Since its release in 2008, New Age/electronic group Enigma’s, Seven Lives Many Faces has been an album of personal comfort. The very first time I heard the artistry within “The Same Parents”, I noticed a sense of primordial awareness stirring in my soul. Through the lyrics, I felt in-tune with the message and intention of the song. Through my own inner sense of being, I feel that everyone and everything is naturally interwoven through the same breath of life. As a human, I feel I have a lot of responsibility to treat the planet [and it’s respective inhabitants] with great reverence.
For centuries upon end, humans have fought one-another in order to have their tribes and villages come out on-top biologically. There are plenty of differing causes for people not having the conscientious ability to peacefully coincide with one-another. Perhaps they were neighboring villages, or two civilizations so racially similar, it was threatening, or unclear who was ‘right’ and who was ‘wrong’ in their respective belief systems.
Romanian-German musician and producer, Michael Cretu, spreads an important message still very much needed in today’s day in age. Cultural genocides, racial obliteration, and massive destruction through war has slaughtered more than just human-beings…and in the end, for what?
The human ego seeks control.
Instrumentally, the piece fades in with a plucked (pizzicato) guitar melody line. A child speaks with (what in my opinion) sounds both sad and aware, “In the beginning, We all had the same parents, Many million years ago, Why can’t we live in freedom? Without hunger, with no war.”
A violin saturated with reverb holds the base-line, while a series of strings gracefully plays on-top, assisting in compositional development.
When the percussion comes in, the beat is seemingly very simple, though many various samples and drum-elements are used along side the young singer to create a rather enchanted sound…it almost begs people to think outside themselves for the 3:32 it plays.
“At the beginning we all had one mother and one father. That’s where we’re descending from. Attention, I don’t, I don’t understand, Why so much hate? Attention Between races and religions. It’s mad, insane, I don’t understand. Amazing, Why it has to be like that? Incredible experience. We all had the same parents, Many million years ago. Why can’t we live in freedom?Without hunger, with no war. Attention, I don’t, I don’t understand, Why so much hate? Amazing, Between races and religions, Incredible experience, etc.”
…..Now on the flip side, I must present a piece of music (or style) that makes me extremely uncomfortable for whatever reason, be it musical or the message it stands for. I can appreciate the skill one must acquire to snort like a pig and scream like a banshee- but I just don’t find this “sub-genre” of metal appealing to listen to for more than a couple seconds at a time. This is simply because it fatigues my ears and is often-times very shrill, over-compressed, and rather deafening.
There is so much going on at once: the guitars are intentionally out-of-tune, and the music is arranged in an unexpected, uncomfortable manner. Instrumentally there’s very little headroom in the mix, giving it next to no space to breathe. I can respect the skill it takes for double-kick bass drum pedal techniques, and having 16th notes, grouped in two, spread across two feet. This is a genre that takes an insane amount of practice and skill to withstand its blood-thirsty fans.
While I can’t directly understand the lyrics, the artist inaudibly screams “Your eyes silently scream astonishing grief. The satisfaction I devour is not retribution. Your sorrow’s my devotion. I’ll be rewarded with your degradation. Nourished by bitter passions, My hunger for human deprivation will be quenched. No retribution. Your sorrow’s my devotion.”
Now that I just decided to slit my wrists, let’s all hold hands and dance around a rainbow! Maybe this is just my own form of ethnocentrism, as I’m just not in a death-metal state of mind.
**SOURCES
“Furtive Monologue Lyrics – Despised Icon.” FURTIVE MONOLOGUE LYRICS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Furtive-Monologue-lyrics-Despised-Icon/D87D02695F27CE43482572CA000BC229>.
“Enigma Seven Lives, Many Faces.” Enigma. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/27739/Enigma-Seven-Lives,-Many-Faces/>.
“A Metal State of Mind.” A Metal State of Mind. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://ametalstateofmind.com/tag/pig-metal/>.
“Michael Cretu.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cretu>.
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