Treatment
By Iron Krill
Background / Lyrics / Commentary
*** Click here to skip to the music ***
Iron Krill’s third full-length album “Treatment” arrived December 27, 2019, more than six years after “Prognosis.” Why did it take so long? Why should anyone care? Unfortunately, I don’t have answers to those questions.
WARNING: ALL TEXT
NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU ARE A SUPERFAN AND/OR STALKER
** NOT ACTUAL ALBUM COVER
In September 2016, I wandered the big island of Hawaii contemplating the future of my musical projects. I had been oddly dormant in music productions ever since July 2013 when Iron Krill's second full-length album "Prognosis" was completed. The excuse was that I had taken time to get myself situated in "the real world" with a career or whatever. But now that I got that taken care of, it was time to get music back on schedule. So I mentally outlined the master plan:
1. Force myself to get back into gear with "Iron Penguin", a standalone project experimenting with just making music without stopping to write anything (eventually released in December 2016)
2. Create standalone Iron Krill song "Dormant" to practice the entire production including writing again while laying hints for the future (eventually released in November 2017)
3. Make full production album "Passion and Vanity" consisting of a lead female singer on all songs (eventually released under band name Iron Kitten in December 2018)
4. Finally, Iron Krill's next full-length album, its next complete production over three years away, "Treatment" (eventually released in December 2019)
Okay, so the dates weren't all fully planned out back then over 3 years ago. But the point is that the "Passion Treatment Master Plan" had been going on for a while there and I'm pretty surprised it actually worked out that way considering how many new things went into making it happen, whether that be improving myself, improving my gear or learning how to actually work with other people for once.
Because the culmination of this master plan, the album known as "Treatment" which uses "Iron Krill" as its band name, is not the kind of album that I expect people to actually listen to the way they might listen to music they enjoy. Maybe people will do that, I just wouldn't even fully understand why. Everything that went into it was just a crazy idea of something I had in my head in one format (within my thoughts) which I wanted to transpose into another format within my head (through hearing). It's not supposed to actually be "good music", be "listenable", be "professional", or any of that other stuff, and if in the process it worked out that way, that would merely be a side effect of doing this for so long. (I promise the next one will be even more of a challenge to listen to…)
This thinking allowed me to do some odd things on this album. Not that crazy, just not what I would have done if I felt more obligated to make it listenable. There are four guest vocalists singing in four different languages. I make absurdly aggressive (almost sarcastic) use of CGCFBC tuning in the very first song. One song has two bass parts, mixed in strongly, with just a faint guitar part mixed in the background. One song is entirely in 5/4, another is entirely in 7/8, song lengths vary from 2:30 to 8:24, and a medley that only makes sense if you've heard the first 12 songs appears in the 13th. Most of the songs either have no clearly defined chorus or don't play it until past the halfway mark, and at one point I used old clips of myself and Colin from 2009 as "guest vocals" to compliment our 2019 vocals....
...... but why? Because I wanted to hear it. It's really that simple. Everything else is a bonus.
Let's use a pizza analogy. Let's say I spent decades experimenting with various ingredients and cooking techniques to make the best possible pizza for me to eat, then finally after many years I "released" a new pizza. That means I wanted to eat it. The pizza is Treatment. Other people can eat the pizza if they like it too, but I didn't intend to become a popular pizza restaurant... business is something else entirely.
But if you’re curious what I do, take a listen! It’s meant to sound like us, it’s meant to “be” us. Colin and I actually do everything besides guest parts, no outsourcing production/mixing/songwriting or anything pro bands do.
