The X Factor was the beginning of a new era of Iron Maiden, with Blaze Bayley
as frontman and vocalist. It also marks a rebirth of sorts, breathing new life and vitality into
a band that was beginning to stagnate during the previous years with Dickinson. With the
Heavy Metal genre virtually dead, mostly in the United States, The X Factor reaffirms
Iron Maiden's ability to continue making their music without stooping to pander to popular
and shallow trends.
The album is a refreshingly dark and introspective exploration of the psyche –
gone are the overly happy sounds that crippled the previous two albums. Most of the songs
begin softly and slowly build with power and energy, perfectly creating a dark and brooding
atmosphere. The mood is heightened by Blaze's lower vocal style, which complements
the atmosphere of the album much better than Dickinson's air-raid siren would have done.
This is an incredibly deep album, which takes time to sink in. As with most excellent albums,
the more you'll listen to The X Factor, the more will resonate within you. For those
who are attracted to depressing types of music, listening to The X Factor will give you
a dose of irresistible melancholy power.
Like
Fear Of The Dark, the X Factor album cover is not by
Derek Riggs, but instead by
Hugh Syme, who has made album covers for many other bands including Rush, Megadeth and
Queensrÿche. The X Factor cover has abandoned Riggs's familiar comic-book style in favour
of a much more life-like and macabre portrayal of the surgery which transformed Eddie into a lobotomised
monster. This brings up my only complaint about the album – the cover is a bit too graphic
for my tastes, and I do not enjoy the portrayal of the obvious pain and torture of any living being.
Even though I think I understand what the band was trying to portray, I still prefer
Riggs's comic-book horror which was fascinating yet not quite as realistic. Because of potential
marketing issues in various countries, The X Factor is also available with an alternate and
less graphic cover which depicts from a distance Eddie in an electric chair.
Overall however, The X Factor is a dark and melancholy masterpiece which revitalised
the band after the slow decline which reached rock-bottom with the departure of Dickinson.
Despite the inevitable controversy among some fans who seem unable to accept change,
The X Factor is in my opinion a triumph and one of Maiden's best albums.
Sign Of The Cross (Harris)
'Sign Of The Cross' is a genuine Harris epic, over 11 minutes in length. It begins with a low
and ominous-sounding Gregorian chant, and slowly builds a dark and brooding mood before
suddenly bursting into the fast and powerful verses and chorus. The middle of the song is
dominated by a long instrumental which has a great deal in common with the early masterpiece
'Phantom
Of The Opera'. The instrumental passes through the song's entire stylistic range, from the soft
Gregorian chant up through an exquisitely Maiden-sounding riff melody to the climactic guitar solos.
This song cannot be described as anything other than a masterpiece.
The lyrics of the Gregorian-sounding chant seem to be "Æternus halleluiah",
or "Praise The Eternal", and the chant itself provides an excellent atmospheric start to
this dark song. The "eleven saintly shrouded men" have also been subject to some
polemic. Who are those men? Their number is also not clear. Is the "one in front with
a cross held high" a twelfth man or is he part of the group of eleven? Some have claimed
that those were the Apostles, whose number was twelve, minus Judas Iscariot who had killed
himself, leaving therefore only eleven. Whoever they are, and what they actually represent, they
make an interesting tie with some of the lyrics of an early Genesis song, 'Supper's Ready' on
the Foxtrot album (1972), which has also a lot of religious imagery in the lyrics and is,
like 'Sign Of The Cross', a very long song with multiple sections:
Six saintly shrouded men move across the lawn slowly
The seventh walks in front with a cross held high in hand
The first verse show the narrator "standing alone in the wind and rain" and
in fear. It seems reasonable to assume, given the topic of the song, that he is a afraid of the Inquisition,
who has "come to wash [his] sins away", and he knows that his "faith will be
put to the test".
Another indication that this story may very well be that of a man facing torture at the hands of the Inquisition
– this abomination whose exactions and large-scale cruelty have only been matched in Western
Europe by the Nazis in the 20th Century – is that somebody is "asking the question
time and again", and it is well-known that torture was euphemistically called "The Question".
Under such torment, the narrator is wondering "why then is God still protecting [him] even when
[he] do[es]n't deserve it", showing that he recognises that he has doubts concerning his
own beliefs and that he is not worthy of divine protection. This statement is also one of resignation to
his fate, as he is "blessed with an inner strength, some they would call it a penance".
