Lyrics

Lyrics and short explanations to the upcoming Bosnia record:

TRAIN TO OMARSKA

Hatred aged like wine, no human condition
spared from the debris on the road to perdition
They came for me in my sleep with bloodlust in their eyes
Where the words of their leaders were as sharp as their knives

Board the train to Omarska
Smoke bellows out of an echo of Treblinka
Their guns to my families heads in the dead of the night
when the torture is silenced, I see no end.

And now the seed is inside me
like a poison, and in the distance
I hear the women scream for mercy
as thine enemy grows in me

Hatred aged like wine, no human condition
spared from the debris on the road to perdition
Like the furnace bases filled with flame
A premonition for this world: genocide, decay.

(This is the closest thing we'll ever offer to a name referencial song. Omarska was a concentration camp used during the Bosnian/Serb war. It is in no way pro or anti one side of the conflict, but more based upon accounts I read of the families in Bosnian villages during invasions. The most disturbing detail I read of was the Serb attempts to "breed out" the Bosnian race through rape and forced impregnation of Bosnian women/children. We've all learned at least the basics of the genocide of WWII, but somehow the attrocities of Bosnia get overlooked, even though they happened during our generation.)

JEHOVAH

jehovah, the gears of your machine are greased with lies.
The lies are covered by the worker's cries.
Engineered secrets of prophets names in decietful trades
Told in spades, the uranium fills our grave.

Coiled behind titanium doors
Waiting for the other shoe to hit the floor.

Scrawled into cement like bible verses,
their faith in confidentiality statements.
They've written lie to law with blood on parchment.

Whispers screamed into the brick
Elevations locked deep in crypts
Hidden under walls three feet thick

Dead fields filled with what we don't know
Forced as products of what we're not shown
Will I die by the code?

(Based on several conspiracy theories, all revolving around the higher power of government, and their ability to manipulate on emotional levels, making the comparison to religion using guilt to encourage allegience. )

A FLOOD

We saw our thrones overgrown
with ivy and green plagues painted
black with disgust and
washed red with anger and disappointment.

Breathe in the city scape, houses for psychological strain.
I see the water below welcoming me, so pray for a flood
and wind to lift my feet.

Breathing crimson death, fogging reflects
with each breath. Keep my ear too close to the street,
waiting for any sound to drown out my defeat
and paralyze conceit.

(Worse than experiencing the depths of depression is seeing a loved one struggle with a problem you know well. The helplessness often associated with being caught in an existential rut is mirrored by someones inability to help, which in itself, can leave you feeling like a shell of who you thought you were and what you are capable of.)

ASSEMBLIES OF GOD(LESSNESS)

Holy wood as a fire starter, white flames warm my back.
Placing faith in opposable thumbs, while hate parades march
to the beat of a war drum.

Rise behemoth, crush the right.
With an iron fist, block their light.
Like a cancer in the body of Christ,
I am the zeitgeist.

Strangled by the bible belt
Enslaved to guilt I haven't felt
While upon an altar I haven't knelt
Reducing existence to its lowest form,
over and over again
Words as salt grains
and prayers for a change
For acts to challenge ways that stay the same.

My metaphor for opposition: volume for satan.

(It's the same story, just getting more angry. Christianity is still being used as a reason to remove human rights and keep people oppressed in the "free world". There's not even evidence...ah, fuck it...just watch this: www.zeitgeistmovie.com)

Merch Box

So two weeks ago, Bosnia played in Pueblo, Colorado for the first time. We had been saying we would for about 2 years and finally got around to it. I didn't have high hopes for the show - it was in a basement, we only know 1 or 2 people down there and it's fucking Pueblo. But surprisingly, it was a great show, and probably our most profitable we have ever had - we sold every shirt and CD we had. We made about 12 times the amount from the door just in shirts, CDs and stickers (mind you, that's still not saying alot, but still).

Anyway, when we got back that night I just threw our empty merch box in the garage and didn't look in it until now. Upon closer inspection, besides leftover stickers and handbills of ours, there was another band's t-shirt, another band's CD (different band), a broken drum stick, an empty bottle of Jack Daniels, and a G.I. Joe.

Tattoo

I started some new work on my buddy Austin today. He told me to "just draw something cool". Sometimes that kind of open ended request can be harder than you think. I know he was way into zombie stuff (I've already tattooed Ash and the Dawn Of The Dead face on his other arm), so I drew this. I thought the design came out really good, and the my linework was really nice and clean. I feel like I'm becoming much more deserving of a little bit of ego now with tattooing. It's taken 5 years, but I think my tattoo work is finally consistent and of good quality.

And this is a portrait of Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) on Austin that I never got a picture of.

Animals

I live with my wife Krista and three room mates. And here they are.

Day 1

This will be the new home for my mind's diarrhea.