As you already
know, we produced our second record called “Black n’ Red” in 2012. This
September the record will be released online. For this occasion we want to take
you on the journey behind the scenes. This post starts the journey by
explaining what the story behind “Black n’ Red” is. Besides this post, we’ll
release a making of video of the song “Heroin” and do more stuff.
Unlike the first
record, which was basically a compilation of our best songs at the time, the
album “Black n’ Red” has a certain complexity in it. This complexity is the
frame of the painting and represents simply contradistinction or if you will
contrasts.
As you could
imagine the color black itself stands for dark, unpleasant, scary, or shocky scenes
where the color red stands for warm, carrying, committing, or lightened scenes.
The contrast line starts with the titel itself. The contrast of black and red
comes from the ancient Greece with their mythology where they considered black
and red as contradistinction. They thought that red (Eros) stood for love and
life, and black (Tanatos) for death. These two symbols are placed in the whole
record and appear in different forms. As already mentioned, the first form is
the titel of the record itself.
The second
appearance makes the track list. This list begins with dark songs and ends up
with light and warmer songs. Though the album is in our opinion a classic heavy
metal album, the contrast is marked by the melodies and arrangements of the
songs. For instance, some songs content both symbols in the lyrics like the
song Heroin, Goodbye or 666. Other songs only symbolize black (Tanatos) like
Forsaken, the rest only symbolizes red (Eros), like “The Crying Train” or “What
it’s worth for”. Also the dark songs are played in minor, where the love songs
are played in major. There you have the second contrast.
The third
appearance of the contrast makes the lyrics of each song. “Heroin” for example
paints a scene where people get bound to drugs. The craving for it or the love
they get of the sugar stands for the red.The sad end by the last shot stands of
course for black. The contrast lives in this bizzar coexistance. Another contrast
appears in the song “Goodbye". Though the song itself is played in D major
the story is about a man who loses the fight against cancer. One contrast
there. The second in this song is this. The man does not regret what happens in
his life and thanks to his wife. This is red. After he died (black), he waits
at the gates for her which is red again, though he stands on the dark side.
Considering the ancient Greece again, this is about the river "stycs"
where the dead stand on one side and the living on the other side. But it is
possible to wait at the border for the living and watch them.
You see that
this record is all about these two symbols, black and red. But why?
The point is
that death is for certain and bad things can happen anytime. And still, if I
didn't fear these things to happen I would be ready to receive the good and
positive things like love. Death means here more than just the end of a
humanbeing. It also means in a metaphoric way a loss of something. To me, love
and death are the two dominant but subconscious motivators in human lifes. Most
of us search for the one love. Having found it, the next station for both would
be death. Maybe they stay together until the end of their lifes or maybe their
love falls appart (metaphorical death) and the new search for someone or
something to love starts all over again. We can not escape nor controll both
things. They just happen because we are humanbeings. Though this view seems to
be fatalistic, it also means you should not be afraid of dying because it
happens normally in a natural way. However, what I want to say is that: What
ever happens in life, it is heavier to keep on carying for something you love
than throwing it away or letting it dying.
In sum, the
record makes you think about the mentioned issue and takes you on an emotional
ride with ups and downs. Don't miss it out!
Stay tuned for
more information.
Enjoy Seasplash!