No Really, Just listen to it (if you want)
Instrumental versions and/or free download here
Charlie Garcia - Guitar, vocals
Colin Tremblay - Bass, vocals
Featuring:
Daniela Rojas Artist - Vocals on track 2
Anton Sobolkov - Vocals on track 4
Nomi - Vocals on track 8
Matias Rosembach of Guacho Culëbra - Vocals on track 11
Rosanne Kelley - Violin on track 4
Lauri Garcia - Classical guitar on track 4
Pearl Hsiau - Backing vocals on track 3
Produced by Charlie Garcia
All songs written by Charlie Garcia except: non-English lyrics and vocal melodies on tracks 2, 4, 8 and 11 written or modified by featured guests
Additional backing vocals by Gavin Warnock, Brandon Nienau and Gaeb Thorson
Derek Eddins was told he would be credited with drums
Album art by Colin Tremblay
Lyrics (With Explanations)
1. More Than Apathy
**
Many of us have a tendency to think about problems around the world as irrelevant compared to the problems within our own lives, in particular if they are well-known things that almost sound generic like "world hunger" or "war" or "health". The song is directed towards me just as much as it is to anyone else, as I am not the shining example of altruism I might like to be, but as a whole the song just makes the simple statement that there is never going to be a right time ("someday") that will make it clear it's time to start helping; there's never going to be an easy way to do it and it might take more than a few buttons.
**
Some days it seems there's no point
In trying to end
All of the silent suffering
We never hear
Time is never any excuse
Just because you can't right it all
"I'm not the one", you say to me
As though only you can see
The savior's here, but someone else
Invisible
(Lives left hanging in the balance)
Just stop and think this through
Maybe that person's you
Or maybe me
But we can't stop and sort this out
While lives are lost
It's pathetic how we look the other way
When it's someone else
It's sobering to realize that
Just one life's worth more than we'll ever see
"I'm not the one", you say to me
"I'm not the one, I've got no heart"
But maybe there's more than apathy
And maybe there's more than hate
And maybe there's someplace left for us
To make a stand
If someday would come already then
Well maybe we'd do our part
If someday would come already then
We'd have a chance
Take that first step and make an impact on the ones who need our help
There's got to be more than apathy inside our callous hearts
There's got to be something inside
I know you're more than a hollow shell
I know that there's more than apathy
I know that there's more than hate
If someone cares, it's all for show
Distract the crowd so they won't know
Across the world and out of sight
Our worries go
But maybe there's more than apathy
And maybe there's more than hate
And maybe there's someplace left for us
To make a stand
2. Through Your Eyes (ft. Daniela Rojas)
**
Before I visited China in March 2019, I had an idea that one of the songs on Treatment should be about an experience there. Unfortunately, I started writing the lyrics before actually going, which sort of defeated the purpose. Funny as that may be - to myself at least - it may have worked out well because I don't actually have some specific moment I am trying to point to or falsely claim the lyrics are really about. It's about just a very broad, abstract concept of what it would be like to have a moment of clarity where you actually understood exactly what someone else is feeling, in particular someone with a completely different life from you. Because I was thinking, "okay, I will go there, but it will still be me. I will still have all of my experiences and thoughts with me. Any attempt to ‘do what the locals do’ or ‘not be a tourist’ seems shallow if spending less than a lifetime, and I still might not know a thing about what any given individual person feels.” It is, after all, a person’s experiences and innermost thoughts which really matter, not just what they see or do each ‘normal’ day. For this reason, it doesn't actually have too much to do with the geographical location, but that sort of helped get my brain thinking this way.
Still, I ended up "writing" some of it during the trip, part of what led me to try extra hard to make it multilingual with a featured guest in Mandarin. (I was also partly "inspired" by thinking about how metal is really not at all popular in mainland China and my subsequent desire to troll - sorry I mean "to subvert expectations") That eventually led to a similar result on 3 other songs with different languages. Of course, I didn't want to just plug in some words into a translator and call it good, nor did I want to just say "hey who wants to sing in Chinese" and expect all the pieces to fit together perfectly, so I ended up working closely with the featured guests while still trying to maximize their freedom to develop lyrics and change melodies as they saw fit. While I'll admit I did at first think "she's from Colombia, shouldn't the guest be a native speaker", I realized that no, the broader purpose of all of them is to remove barriers, and someone like her who has not only lived 3 languages but has professionally used multilingualism to strengthen ties between those from different regions is perfect, and I couldn’t be happier with the result. As a hilarious side note, since I also worked with her on our cover of "Shaped By Fire" by As I Lay Dying, in English, the only language I have yet to work with her on is Spanish.
