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THE (LITERAL) STORY BEHIND THE MUSIC AS EXPLAINED BY MR. SMITH
If you’ve not been following the story that Mind have created through their concept albums, here’s where we are at the moment. The Juggernaut, our second album, starts off the concept with the story of a lone wanderer who sets off on a journey to avenge someone, BUT WE DON’T KNOW WHO YET. OOOOOH. It ends in a similar manner, with the journey still ahead, but he’s met some companions, including the titular Juggernaut. He’s not that comic book thing, by the way.
The Aeronaut continues with them both on a tense and unknown mission, but they meet this sort of pretty demon chick thing called The Aeronaut, or Eve. She is silent, but can communicate telepathically. It’s all very weird and unnecessary, but I enjoy writing this stuff. So she also assists, before The Juggernaut is killed randomly in the deep dark woods of somewhere, and a snake coiled around a pearl is left as he crumbles to dust. Once the snake goes, he reads a message telling him of an entity called Anthema, which provokes The Character (this is what we will refer to him as for the moment) to turn evil and discard Eve, before waking from this trance and reuniting with her. This part of the story ends with them about to enter another dimension. It sounds cheesy, because it is.
So this is where Shattered Fairytale begins and our tale starts to get darker. The Character realises that this is a mission he will have to undertake himself. He also starts to reveal his name as Paladin. It is at this point he realises that his whole life has basically been shrouded in mystery and confusion, so becomes angry at everything. Since the only person near is Eve, he takes his anger out on her and stabs her with his dagger. She dies, if you hadn’t guessed. After this, he then starts to feel remorse and sadness at what he has done, and attempts to kill himself. However, he can’t. Every time he attempts it, the dagger just goes straight through him, prompting him to finish what he has started. He comes across disciples of Anthema and defeats them, but not easily. The story ends with him wondering what his life has become and in a deep sadness.
Dream Serpent reveals more about the initial quest of Paladin. It turns out that Earth, in which Paladin was happy living, had been completely annihilated by Anthema, who is practically a demon. Although a majority died, Paladin was left alive amongst about 40 others, who he then turns against and kills. This is revealed through flashbacks. Paladin continues to have a fluctuation between good and evil, before finally deciding that being evil is the only way he can destroy Anthema. He goes into battle with Anthema, for the last time. The spirit of Eve appears, distracting him and he is struck down by Anthema. He is however, still alive. He uses the last of his energy to destroy Anthema, but kills himself in the process. The spirit of Paladin entwines with that of Eve and they rest in purgatory.
And this is where we are now. I will proceed to explain, track-by-track, the storyline of To Hold All. It may get a little confusing.
Animus, Anima: The Coma Theory – In a hospital, somewhere on Earth in the present, someone wakes up. All of this was dreamed by him. The last he can remember, he was young and youthful. He has now aged by years and is completely alone. Everything’s quiet. His hair has grown immensely and he feels very weak. It is obvious that he has been in a coma for years. It is about midnight when he wakes up, and he feels something pass through him; a spirit. This spirit communicates telepathically through him, much like Eve, and tells him to go back to sleep. He doesn’t want to, but his eyes are practically forced shut and he goes to sleep.
Jungle 55 – He now sees the Paladin in purgatory, banging against the walls and looking to escape. He doesn’t want to necessarily go to heaven, just to escape from here, in which he succeeds. It turns out that the man who was in the coma, who we shall refer to as The Artist, can contact him through his dreams. The Artist is then thrown into the dream next to Paladin, and the two meet.
The Concept of a Nightmare – Since Paladin hates his own existence, he also hates The Artist. Paladin demands Eve to be brought back, but as much as The Artist tries, he can’t do it. Paladin then tries to attack The Artist but disappears into nothing, leaving The Artist alone in his dream. He wanders until he sees a blistering light.
Sun Gods – It is heaven, surprisingly enough. But heaven is a twisted, unusual place. It is exactly like The Artists home, but with no one else in there. Outside the house has a sign, saying “This is heavan[sic]?” The Artist goes in and tries to continue his life as normal, forgetting it’s a dream. But then, everything starts to crumble into dark blue fragments.
Animus, Anima: To Hold All – The Artist wakes up. He sees the entire journey of the Paladin and is told what he must do. Eve talks to The Artist and says that, to wake up completely from his coma, he must assist Paladin in his task. The Artist then proceeds to slip back into his coma, just complete blackness.
Thus ends the “Isis” segment of the story. These next parts are “Osiris”.
Lacuna – Thus The Artist goes back into his dream sequence knowing what he must do. He lucidly confronts Paladin and, when Paladin tries to kill him, he defeats him. “It is my dream, after all”. So they both go into a dual dream sequence, in which they entwine their powers to create one. This means that the Paladin is fused into The Artist, leaving him with all his powers. Using the power of his dream, he travels to where he needs to be, a lonely, cold place with absolute nothingness. After a while of being trapped, he sees his family as apparitions. He tries to speak to them, but they distort and disappear. Eve then approaches The Artist and teleports him to another place.
Astral Projection – This is basically where The Artist completely loses himself in the dream and is taken to a door that leads to where he started; purgatory. He doesn’t know why he is here.
The Paladin’s Revenge – Whilst there, he separates into two again. Himself and the Paladin. Paladin is furious at the fact that he hasn’t completed his task and paralyses The Artist completely until he is just blankly staring at the infinite void in awe. The Paladin continues the quest on his own, before The Artist becomes lucid again. He then destroys the Paladin, which he has realised is the evil side of him.
The Halberdier and the Abbey – This is where he finally realises where he needs to go to save himself. He acknowledges that his purpose in knowledge of the void is useless and is just focused on the one mission. He is still not completely certain on what he has to do to succeed, before he realises that he needs to make things right and resurrect Eve in the deepest corner of his mind. He needs to track his deepest thoughts and make them apparent. After many failed attempts, he finally accesses his memories and after being thanked by Eve and a ghostly Paladin, who has now returned to the light, everything crumbles into dust.
Breathing – Eve assists him to wake from his coma once and for all, and he says goodbye to the story. He flies for what seems like forever, before waking. He is still in the hospital, but he now realises that this was something that needed to happen. He needed to find his purpose or he’d be forever trapped in an endless battle. His life continues. The Artist has found his masterpiece.
Animus, Anima: Aeronaut’s Remission – This is where we say goodbye to the characters of Eve and Paladin. They entwine together once and for all, and continue to live on a desolate Earth. Paladin takes on the name of... well, I think you can guess the rest now.
If you haven’t, you probably will eventually. I told you it was confusing, but it makes sense to me anyway. Although it seems religious, the religious aspect is only a metaphor and I don’t believe in anything whatsoever. The track-by-track is going to start soon, so prepare your anuses for sodomy by awesomeness.
OOC: Just wanted to get back into the habit of long RPing. I'll do some good stuff soon, hopefully. |
Awards (stroking myself and thinking I'm superior): @Chaos awards:Best Band - Mind Best Album - Shattered Fairytale by Mind Technical Ecstasy - Jason Smith (x3) Best Solo Male - Jason Smith Birdies:Best Producer - Jason Smith   |