There, he seems to consider that being unable to die despite the pain he's enduring is indeed
a "penance", but isn't that after all what life is about in general? Anyway, his doubts
include even the certainty that "praying to God won't keep [him] alive".
Indeed, prayer's never been known to do anything concrete, or the world would be a much nicer place.
"They'll be saying their prayers when the moment comes." Those "saintly
shrouded men" will pray when the stake is lit, and they will pray again "when
it's judgement day", as the narrator seems convinced that they are condemning him
whereas he's innocent of any major crime – well, certainly not that of heresy –
and that they are the guilty ones who will "bleed when that moment comes",
whereas he will be forgiven and "God'll lay [his] soul to rest". This is most
probably how many victims of the Inquisition felt when they climbed the stake to be burned
for a heresy which they were convinced they hadn't committed.
The link with the excellent book – and no less excellent film – The Name Of
The Rose resides maybe in the chorus: "The sign of the cross, the name of the rose",
although this seems to be the only similarity with Umberto Eco's novel (or with Annaud's film for that matter!).
The "fire in the sky" is probably also that of a burning stake whose conflagration lights
the sky. In any case, if this song can spark an interest in this classic story, then it will have achieved even
more than being simply a musical masterpiece!
The last lines are however quite intriguing: "Lost the love of heaven above, chose the lust
of the earth below." Could this be a reference to the film/novel The Name Of The Rose
where Adso, the young monk narrator of the story, has a sexual encounter with a young woman
(who is tried later for sorcery and with whom he falls in love, although he has to eventually leave her
– but he will never forget her!), meaning that he has broken his vows of abstinence as a priest?
This could confirm that the man in the 'Sign Of The Cross' story is indeed a member of a religious
order, a believer who faces his doubts. We all have convictions in life and, sometimes, events happen
that severely dent these convictions, even to the point of destroying them totally. All we are then left with
is the fear of the uncertainty of what lies ahead.
Along with his apprentice Adso of Melk, the Franciscan monk William of Baskerville
journeys to an abbey where a murder has been committed. As the plot unfolds,
several other people mysteriously die. The protagonists explore a labyrinthine
medieval library, the subversive power of laughter, and come face to face with
the Inquisition. It is left primarily to William's enormous powers of logic and
deduction to solve the mysteries of the abbey.
The Inquisition was one of the great blights in the history of Christianity. No other institution
in the history of the Christian Church was so horrible, so unjust, so... un-Christian. When it
was finally brought to a halt in 1834, thousands of lives had been lost, and tens of thousands
of lives ruined through imprisonment and confiscation of property. Whole populations were driven
from their homelands, and the Roman Church had earned a blight against its name that still resonates
to this day.
1327: after a mysterious death in a Benedictine Abbey, the monks are convinced that
the apocalypse is coming. With the Abbey to play host to a council on the Franciscan's
Order's belief that the Church should rid itself of wealth, William of Baskerville,
a respected Franciscan monk, is asked to assist in determining the cause of
the untimely death. Alas, more deaths occur as the investigation draws closer
to uncovering the secret the Abbey wants hidden, and there is finally no stopping
the Holy Inquisition from taking an active hand in the process. William and his young
novice must race against time to prove the innocence of the unjustly accused and
avoid the wrath of Holy Inquisitor Bernardo Gui.
'Lord Of The Flies' is based on the William Golding
1954 novel
of the same name, which was also made into films in
1963 and
1990.
The story tells of a group of school boys who are marooned on a tropical island, and who gradually
descend into tribal savagery. This is an energetic type of song, whose lyrics glorify the animal nature
that is inherent inside all people. This theme is also dominant in the story told in
'The Edge
Of Darkness', where a man, dwelling in the depths of a jungle and freed of all social constraints
turns to unspeakable savagery.
In his novel, Golding's intention was clearly to take the counterpoint of previous similar stories
where people stranded on a desert island cooperated in order to recreate civilisation as they
knew it. In this more realistic story, we see children – commonly (and often wrongly!) assumed to represent
innocence and fairness – return to the tribal savagery of our ancestors, and destroying
all trace of civility that some where trying to preserve. As Golding was a teacher, we can assume
safely that he'd observed the behaviour of children in the schoolyards and drawn the right conclusions:
the lack of social constraints that are ingrained in adults through their upbringing and education
is clearly obvious in the way younger children establish their relationships to others. A kindergarten
yard is basically a jungle where the strongest simply try to crush the weakest. Take away the discipline
that the adult society enforces and you end up with a bunch of savage little animals who
"just want to live [their] own fantasy." (Disclaimer: I'm not saying that all kids
are systematically either bloodthirsty animals or hapless preys of those, as it also depends on
each individual's personality – a non-negligible human trait.)
Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that underlies
even the most civilized human beings. Golding intended this novel as a tragic parody
of children’s adventure tales, illustrating humankind’s intrinsic evil nature. He presents
the reader with a chronology of events leading a group of young boys from hope to disaster
as they attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment until rescued.
Each character of the novel represents a part of human nature that is either kept at bay or
put forward by society in order to make social life as peaceful as possible. The song sees the story
most probably through the eyes of the character of Jack, who represents evil and violence, the dark side
of human nature. Originally a choirboy, he becomes the "chief" of the "tribe"
and throws away all social conventions that make a civilised society possible – "Who
cares now what's right or wrong [...] We don't need a code of morality." Ralph and Piggy,
respectively standing for civilisation and fragile intelligence, try to oppose him and make sure
that everyone is sheltered and fed properly, but Jack is only interested in the hunt –
not for food, but for the thrill of the action itself ("I've found that I like this living in danger").
"Lord of the flies" is the literal translation of the Greek word Beelzebub,
a term used for the Judeo-Christian notion of Satan, or evil personified. What the novel highlights,
as well as does the song, is that this evil resides in all of us and, provided that the social barriers
cease to exist for whatever reason, breaks loose in extreme situations – "What was
meant to be is now happening." This "Something willing us to be lord of the flies"
is simply ourselves.
This song is based on the 1993 Joel Schumacher film
Falling Down starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, about an apparently "normal"
man – a middle-aged white-collar worker – who finally snaps under the stress, frustration,
and absurdity of big city life. It is another of the few up-tempo songs on the album, and, although
the guitar solos are quite short and the song itself is not quite as deep as some of the other material
on the album, it's a really good little rocker from a musical point of view.
Away from the jungle of 'Lord Of The Flies'
and 'The Edge
Of Darkness', we are taken here to the urban jungle of a vast megapole – namely Los Angeles,
but any other gigantic city in any industrialised country could have been the scene of such action.
Like in the aforementioned songs/stories, the main character's sense of self fades away after he's
reached his breaking point (in his particular case after losing both his job and family) and he finally
loses control – "Each step gets closer to losing his head."
The song's theme is somehow similar to that of
'Age Of Innocence'
and highlights the flaws of an ungrateful modern society that does not look after its citizens (may it be
through the lack of care for the unemployed who are made redundant or the lack of proper law enforcement
against criminals) – "'Cause nothing is fair just you look around."
Even if most of us can relate to his frustrations – from over-priced conveniences like a soft drink
to being unable to be served what we want in a fast-food restaurant – the main protagonist
somehow "takes the law into his own hands" and ends up being considered a criminal,
following what Nietzsche warned us about:
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
Towards the end, the main character asks in disbelief: "I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?"
Indeed, whereas the lack of social structures creates wild predators out of otherwise perfectly decent
human beings in 'Lord Of The Flies'
and 'The Edge
Of Darkness', the unfairness and hypocritical constraints of a "civilised world" can
also achieve the same when some individuals are pushed beyond the edge. Let's just hope that
this is not "a glimpse of the future."
A divorced engineer for the defense industry gets stuck in L.A. traffic and finally snaps.
He gets out of his car and begins a walk through central L.A., where he encounters
various levels of harassment, which he learns to deal with by acquiring weapons
along the way.
Falling Down is a 1993 film by Joel Schumacher about "D-Fens"
(named for his license plate), an unemployed Irish-American missile engineer played
by Michael Douglas making an attempt to "go home" for his daughter's birthday
after his car breaks down in traffic on the hottest day of the year. As he passes through
the city of Los Angeles, California on foot he finds himself alienated, disgusted and
angered by what he experiences as he is accosted, overcharged and rejected.
He becomes a sort of vigilante as he gradually begins to accumulate weaponry
and starts to force people out of his way – with violence, if necessary.
