christian denomination I've attached myself to, the experience of faith struggles are reduced to often irrelevant Bible verses that have nothing to do with the subject, or worse, are reduced further to platitudes and oft-repeated soundbites. This is one of my many problems with religion as a whole. It can be easy to reduce the power of God to a soundbite. This is similar to what I said about my take on tarot cards and the like. The instinct to want something easy to grasp, that you can hold in your hand and inspect, is very strong. I can understand it, but I think it's dangerous. I think we do so in an attempt to bring God down to our level so we can pretend to understand him better. What good is this to us? 

When one responds negatively, or with an eyeroll, or with a sigh, or by turning around and walking away, or by becoming angry, it's not because they hate Jesus, or even Christianity or Christians. It's usually because they're feeling dismissed. I've watched it happen right in front of me. Someone makes a genuine and sincere attempt at showing what's inside of their soul and heart to another person, be it a pastor or a Christian that just happens to be willing to pretend to listen, and the listener simply chucks out a few words that are said over and over again. 

What an insult to the intelligence of others. It also bolsters this bizarre religious pride that allows someone to pretend that they're doing their job as a Christian. The other person responded negatively to the bare minimum amount of effort you were willing to put into the interaction, so you become indignant. You're not the problem and couldn't possibly be, isn't that right? You made an attempt to bring a soul to Christ. 

Didn't you? I suppose, pat yourself on the back. You did a good thing today. 

A societal illness, an existential crisis that rocks on the precipice of the cliff at the edge of our collective sanity. 

Try to fit that platitude on a coffee mug. 

News, News, News...

Split with Blackhouse - 

As is common this time of year (I have learned) there is a pressing delay with this split record. It was supposed to be released on April 19th, which I was assured by customer service of the company manufacturing it that it should be here by then. Nope. I'm still waiting for them to even ship the records out. It should be here sometime soon, but I'm not happy. I don't quite know how to handle this as of yet, but I will likely post the name of the company I used so other bands can avoid using them. 

I understand delays happen, but they have not been up front with where the records are at in the process and they have promised to call me back on multiple occasions without doing so. If there were delays and everything was communicated honestly, I would be more understanding of what's going on. Stand by for more information. 

Also, understand that I wouldn't normally broadcast this sort of business in this way, but considering how expensive it is to get vinyl made, and how much of a backlog there always is - it is a laborious process - I think this has been handled very poorly by the company I'm working with. Thanks. 

10" Limited Lathe Cut Maxi - 

The first single from the new album is called "Spiritual Violence" and will be released as a 10" lathe cut record with some other tracks. Here is the TENTATIVE tracklisting, it may end up with another track on it as well:

1. Acoustic Intro
2. Spiritual Violence
3. Mind Battles (Re-Recorded)
4. Bodies (Sex Pistols Cover)
5. Acoustic Outro

This will likely be limited to 25. 

Merchandise - 

T-shirts, sew-on patches (the old school canvas kind), new stickers, and new buttons are coming...soonish. I almost ordered all of this then my logos changed and were updated. I've chosen to do a somewhat large run of these rather than getting them printed on demand. This is because I want them to be the highest quality possible. 

The shirts and patches will actually be silkscreen printed. They will also be less expensive than if I went through a print on demand fulfillment. 

New Album - 

It's coming out fast, punky, and angry. Though it still touches on my industrial influences, it leans much more on the punk side of black metal and likely will be more straight forward than previous material. Hardly any synth on this. Though I had synth parts written, the more I record and listen to it, the more I think it will actually detract from it. I've moved away from longer compositions and decided to record many of my shorter pieces for this. This will be on LP and Tape. I'm not doing a CD version of it. 

To be clear, I really don't like CD's much, or CD-R's. It's just that they're convenient. I don't mind it as a listening medium, but I'm pretentious and like collectible things and big art. Something about a big fat slab of wax looks and feels better, I just wish it wasn't so expensive. 

And tapes are just cool. Fairly inexpensive, still retain the active listening experience.