Recording on the next Fireaxe CD, "Food for the Gods" is moving along steadily. The digital studio is working out very well and the sound quality is another major step up from that previously attained in "Lovecraftian Nightmares". The eighth and ninth preview tracks are now available as mp3s for free.

The name of the eighth preview track is "Where Eagles Fly" and is part of a longer song "Guardian of the Realm" which tells the story of a kingdom’s rise to power from the perspective of the king’s champion. The cut describes the hero’s stunning victory against a veteran champion of a rival kingdom. I guarantee that you’re going to like it as it’s one of my favorite moments from the recordings so far. After a brief introduction to set the stage the drums start pounding with a thunderous beat as the crowd chant’s "V-O-D for Victory!", then the guitars fire up and the tension builds. The two champions meet in the arena and exchange words and soon the battle is joined. The drums pound even heavier and the song erupts into a scorching guitar solo duel. The battle is fast and furious as I get into some serious old school shredding and culminates with the hero’s victory where the music breaks into a truly uplifting crescendo. If your heart doesn’t go out to the hero at that moment then you simply don’t have one (snicker).

The rough cut ends there, but since this is a Fireaxe song you know that it isn’t going to have a happy ending. Indeed all is not as it seems. In the exchange between the two champions the veteran says to the hero:

"Hey kid let’s stop this madness, are we just high priced slaves?
Both kings are tyrants, they should fight in our place."

And after the hero rebukes him:

"If you’re strong enough, one day you’ll understand,
But not before you’ve sealed the fate, of another generation."

Not exactly fighting words. But the hero is too caught up in the moment to think about what the veteran meant. And in the years that follow, the hero proves to be a great champion and adds much to the prosperity of the kingdom with his exploits. Dangers, concerns, and warnings couldn’t seem any more wrong.

Then the hero begins to see things more for what they are. The facade of righteousness that characterized his rise to power falls away revealing the greed and lust at its source. Instead of fighting the good fight he sees that his king and countrymen are just voraciously devouring everything that they can get their hands on. When they aren’t trampling the helpless people of other countries they are stealing from each other. The hero becomes disillusioned and finally realizes that his king is indeed a tyrant. He also realizes that he is trapped in his role as the king’s champion and is powerless to set things right or even to stop the madness. He has become a high priced slave. The monologue that the hero delivers in the song is another wonderful moment. A guitar solo slows and gives way to a poignant piano and vocal section where the hero laments his fate. The lusts of his king and his countrymen are too strong. They need victory and will not call off the attack. Even the hero realizes that his need for victory, to hear the cheers and the screams of the crowd, is too powerful for him to deny. He realizes that there is no escape from the arena as he walks out to face another champion. The pounding drums and chant sound again, but this time the full chant is given, "V-O-D Victory or Death!". The riffs are the same but the feel is totally different from the rough cut. Excitement has been replaced by dread. The effect is totally cool. At the end the hero sees the youthful champion on the other side of the arena and realizes that now he is the veteran wishing that he could stop the madness. The song has come full circle.

Although set roughly some time in the middle ages, this is not a historical song like many of the other tracks on "Food for the Gods". It is intended to be a symbolic song reaching far beyond the days of knights and kings to the present day. Arenas and champions are very much alive and well today in sporting events as well as in politics, law, businesses, and anywhere where there is competition. So many of us have a thirst for hero worship and dream of becoming a victorious champion. For some of us the drive is stronger than others, but there is no shortage of people willing to risk so much for the shot at becoming a champion. The rest of us experience their victories vicariously and shower our heroes with accolades when they win.

But there is a dark side to all of this and one that we like to keep out of sight. Athletes abuse their bodies with drugs to enhance their performance or shorten their lives and degrade their health by pushing themselves far beyond their limits. Champions in other arenas make similar Faustian deals looking for any advantage over their competition by legal or illegal means. We stress ourselves to the maximum to get what we must have. On the level of nations the stakes are even higher and the consequences more deleterious. Cheering one’s soldiers to victory while claiming rights over the possessions of vanquished enemies can be equally addicting, and like addiction it is difficult or even impossible to break the cycle. For whenever a veteran champion looks upon his deeds, sees what he has wrought, and speaks out to try and stop the madness, he is skewered by a young and hungry champion who takes his place and leads the next charge. The song captures this vicious circle beautifully. I regret that I can only whet your appetites with the rough cuts, but for now something is better than nothing.