Anyways though. The song serves to dramaticize that theoretical moment of understanding, or what it would be if for just an instant anyone actually saw or felt what someone else did.
**
Lost in a trip through time
Stuck in a piece of space
No sense in how we got
To this place
But here and now we're face to face
Somehow our paths have crossed and I can't help but ask how
I ever expected to have all the answers
With such narrow vision
Though we're both here now through a twist of fate
We're all living in a different world
But I'll never forget your face
And I will hear your voice
All that you've seen
How little I know
Chorus 1, Chinese:
无奈地活一次
你对抗这乱世
我应该怎么说
到底要怎么活
你我慢慢分割
想走进你的心
让我俩变成真
抬起头向前看
世界怎么改变
如同你眼所见
Chorus 1, Pinyin:
Wúnài de huó yīcì
Nǐ duìkàng zhè luànshì
Wǒ yīnggāi zěnme shuō
Dàodǐ yào zěnme huó
Nǐ wǒ màn man fēngē
Xiǎng zǒu jìn nǐ de xīn
Ràng wǒ liǎ biàn chéng zhēn
Tái qǐtóu xiàng qián kàn
Shìjiè zěnme gǎibiàn
Rútóng nǐ yǎn suǒ jiàn
Chorus 1, English version: (** not direct translation **)
You live through hell each day
You've seen what no one should
And who am I to say
The way you ought to live?
I know we're not the same
If I could share your heart
Make this connection real
I'd take the leap and learn
How much the world would change
If I saw through your eyes
But we can try to bridge the gap
We don’t need to be the same, just to connect
If I could feel
As you do
Well maybe then I'd see
Like you too
For we're not so different now
When we can forget the past and just see each other's eyes, hearts, minds, souls
Circumstances aren't what makes us different
If I only could
Chorus 2, Chinese:
其他人的想法
灵魂随时变化
内心这团烈火
是我要的结果
你我慢慢分割
我可能会找到
比之前的更好
它会把我撕裂
犹如无尽黑夜
如同你眼所见
Chorus 2, Pinyin:
Qítā rén de xiǎngfǎ
Línghún suíshí biànhuà
Nèixīn zhè tuán lièhuǒ
Shì wǒ yào de jiéguǒ
Nǐ wǒ màn man fēngē
Wǒ kěnéng huì zhǎodào
Bǐ zhīqián de gèng hǎo
Tā huì bǎ wǒ sī liè
Yóurú wújìn hēiyè
Rútóng nǐ yǎn suǒ jiàn
Chorus 2, English version: (** not direct translation **)
To know another's thoughts
To hold a different soul
Fulfill the wish to hold
A neutral point of view
I know we're not the same
But maybe I could find
That there's a better way
It just tears me apart
To think what I would feel
If I saw through your eyes
It's absurd to think that so much of what makes us different
Is the product of random chance
I don't expect us to see the same
Because I know we're different
But we don't have to let that define us
(I know we're not the same / 我知道你我慢慢分割)
We're not the same
But that doesn't mean
Our differences define ourselves
Or that we can't grow closer
Because we're more than all that we've lived through
We're more than our past
(If I saw through your eyes / 如同你眼所见)
If I saw through
Your eyes somehow
Would I learn
Would I run
If only I could know
3. Smoking in a Smart Car
**
After two dense, thoughtful, "serious" songs, it's time to lighten up a bit with this song first conceived at a stoplight in Kirkland roughly 10 years ago. I believe it was Colin who pointed out to me that someone stopped next to us was, well, smoking in a smart car. (Fortunately, whether writing it as a song name or as a standalone phrase, the capitalization remains ambiguous; this will help if I ever need to demonstrate that I just meant like "the car was smart" and "yeah it's just a pun, not actual use of the brand name" and avoid lawsuits) He then went on to suggest that might be a great song title. It took a while, but I finally used it. The lyrics are overly dramatic to the point of absurdity. Like this person is trying to be "better" in one sense but losing another battle within themselves. Saving the planet but poisoning their lungs. Risking their safety to save on car purchase price so they can spend more money on consumable goods which risk their health. And broadly speaking, questioning whether it makes you cool.