'Fortunes Of War' describes the mental anguish of a soldier returning from war – the nightmares,
the voices, and the terrible memories. It makes a good counterpart to
'Afraid
To Shoot Strangers' which describes the anguish of a soldier who is about to go off to war.
It can also be linked to 'The Aftermath',
although it hasn't got the same historical specificity and is delving in the dark thoughts
of any soldier returning from any conflict of the 20th Century onward.
The psychological effect of combat is a concept which encompasses a wide variety of processes
and negative impacts, all of which must be taken into consideration in any assessment of
the immediate and long term costs of war. This entry will address the wide-spectrum psychological
effects of combat, to include: psychiatric casualties suffered during combat, physiological arousal
and fear, the physiology of close combat, the price of killing, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD).
Steve Harris describes accurately what goes through the minds of those who fought when
they are returned to civilian life and face those who only saw the conflict from afar: "I can't help
but feel that I'm on my own, no one can see just what this conflict has done to the minds of the men
who are on their way home." The feelings of misunderstanding and loneliness are heightened
by contact with people who, as hard as they may try, simply cannot understand what an ordeal
like combat can do to someone, and it is only natural that those who fought often seek their former
comrades-in-arms in order to once again be surrounded by those who lived through the same hell
and who understand. Those are mentally "scarred for life" and all too often have to face
the aftermath alone, "the vivid scenes and all the recurring nightmares."
Those who have never been confronted to a combat situation dish out the usual banalities that
"time's a perfect healer, that the nightmares they will come to pass" – but
they never really do. Most veterans end up "living in [their] own world" and often
question their sanity ("Could I really be going crazy?"). Strength of character and
sometimes professional help can provide the former combattants with the appearance of a
"normal" life and put aside those mental scars, a necessary requisite to
"carry on."
Like 'Afraid
To Shoot Strangers', it starts out softly with some acoustic guitar and low singing, but then breaks
into a slow and heavy rhythm that is vaguely reminiscent of Black Sabbath. There has been a bit of criticism
about this song that suggested it was too "generic", but this is absolutely not the case.
There is nothing remotely resembling "generic", here, and this piece is an incredibly
powerful song that is full of dark emotion. It is among the best tracks of the album.
Look For The Truth (Bayley, Gers, Harris)
This is another introspective song about facing and overcoming one's fears. Like many songs
on this album, it begins with an acoustic and soft singing intro, and then breaks into faster and
heavier verses and chorus. Although the main body of the song is not quite as dark than the intro, it is
still a pretty good song with a tune that sticks in your mind.
Whatever fears and nightmares the protagonist experiences, they seem to stem from his dark past –
"In the house of my soul, in rooms of ugliness and cold, memories locked away"
– and he never had the courage to face them until now. This songs conveys a message
of hope to those who are haunted by ancient memories that never properly dealt with: win or lose,
the only way to conquer the remnants of an ugly past is to face them with a clear and lucid mind.
To shadows of the past
Take a breath and I scream "attack!"
Musical ideas in this song are nothing new under the sun, but I like the subtle intro
and the rocker tune it breaks into. Blaze really pulls the song, along with the simple main riff
and, in my opinion, excellent chorus. It wouldn't be Maiden though, if we weren't in for a surprise
– this time it's the solo part. Riff intro, nice little Dave plus double guitar bit at 4:15.
The lyrics are among the best ever. Rather than haunting, to me they are uplifting.
Refreshing simplicity and honesty, and a bit of irony, all of which I can relate to absolutely.
What can be more important and beautiful in life than to endure pain, kick the demons and
seek truth again and again, right?
Some people seek the easy way but they rarely make a difference to the world.
'The Aftermath' is a song that questions the validity and necessity of war. The main verses
are built around a very simple sequence of guitar chords, but the instrumental contains some
great riffs and guitar solos. This song is not readily accessible, and many will not like it at first,
but it will eventually grow on you once you fully realise its depth and power.
Although it deals with the psychological wounds endured by any soldier who fought in a war
from the early 20th Century until now, the text mentions barbed wire and mustard gas,
implying that we are faced here with a veteran of the First World War, even if this not as explicit as in
'Paschendale'.
Mustard gas was only employed on a large scale during this conflict and the realisation of the horrifying wounds
and deaths it caused probably prevented its further use in subsequent wars.
Quite interestingly, the famous British war poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote a poem called 'Aftermath',
which also denounces the horrors of all-out war and the loss of innocence of those who went to war
merely as boys, but who returned mentally wounded from the terrible battles of the Great War.
