I had an extraordinary meeting yesterday morning with a group at a conflict center here in my city. They’re actively studying and responding to conflict scenarios of huge variety– international to organizational– and they were interested to discuss tools and technologies that could be developed to accomplish different kinds of prevention or mediation. It was a great conversation, I had plenty of things to show and they had plenty of interested questions. I hope all of that goes forward smoothly, I’d love to work more closely with that entire organization.
I had to run a table at an event last night, from 3-6p, and after an already full day it took all I had to stay enthusiastic and engaged with whomever stopped by. I was there to answer questions about simulated environments and human learning and training, and it was about 3 straight hours of that. By the end my voice was hoarse and I was weary and wired out. My suit was drooping on me like a manifestation of my state of mind, and I clacked home on the 1.
Once there and fed, I revisited some of the early Hypocrisy albums. What a great fuckin band. For a trio, the amount of sound and brutality they produce is staggering. They use a similar set of effects on their guitars on almost all of their albums to date and you can identify it in seconds after listening. The first solid album of theirs that I listened to, the one that set them permanently in my mind, was The Fourth Dimension from 1994. It was a major turning point for them after four years of work together– their creative fuel changed from the anti-religious and demon-infused songs that were popular in the early 90s, to whole thematic albums about alien abductions, mysterious viruses, robot army takeovers, the enslavement of the human race, and other science fiction dystopias.
Of their many incredible songs, there was one that was on my shortlist for years, called “New World” off the “The Arrival” album from 2004. It has this smashing chorus that’s delivered in blocks of sound, violently with full stops between chunks. Here are the words to that one, but it’s really the sound that’s important, and particularly that smashing chorus. Try to check it out if you can.
5. New World
Can’t you see them coming?
Cannot see their sense of me
All of them decide
Our ups, downs, and miseryAddicted to fleshly skin
Enough for me to take it in
Two worlds collide
One with all the… one with all!This is the way we serve
It’s deadly when it’s being wiped away
Both too precious to behold
and praise the new…[Chorus]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can’t survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include usEveryone will feel a need to pleasure
To wicked the future race
There will be no more beliefs
All religion will be known
All religious ways
Losing their ability
They’ll erase all our memoriesNo more scriptures
No more lies
No more fucking lies!This is the way we serve
It’s deadly when it’s being wiped away
Both too precious to behold
and praise the new…[Chorus]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can’t survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include usGod, in decay, still making all the rules
Earth, finally, forgot the tombs
Hell Is where I’ll be
After my eyes can see
Preceding our, we are the misery!Hate throughout the end of genocide
Smell of burning flesh inside all, everyone!
Death is coming down, now when we will survive
We’re gonna die!
[Chorus 2x]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can’t survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include us
Awesome.