I wanted to make sure that it was over the top and had weird overly complicated jokes embedded inside phrases ("final transmission" = "last car you'll own before dying in a car crash" + "last thing you'll ever say before dying or being unable to speak due to smoking") so as to make it clear that there is no way we could possibly be serious about these lyrics or actually suggest that it is so horrible.
Ultimately, if I were in fact to elaborate on this in a serious way, I would take the extreme opposite view, that the scene of being seen smoking in a smart car represents the absurdity of public expectations because it's something that makes perfect sense despite the tendency to think it looks weird or should be criticized due to the reasons outlined superficially within the lyrics. The combination just looks funny but I'd be hard-pressed to explain precisely why in a serious manner.
**
Don't look here
Nothing to see
There was something in the water
There was something in the air
Trying to be just one step better
Life just isn't fair
Drawing visions of the future
While slaves of choices past
Trying to make it one step closer
While these visions last
Which one is your fatal decision?
Will this be your final transmission?
Life in a time where there's choices anew
Got to consume all that's easy for you
You're smoking in a smart car
4. The Leap (ft. Anton Sobolkov)
**
The first of a few songs to suffer in their “lyrics description” as a result of not actually writing said lyrics description until several years after the fact. For this one, I think I skipped out on writing a description initially not because it would be so long and time-consuming to do so, but because I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say. In other words, the scene being painted by these lyrics is rather straightforward and literal. Maybe “literal” isn’t the right word. It’s still metaphorical, I guess, talking about jumping over a gap or something, but it’s such a simple metaphor, representing conquering a challenge or the like.
Ultimately, I guess what this song is really about, or the non-generic part of what it is about, is this: rather than facing your struggles (whatever they may be for you) as an endless grind, they can in fact be powered through if you face them head on all at once. The challenges can seem harder than they really are if they are something that you fear or avoid. The song simply approaches this in a bit of a dark manner, focusing on the dismal and inevitable nature of the problem that needs to be solved, instead of the resolution that will come later. That’s just because it is meant to be written from a real-world perspective, where someone facing this situation will in fact see only the dark side of it and will therefore need to accept the darkness in order to accept the challenge. So the actual content of the lyrics is about accepting that the abyss is there, that running away from it isn’t accomplishing anything, and that the next step to make is the obvious one, the big one right in front.
This was a quite successful example of looking online to find a random person to sing in another language. While I had written a basic melody for the chorus, it was much “slower”, sounding like only a couple syllables per line really. He completely changed it into something much more interesting. So I decided to combine “both” chorus melodies (the originally written one and the one actually used) into the bridge, instrumentally, and they work together in an interesting way.
**
Don't stop and stare into the air
Fight on 'cause the abyss is here
Memories haunt me still
No one knows how or why I got so far away from home
I've got to set some goals or else I fear I won't have a thing to show
(Charge ahead, make a leap)
Am I lost
Or is this my new home
I keep on climbing, keep on falling
Another challenge, where's the end
It's right before you, in your eyes
In your face
Chorus, Russian:
Вырву прочь
Страх из сердца
Мой огонь
Ведет вперёд
Бросок!
Падаем в бездну
Сделай первый вдох!
Время ждёт
Chorus, romanized:
Vyrvu proch' / Virvu proch`
Strakh iz serdtsa / Strah i(z) sertca
Moy ogon' / Moy agon`
Vedet v
Brosok! / Brasok!
Padayem v bezdnu / Padaem f bezdnu
Sdelay pervyy vdokh! / Sdelay pervy fdoh!
Vremya zhdot / Vremya jdyoyt
Chorus, English version: (** not direct translation **)
I`ll rip away
The fear from my heart
My fire
Is leading me
Throw yourself in!