After the war, left feeling no one has won
After the war, what does a soldier become?
...those ashen-grey masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay...
AFTERMATH
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz–
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench–
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?'
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack–
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads– those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet...?
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you'll never forget.
The psychological effect of combat is a concept which encompasses a wide variety of processes
and negative impacts, all of which must be taken into consideration in any assessment of
the immediate and long term costs of war. This entry will address the wide-spectrum psychological
effects of combat, to include: psychiatric casualties suffered during combat, physiological arousal
and fear, the physiology of close combat, the price of killing, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD).
This website is dedicated to the events and consequences of World War One.
We put some emphasis on unorthodox and thought-provoking points of view.
We are averse to historicism and military fetishism.
And we show people rather than strategic plans or statistics.
To this end this website features one of the most extensive and explicit WW-1
photo collections on the Internet.
"Once a ploughman hitched his team
Here he sowed his little dream"
"Now bodies arms and legs are strewn
Where mustard gas and barb wire bloom"
Well, there I was, listening to The X Factor, when I heard the lyrics
on 'The Aftermath'. I haven't thought about them much at all. I think they deserve a closer look.
To me they seem to be talking about almost the same event as 'Paschendale'.
Upon listening to the lyrics, one could almost be seen as a continuation as the other.
"In the mud and rain" "In the smoke, in the mud and lead"...
"Where mustard gas and barb wire bloom"
"Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire."
As well, as we all know, Paschendale is the first battle where mustard gas was used.
Obviously 'The Aftermath' is about the war being over. I believe it to be about the end
of the First World War. The line "Silently to silence fall in the fields of futile war".
As Maverick has pointed out in his amazing commentary on 'Paschendale', World War One
was the most futile war in history, both for the reasons behind it and the offensives within.
Paschendale is the height of that futility. Men who were in the Western Front at the end of
World War One have recalled the sudden silence that fell at 11:00 AM
(The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) felt supernatural. When the guns
ceased firing, guns that had been firing for four years and two months, men who lived through
the carnage must have been awestrucked at how quiet it could be. As well, the war did not
spurt out in most places. Usually the guns simply stopped shooting. There was no real warning
that it was over until that surreal quiet occured.
"War horse and war machine curse the name of liberty/Marching on
as if they should mix in the dirt our brothers' blood"
The values of nationalism and fraternity that united various countries during
the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Conscription, that is universal service
in the armed forces, brought people of all social classes together in a manner they had
never been united before. It was said about the British army before the Boer War:
"Cook's son, Duke's son, son of a belted Earl". Before European nations
had been rent internally by social divides. Now a Frenchman, German, or Briton
would see all people of the same nationality as his brother in arms.
The reference to liberty may talk about the three values of the French Revolution,
Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality. I apologize for not putting them into French, but my French is,
well, bad. It might also refer to the fact that the war machine, the apparatus used by the various Generals,
now control the soldier's life. In WW1, certain generals (Haig, French, Nivelle, Falkenhayen)
were notorious for their disdain for the lives of their men.
"Once a ploughman hitched his team, here he sowed his little dream/Now bodies
arms and legs are strewn, where mustard gas and barb wire bloom"
This refers to the fact that the Western Front, that massive nation-long siege,
wound its way through rural France and Belgium, destroying the livelyhood of thousands
of small farmers. To this day men and women farming those fields uncover relics of WW1:
unexploded bombs (Belgium has a special government department whose job it is to safeguard these),
rifles, helmets, even human corpses. The latter are prevalent in the area of Paschendale where
so many bodies were sucked into the mud.
This brings me to the chorus:
"In the mud and rain, what are we fighting for/Is it worth the pain, is it worth dying for?"
Simply explained with the notorious muddy fields of the Western Front
and the futility of trench warfare.
"Who will take the blame, why did they make a war/Questions that come again,
should we be fighting at all?"
I believe this song is about a German soldier who survived WW1. Dispirited by the loss
of his proud nation and the death of so many comrades, he's questioning the rationale of the war.
"Who will take the blame" must refer to the infamous clause of the Treaty of Versailles
that places all the blame for the Great War onto Germany. As we all know, the First World War
began for a myriad of reasons, which I don't want to get into here. Marshal Foch, Supreme Allied
Commander in WW1, said this about the Treaty of Versailles: "This is not a peace treaty.