The name of the ninth preview track is "Raise the Black Flag" and it is another historical song which deals with the era that we are currently in, that of revolutions. Although many revolutions have happened over the last 226 years and have resulted in distinctly different forms of government (from democracy to communism to socialism), the basic themes behind them are all quite similar. The goal of these revolutions has been to empower the people so that they can better resist the control of a central governing body. Ideally people are freed from much of the control of those in power and become more self-directed and empowered thereby increasing their happiness and productivity. New governments are created to be secular to break up the religious power structure, and most traditions are cast away to allow greater mobility and freedom for the people. Regardless of the ideology, the call to revolution has been the call to freedom.

Ironically, and also regardless of ideology, the intent to move power from a central government to the common people has always resulted in a more powerful central government with common people more powerless against it. Freedom, a term which can be best described as empowerment to achieve one’s goals, is not related to ideology, it is related to prosperity. The better off the country is, the more free the people are to pursue their goals, and the less the government demands of the people. As long as times are good, no one minds that the revolution didn’t quite come off as planned nor even realizes that it didn’t. The causes of revolutions are also very similar. Corruption and incompetence in the ranks of those in power combined with a period of economic hardship or military defeat have prefaced most violent revolutions. The widespread discontent and the powerlessness of the system to restore prosperity usually results in revolution. This can be compared with the collapses of the god-king based societies in ancient times. In those cases, when the god-king ran out of answers and traditional solutions no longer worked for new problems there was chaos and turmoil and eventually a new god, or at least a new interpretation of an old god rose to unite the people once again. These "divine revolutions" were often followed by a period of war and expansion as the people spread their new faith. The similarities between those revolutions and modern ones are profound. In both cases the former ways of doing things no longer worked be they either a religious tradition or a set of laws, and those in charge no longer had the answers be they god-kings, priests, dictators, or legislators. In the ensuing conflagration the former ideology was discarded and a new one was created. A new god was born. But these days we do not refer to our systems of government as gods nor do we claim that they were inspired by divine entities. Instead we define the authority behind a system of laws to be that of the will of the people and not the will of a god. However, nations have always been led by the acquiescence of the people whether they gave the reigns of power to a man who claimed to know the will of god or a man who claimed to know the will of the people. A political ideology is functionally equivalent to a god. "Freedom" is in essence the new god of modern revolutions with each nation having its own interpretation of the word.

Also similar to all revolutions is that they are inevitably followed by a period of militarism and expansion. The French revolution led to Napoleon’s conquests, the German socialist revolution led to Hitler and WWII, and the American revolution led to the westward expansion, numerous wars with the Spanish, French, Mexicans, and British, the global battle against communism, and the current war on terror. It is the US’s military conquests that held Russia and China in check after their revolutions, slowing their spread to neighboring countries. The theme of believers spreading the word of their new god across the earth occurs throughout history and by making the connection between the concept of god and a political ideology one can see that the historical trend has continued despite claims that we live in a secular age. We’re still conquering for our god regardless of the terms that we use. Of course, "liberating" a country and establishing an elected government sounds a lot better than conquering a country and forcibly converting them to democracy, but the two things are essentially equivalent. Attaching negative meanings to the old terms allows us to disparage our less advanced enemies for doing essentially the same thing that we are doing.

Now, enough of the political discourse, it’s time to talk about music. The cut from "Raise the Black Flag" describes the motivating forces behind revolutions as well as depictions of the chaos in the streets. The dark bass driven beginnings capture the feelings of betrayal and the social inequities. Revolutionary stirrings and distorted rhythms build slowly and pick up speed until they begin to break out. The music and the lyrics become more heated as the conflict between the state and the resistance reaches a critical point. The king shouts, "You will obey me!", and the people respond with a simple but earth shaking "No". Out of that erupts the powerful chorus:

"Raise the Black Flag, and scream ‘Death to the king!’
Raise the Black Flag, and beat your plowshare into a sword.
Raise the Black Flag, let nothing sacred stand in your way.
Raise the Black Flag, and release your inner will, to kill."

followed by furious riffing, soloing, and violent lyrics that describe the chaos and bloodshed indicative of revolutions. I drew most of the depictions from the French Revolution as is evident by the line "Bring the King and Queen, to the guillotine", but most revolutions follow a similar bloody pattern.

In the rest of the song I go into the darker side of modern revolutions. How they inevitably lead to conquest and bloodshed on an unprecedented level, and how the ideals of the revolution get undermined with the ruling elite seizing power, abusing it, and exploiting the people more than ever before. At one point in the song I use the phrase "enslaved to the god of freedom", which is a truly ironic twist. How can you be enslaved to freedom? As our prosperity runs out of gas, we will all find out.

You can download and listen to the new tracks at the Fireaxe IUMA site

***Disclaimer***

Fireaxe makes no apologies for the violent and revolutionary content of it’s music. Material of a far more dangerous nature can be found within any holy book or in the history section of your local library. It you insist on expressing outrage about the things that you hear, see, and read, please do so in at least a partially sensible manner.