We are falling to the abyss
Make the first breath in
The time is coming
Alternate English version: (different melody)
Charge ahead
Straight for the edge of fear
Looming tall
Make the leap
Take in your very first
Breath of hope
There was always only one
Leap to make
And there will never be a greater test
Or hill to climb
I close my eyes
Tell myself
All I feared was a lie
No fear
Storm ahead
Charge ahead towards the cliff
The edge of fear looming tall
Breathe in your very first taste of life
Make the leap
5. Worth the Wait
**
This song could be about depression in general, or disappointment in something specific, or whatever. But the overall idea is about going through something difficult and realizing that you were the one that made it difficult for yourself by giving yourself a high expectation - or by deliberately trying to make yourself feel bad, to prove your own point that things are bad, once you’ve entered into that vicious cycle.
**
So easy to forget
No one is innocent
I can't complain
Wandering on a narrow path
Focused on the darkness closing in
All too easy to forget
You blocked out the light yourself
Wishing you were someplace else
Even as it burns in your mind that
You are free to leave
And see the light
I'd right the course if I could
But I'm the same
I can't complain
And when you spend your life in shadow
It's always hardest to find a way to carry on
But there's got to be some strength, some hope
Some vital force inside a dying heart
But there's got to be some strength inside
There is a better way
To end the pain
If I could see you
I'd help you through
A better way
To end the pain
Life
Has brought you this far
You'll turn it around
Before its time
The night let you down
But life is more than any one bad dream
I swear it’s worth the wait, the search, the pain
Our end will come another day
Cherish how it feels to be alive
Don't forget what you feel like now
Alive
6. End the Lie
**
This song is a good example of my tendency to write some parts of lyrics from a different perspective for no reason whatsoever and making no sense in the process. It may have initially been to try and be more ambiguous just so it would seem more artistic or complex, but really it just dilutes any potential for understanding. I am referring to the switch to the second person in the chorus (sorry, prechorus) in a way that sounds like it is actually directed at a specific person that I knew at some point, learned from, searched for, whatever.
This song was not intended to be specifically political in terms of what government policies should exist regarding guns or anything like that. But it is envisioned at an attack on “gun culture”. Being proud to be a part of one social group, leading to further antagonizing others…
**
End the lie
That power's granted by the things you hold
End the lie
That power is security
It's time
To stop the constant and aggressive show of force
It poisons us
Into thinking we're not one
Thinking we have to fight back against
Every single soul that threatens our own vision of what they should be
Stop
'Cause one life's just too much
Just learning from you, how it changed my heart
Now
It's time to end our trust
Just searching for you, how it changed me
Another bullet is another lie
We're never safe when we put freedom first
Another body proves what we all know
We can't control what we don't dare to face
Fight fire with fire and malice with murder
We're united in fear, united in death
Solidarity of murderers
But one life's still too much
To gamble on a hope
That all are responsible and won't be made to
Punish us for trusting them with our worst
Our darkest, our strongest and most shameful tools
We ever thought to give away to everyone
Just think of where you put your trust
Blessed with the memory of you
Just learning from you, how it changed my heart
Still I search and hope in vain
Just searching for you, how it changed me
Another bullet is another lie
We're never safe when we put freedom first
Another body proves what we all know
We can't control what we don't dare to face
I trusted you'd be safe
Just learning from you, how it changed my heart
I never thought I'd say
Just searching for you, how it changed me
It's time to end our trust
In what won't save us
7. Dead Pledge
**
[NOTES IN PROGRESS]
**
Don't show me everything
You claim you've built
Just show me all the hearts you've broken
And show me all
The lives you've taken
All in the name of peace
Can you see the suffering
Can't you see the sorrow in the eyes
Of those you claim to serve
Time to pull out all the stops
Time to show we won't sit back
While despots running rampart run the world
And for what cause?
And for what banner do they serve?
Their people or their throne
The dollar or the flag
It's all the same
It's all a ruse to get blind loyalty
Out of the wreckage of their wars
(All for a nation of self-destruction)
It's time to say, it's time to mean
We'll make a stand but to no flag
It's killing us
Before we fight your wars
We've got to know the truth
Are we really altogether moving forward?