It is an armistice for 20 years." He was proven prophetic by the outbreak of World War Two
in 1939, 20 years after Versailles was signed. "Questions that come again"
at the end of WW2: How could our leadership take us into such death and destruction?
Should we be fighting at all?
Once again referring to the outbreak of WW1, in which Germany supported the aggressor,
Austria-Hungary. Why should Germany have helped Austria? Why should anyone have cared?
Why must we murder ourselves?
This song faces the inevitable questions that all people eventually ask at some point in their lives
regarding the meaning of existence, given that it actually has any meaning. It it has a dark and
despondent mood that blends perfectly into the overall feel of the album. This is another song
that takes a while to sink in and appreciate fully. However, after a few listens you'll have a hard
time getting the tune out of your head and it may well become one of your favourite songs on
the album.
'Judgement Of Heaven', like 'No Prayer
For The Dying', contains an unusual plea to God – "A silent prayer to God to help you
on your way" – and Steve Harris does not seem to seek the answers in the world around him,
but from a hypothetical divinity instead:
And if there is a God then answer if you will And tell me of my fate, tell me of my place Tell me if I'll ever rest in peace
Unlike many other similar songs whose theme is depression and the quest for a meaning of life,
this one does not seem to offer much hope, but asks a few essential questions to ponder, such as:
"If you had the chance again would you change a thing at all?" In any case, Steve
may have had his doubts, but "all of [his] life [he has] believed Judgement of Heaven
is waiting for [him]", so why change his mind now?
Blood On The World's Hands (Harris)
Written about the Bosnian war (1992–1995), 'Blood On The World's Hands' describes
the horror, injustice, and brutality that took place at that time in this little region of the planet,
although this could – quite sadly – be applied to the rest of the world. It features
an interesting bass intro whose closest counterpart is probably the intro to
'Innocent
Exile' way back on the
Killers album.
The reaction to such conflicts, wherever they are, can vary from person-to-person, or even depending
on the mood when the information is received ("Sometimes it makes me wonder, sometimes
it makes me question, sometimes it makes me saddened"), but Steve expresses here very rightly
what any normal human being would feel when confronted to such news: "always it makes me
angry". Territorial and/or ethnic wars are probably the most infuriating of all, with the blatant injustice
that goes with them. The massacre of people because they look different or think according to different
beliefs is quite simply intolerable.
The war in the Balkans in the mid-90s has seen the most atrocious treatments of human beings on
European soil since the Nazi abominations of the 1930s and 1940s. The whole world was aware
of what was going on through reports of war correspondents and images broadcasted every evening
during the televised news reports ("But when you can see it happening, the madness
that's all around you"), yet no one actually stepped in to prevent such atrocities
("Nobody seems to worry, the world seems so powerless to act"). The UN
troops sent to the battle zone were even expressedly ordered not to intervene and even not to return
fire when fired upon!
Blood on the world's hands
Disclaimer: this picture in not related to the Bosnian conflict in any way.
It was taken by Ami Vitale and was awarded the "Picture of the Year" prize in 2004.
I only thought it was an appropriate illustration of the song, considering its title. Its original caption
runs as follows:
"A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim holds his blood stained hands to his chest after flagellating himself
in a procession in Srinagar, India March 2, 2004. Shiite Muslims all over the world are mourning
the slaying of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed who was killed by his political rivals
along with 72 companions some 1300 years ago in Iran during the first month
of the Islamic calender, called Muharram."
The song also questions the "Western lifestyle", which is supposed to be so safe
that conflicts are thought to be nowadays impossible: "security of a world that brings
one day another killing, somewhere there's someone starving, another a savage raping".
This description suits perfectly well what was happening right before our eyes, and even
"right next door"! The Bosnian War saw not only the massacres that most conflicts generate,
but also the resurgence of concentration camps – didn't the world learn the lessons of
Nazi Germany? – where people were held and starved to death simply because they belonged
to a certain ethnic group or had a particular faith. Besides, the "savage raping(s)",
that have been part of warfare ever since the dawn of mankind, were used systematically during this conflit
for the horrible purpose of "ethnic cleansing". The women of one ethnic group
were either raped to death, or until they fell pregnant with their attacker's child, in which case
they were detained until a termination was impossible, therefore giving birth to "the enemy's"
children and being rejected by their own community, as well as developing such self-loathing that
they would most often commit suicide.