We know we can't go back
We can't go back to the way we lived before
Ignorance blinds - nativist lies
Now we're waiting for the end
Still we wait for another day to become whole again
It's all a lie
Resist their lies, take heart
You're not the only one who knows the truth
Go ahead, make your stand, raise your hand
Else we see we've become self-enslaved
This grand scheme
It'll end
It'll all end
Oh it's all so hard to picture
The only system you have lived
Split open, inside out
But the day will finally come
Whether any of us wish
Can you see it now
Can you feel the embers burn
Can you taste the smoke and dust
Your precious fortress, crumbled
It'll end
It'll all end
8. Answers and Anguish (ft. Nomi)
**
[NOTES IN PROGRESS]
**
Oh it's been so hard to find
An honest soul who looks to the skies for inspiration and hope
But does not waste away
The potential here on earth
Oh it's all too hard to find a single soul
Who trusts in their own mind
Hearts left waiting
Minds for the taking
We all
We look above but close our eyes
It's not the way to break free
It's not the way it has to be
Trusting empty air
Now it's gone, the vision's gone
Lost in the abyss of your own head
Why do you keep the blinders on?
Make a vision of the future
But make it truly yours
You'll find that you don't need
Anyone
I see the answers too
Inside my mind
I won't deny what I can see
In my thoughts
Hearts left, minds wait
Eyes closed, all potential lost
No more
Show me something more
Than what we are
Show me something that
I've got to see
And show me that it's true
I've come too far to lose my only mind
We've lost
The moment we see hope
As the answer to real pain
We've lost
When we don't use our minds
Bridge, mixed French and English:
Entends-tu le silence?
Perçois-tu un amour étrange?
Well I've been here trying
With so far to go
Je cherche de la mystère
(You're all I need)
Quand tout dont j’ai besoin est bien ici
English version: (** not direct translation **)
Can you hear the sound of silence?
Can you sense a love you've never known?
Well I've been here trying
With so far to go
And I'm searching for secrets and mystery
When all that I need
(You're all I need)
Is right here
We're longing for something not of the earth
Forgetting the ones who stand at our side
With heads tilted back and gazing above
We can't see each other
Staring above
We forget
What's here on earth
9. When People Care
**
Okay, I almost regret this one already. In 2009, Iron Krill was in its newly founded mostly-joke state, and we decided to play a show, and we didn't actually have a full set of songs yet so we scrambled to write a couple filler songs. Somehow the demo recording of this song was interesting enough to us despite its flaws that we decided to fix a couple issues and redo it from scratch in 2019. (All the other songs on the album are "new" even if they were first written in 2013 or 2014; this is the only one that has ever actually been "released" before) As for the lyrics themselves, they're not that meaningful on their own merit, they're kind of just like a generic anthem for the underground or hardcore whatever.
**
This is the battle cry of the empty-handed
We have seen the darkest tunnel
We have fought the deepest struggle
This is the battle cry of the empty-handed
We have seen the darkest tunnel
We have fought the deepest struggle
Now we'll take a turn in our path
Now we'll fight the root of our anger
I know you're strong
You're just so alone in your cause
You fight a war
But we're the ones that care
And that just does not mean
That we'll sit back and watch you take over our lives
Just set us free
So that I can breathe again
So I can breathe
But these dreams just never end
You're just so alone
No matter what you say
No matter how we feel
We won't hesitate
To leave another scar
We've heard what you say
Every day
Now it's time to show what you can do
10. We Could
Run away from what you see
Hide away from what you hear
All you will ever find in security is dangerous
Don't you see the downside as you're making enemies?
Don't you know the trials you've led yourself to when you divide?
We could all be one
We could share our heart
Remove the lines
The final divide left from our different past
The relic of our prejudice
We could be one
All you fear in loss of control would go away if you don't make them a threat
We don't have to control
We need only understand
And we'll all live a better life
Run away from what you see
Hide away from what you hear
What you don't understand won't be the death of you
You say you try but don't really want to know
Searching hearts, minds left aching
You hear all the answers but never learned to listen
We all
We could be one
We could unite
We could see past our differences
We all
We could be one
We could unite
We could see past our differences
We all
We could be one
We could unite
We could see past our differences
11. Los Subterráneos (ft. Matias Rosembach de Guacho Culëbra)
**
[NOTES IN PROGRESS]
**
Enterrados por los traidores
Desechados por propios y extraños
Los subterráneos crecimos para vivir
Autosuficientemente
Prueba viva
De lo que todos sabemos
Que es verdad
Que los habitantes de la superficie
No son
Tan benevolentes como parecen
Al menos de algo estamos seguros,
que esta nueva raza
Nunca se comprará
Ni se venderá
Vemos tu mano extendida
tan hipócrita
Nunca jamás
No queremos tu compasión
Careta sucia y fría,
Nunca la compraremos.
Lucha y muestra
en cada acción
Que no pueden parar
a los subterráneos
Lejos, en tierras olvidadas,
Bajo la arquitectura de lo libre
Existe una fuerza eterna
que fue unida por la guerra
Ahora se mantiene unida
Por los valores del coraje
Respeto
Y esperanza
Nunca jamás
No queremos tu compasión
Careta sucia y fría
Nunca la compraremos.
Lucha y muestra
en cada acción
Que no pueden parar
a los subterráneos
Resurgiremos y ya el suelo no será nuestro cielo
Resurgiremos y ya el suelo no será nuestro cielo
Nunca jamás
No queremos tu compasión
Careta sucia y fría
Nunca la compraremos.
Lucha y muestra
en cada acción
Que no pueden parar
a los subterráneos
English "version" ** not direct translation ** (not reviewed thoroughly for good timing if actually performed)
Buried by traitors
Discarded by friend and foe
The underground have learned to live
Self-sufficient
Living proof
Of what we all know
To be true
That the inhabitants of the surface
Are not
As benevolent as they seem
At least one thing's for sure
This new breed
Will never be bought
Or sold
We see your offer of help
For what it really is
Never again
We don't want your sympathy
So callous and cold
We'll never take it
Fight back and show
With every action
They cannot stop
The underground
Far away, in forgotten lands
Underneath the architecture of the free
There is an eternal force
First united by war
Now held together by the values of courage
Respect
And hope
Never again
We don't want your sympathy
So callous and cold
We'll never take it
Fight back and show
With every action
They cannot stop
The underground
We will resurface
The ground will no longer be sky
12. Us
**
A relatively rare song for me in that it actually has specific meaning. But if it doesn't make sense to you then don't worry about it. After all, the song was symbolically kept extra short, with an extra short song title, and placed in the least important placement on the album in terms of track listing, just like the song's meaning to stop thinking about it. The idea of the song is to apply all that to someone who was in your life a long time ago that you had trouble getting out of your head.
It's tempting to cling to the memory even though it feels negative ("sink your teeth into me again, it's a better type of feeling than nothing") but ultimately, it never would have been. It being us. (The grammar is weird but that's part of the fun: the song title only makes sense as an answer to the question "what is this song about?")
**
Seven years
Of trying to read these lines
For something more than what they say
In plain view
I'm so tired of interpreting all you've said
As though it's part of some magnificent plan
And I'm so sick of feeling sorry for everything
There's no reason to feel guilt or shame
For what I've done
There's someone else to blame
All I know, all I feel
Is air, is dust
No flesh, no blood
How can I explain
What I've become
Sometimes I stop and wonder why
Why I
Feel nothing in my bones
But then I remember
Take the edge
Off of me
Sink your teeth
Into me again
It's a better type of feeling than nothing
A shell of life, a memory
Is all I am
A shadow of old, a heart of stone
And I
Sometimes I catch myself
Wondering how
We ever got so far
Apart and why
But then I remember
It never would have been
13. Stay Hungry
**
This song features some of the focus on paradoxes and contradiction in conventional wisdom that is prominent throughout my previous album "Passion and Vanity". There are two conflicting schools of thoughts highlighted throughout the song: on the one hand, it is proposed that a great deal can be achieved if we always strive to improve and get more no matter what, but on the other hand, it is proposed that the relentless quest to always find more ultimately leads to a weird sort of stale feeling of being inactive because nothing is good enough. A lot of this song was originally written to be included on that album, but ultimately it felt best to make it into an Iron Krill song instead. Aside from the musical preference to switch it to Treatment, there was a lyrical reason in the sense that I felt it would come across too strongly as "picking a side" if I simply had a song called Stay Hungry on Passion and Vanity.