And "meanwhile there's someone laughing at us." This is probably a reference
to the former Yugoslav leaders who where performing their awful deeds in front of the whole
international community, and laughed at the fact that they could do it in full impunity at the time
(things have changed since the implementation of an international criminal court, although
a certain "world-leading" country still considers itself to be above such laws).
"They say things are getting better", well that's what all governements would like us
to believe, although it's a pretty hard thing to do when you see "the madness that's
all around you."
Before its abrupt end ("Someone should..."), the song reminds us that
the horrors mentioned happened very close-by: "There's chaos across the border."
Indeed, no Western country is protected from such events occurring yet again on their territory and,
if we're not careful, "one day it could be happening to us." So let's think about it
and work together to make the world a safe place for the generations to come.
In Yugoslavia, what began as a noble idea ended in war, destruction and poverty.
As the remnant of the old Yugoslavia legislates itself into extinction, Tim Judah
traces the story of a troubled country.
The current war in Bosnia-Herzogovina is essentially a war of aggression from the outside,
even though it has internal ethnic dimensions. The conflict is a continuation of the war of aggression
against Slovenia and Croatia, which temporarily subsided in those countries, (but has reignited in Croatia
in 1995).
The Balkans Pages will deal with the part of the Balkans formerly known as the Socialist
Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Why did the country collapse?
The traditional human-rights image is of a male prisoner of conscience. Yet the Serbian rape camps
in Bosnia show that it’s often women who suffer most.
This song is based on the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, which was in turn inspired by
Joseph Conrad's (1857–1924) classic Heart Of Darkness – which was also
made into a 1994 film for the television. The lyrics reproduce in many parts the dialogues of Coppola's
masterpiece and tell us of a man's journey up a river into the jungle during the Viet-Nam war, in search of
an insane genius who has succumbed to the innate savagery that resides inside all of us. It is
another dark and brooding song in the same vein as
'Sign
Of The Cross', with the riffs and rhythm shifts that have become a Maiden trademark.
In both the film and the novel, the character of Kurtz is that of a well-educated Western man who abuses
his power in a place where the laws and customs he was previously used to broke down or even never existed.
May it be in colonial Africa of the 1890s and 1900s, or during the Vietnam war of the 1960s, the horrors
he witnessed and even accomplished for the "good of Western civilisation" made him
sever all ties with the world he once belonged to, and gave him the will to become a power by himself.
However, power corrupts and the darkest instincts took over as "There's a conflict in every human
heart and the temptation is to take it all too far." As Colonel Kurtz rightly stated in Apocalypse Now:
"In a war, there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments
for ruthless action. What is often called 'ruthless' ... may, in many circumstances, be only clarity:
Seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it—directly, quickly, looking at it."
In other words, the confusion that reigns in extreme situations can force the most reasonable person
to perform the most abominable actions with full consciousness when it happens, only to live and
be haunted by the events for the rest of his life. In Heart of Darkness, Fresleven was considered
"the kindliest, gentlest creature that ever walked on two legs," yet he became uncontrollably
violent after a period of immersion in absolute horror, indicating that there is an incredibly dark side
to the human mind that can – and often will – express itself given the right circumstances
(consider how the children left to their own device on a desert island in 'Lord Of The Flies'
expressed the most basic human instincts that "bring out the animal" in them).
Whereas Mr. Kurtz is a sick and weakened ivory trader being merely picked up by Marlow's boat,
Colonel Kurtz is a strong US Army senior officer who is supposed to be eliminated "with extreme
prejudice" by Willard. The only similarities between Conrad's Marlow and Coppola's Willard are their rank
of Captain and the fact that they undertake a journey up-river through the jungle to reach their respective Kurtz and
face the heart of human darkness by doing so. Besides, Marlow is more philosophical and pondering
the horrors he witnesses, whereas Willard is simply a special forces soldier with a mission, although
both have a fascination for the character of Kurtz.
The trip on a boat into the depth of the jungle is in itself quite symbolic, as the means of transport is water
– the river representing life. Both Marlow and Willard are on an initiatic journey that brings them to the roots of
human savagery and to the very heart of their own darkness – those places of the mind that modern
civilisation prevents us from exploring for fear that we might discover the truth within ourselves. An interesting
parallel can be made with the lyrics of Bruce Dickinson's 1996 song 'Back From The Edge' on the
Skunkworks album:
A silent river flowing black Strange attractors, no turning back Present danger I recall That pins my senses to the wall
Back from the edge Where the darkness has fled And I’m swimming in light And I’m falling... Falling from the edge Back from the edge
I fell from grace, and that’s a fact I still have urges, I fight back Cold decisions wear me thin Kill yourself, begin again
Back from the edge Where you’re not worth a damn Throw yourself into light And the rush as you spin from the edge... Back from the edge Back from the edge
Both Marlow and Willard have travelled this silent river to the "edge of darkness,"
from which they eventually returned ("Back from the edge"), but certainly not unscathed.
Because "when you've faced the heart of darkness even your soul begins to bend."
Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition
to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. We follow Captain Willard on his mission
into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God
among a local tribe.
The psychological effect of combat is a concept which encompasses a wide variety of processes
and negative impacts, all of which must be taken into consideration in any assessment of
the immediate and long term costs of war. This entry will address the wide-spectrum psychological
effects of combat, to include: psychiatric casualties suffered during combat, physiological arousal
and fear, the physiology of close combat, the price of killing, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD).
Apocalypse Now (1979), one of the most important films to emerge from the Vietnam War era,
took ten years and more than $30 million to make. Director Francis Ford Coppola struggled
with setback after setback during production and constantly questioned his work on the film,
to the point of threatening suicide. Because the film was shot in the Philippines and financed
largely outside of the Hollywood studio system, it acquired a certain mystery among the media.
By the time of its release, it had become almost mythical in stature.
Heart of Darkness originally appeared serially in Blackwood’s Magazine
in 1899. It was eventually published as a whole in 1902, as the third work
in a volume Conrad titled Youth. Since its publication in Youth, the novel
has fascinated numerous readers and critics, almost all of whom regarded the novel
as an important one because of the ways it uses ambiguity and (in Conrad’s own words)
"foggishness" to dramatize Marlow’s perceptions of the horrors he encounters.
Critics have regarded Heart of Darkness as a work that in several important ways
broke many narrative conventions and brought the English novel into the twentieth century.
"I remained to dream the nightmare out to the end, and to show my loyalty to Kurtz
once more. Destiny. My destiny! Droll thing life is—that mysterious arrangement
of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge
of yourself—that comes too late—a crop of unextinguishable regrets."
'2 A.M.' is a beautiful song with a catchy tune that underlies some extremely insightful and powerful
lyrics. At least, it is stuff that many people can exactly relate to – the meaninglessness
and futility of life. There is not too much to say about this song, except maybe that the lyrics
seem almost hauntingly autobiographical.
The meaning of life is questioned: is there really one? "I wonder why I'm here",
"Life seems so pathetic". All those questions are more likely to arise when you're
alone in the middle of the night, reflecting on what you've actually achieved so far and what the future
may reserve. No answers are given, but an alternative is evoked: should we simply end this apparently
meaningless life ("I wish I could leave it all behind") – and this could refer
to suicide, as well as to starting a radically new life – or should we grit our teeth and keep going
("Hold on for something better")? The answer is for each and everyone to find
for himself.
Do you just let go or carry on and try to take the hurt?
Good question...
The Unbeliever (Harris, Gers)
'The Unbeliever' is another introspective and inward-looking song, perhaps the most non-standard
and misunderstood songs on the album. Many people dislike this song, mostly at first, but it isn't as bad
as it seems and, provided you give yourself time to adjust to its peculiar style, after several listens it will
grow on you a lot, especially with the chorus and mid-song instrumental.
Pretty much like 'Judgement
Of Heaven', this song describes the feelings of depression and an inner sense of ugliness,
as the first verse shows:
When you start to take a look within Do you feel at ease with what you see Do you think you can have peace of mind And have self-belief or be satisfied Do you think you even like yourself Or really think you could be someone else
But the very same person who "believed Judgement of Heaven [was] waiting for [him]"
also realises that "All [his] life... [he's] run astray, let [his] faith... slip away" and ends
this rather dark and introvert album with a really good piece of advice that everyone should think about
a bit more:
Are you scared to look inside your mind Are you worried just at what you'll find Do you really want to face the truth Does it matter now, what have you got to lose Try release the anger from within Forgive yourself a few immortal sins Do you really care what people think Are you strong enough to release the guilt