"The desperate need to fight for more - it's so sweet, it stings and bleeds" suggests that there is a paradox of feeling both good and bad at the same time to always be trying to get more; it is like an addictive drug that you can't stop even if you can feel it destroying you. Ultimately "more to want" just leads to "more to lose."
"An overactive idle mind" and that whole section through "nothing escapes me but nothing results" refers to the weird feeling of inactivity or staleness that used to be more of a problem for me. I just found it hard to really do anything because I was always just thinking about what I could do or trying to remember what I was thinking about doing. It's hard to explain and doesn't make as much sense now that I've made it mostly go away. How it ties into the theme of the song is that I'm always analyzing things to try and find "more", but the end result is nothing happens. So, this whole section is "against" the thought of always wanting more, claiming that it doesn't actually lead to new positive results.
Eventually, this is rebutted with the next section, which claims that the problem is just thinking about it. Sure, it is difficult to turn thoughts to action, but once completed, then it is infinitely better than just not bothering to want or think in the first place.
So, wait, how do you do that? Well the secret is actually really simple. Instead of just saying that you're going to turn thoughts into action, the key is to focus on the desire to do more. Rather than just remembering that you decided a while back you wanted to do something, you need to actively think about it, and actively stay hungry, and it will become easier to really do it.
So, it has a bit of a dark/sad/negative feel to it all anyways, because after all "hungry" isn't a very positive feeling. It really just means that you can fully embrace the idea of never being 100%. Be aware of it and use that to drive your decisions. If you can somehow learn to enjoy being hungry, then you can use the hunger to drive you to achieve more, while also putting in the will to keep yourself hungry.
Sure, this is now getting so abstract it barely makes sense. So maybe I should just clarify it is all sort of influenced by or related to bigger themes expanded on in the novel Stay Hungry by Charles Gaines, and Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in a move of the same name extremely early in his career, and Arnold also making a reference to staying hungry as a key to success in his documentary Pumping Iron. The song has nothing to do with Arnold or bodybuilding or anything but the philosophy from all that bled over into the inspiration for this song as it applied to my own life and feeling of challenge in actually getting things done. I just found it interesting that hunger, in a non-literal sense of course, could sort of be spun around and treated as a good thing. It's like it's dangerous because it might make you just crazed and want "more" all the time, but if you can somehow harness it, then it's a powerful force in your favor.
**
More
It's so familiar
But I think this feeling's got to last some time
The desperate need to fight for more
It's so sweet
It stings and bleeds
The feeling that I'm never satisfied
And always keep on finding
More
More to want, more to lose
And more still to be satisfied with
The curse of an overactive idle mind
Spinning in circles as it grinds to a halt
Paused but never stops
I see the crowd wait up ahead
I wish I had something for them
But I have nothing to say, nothing to prove
With all the tools except for passion
Stand back and observe, but nothing results
It's hard just to think straight, still harder to move
Nothing escapes me, but nothing results
It's such a pain
It's so vain
To think that you can chase and catch and consume
Everything that's a possibility to you
And then to expect that suddenly you'll be content
And not keep looking out for the next big hit
Maybe the fault is thinking it ends
It never ends
It's easy to say you want it all
It's hard to prove the feeling's true
The thought is not what makes you strong
Don't hide the fire in your heart
Lost inside your own thoughts
Too hard to raise your head
And see all that you need
To make them true is there
At your command
They're right in front of you
Nothing's wrong, move along
If you really want to know
The secret's out now
Stay hungry
Stay hungry
The power of will turns vision into action
One challenge that can't escape my mind
Look out at the world, it's all yours for the taking
One feeling that can't escape me
So I broke free
Stay hungry
And always keep on fighting
Stay hungry
And always keep on dreaming
No need to reach the end
Stay hungry
Stay hungry