What 'A Votive Offering' is about.
Those that may have read the previous post about lyrics know i'm a bit of fan of explaining myself, i believe that the message comes attached and because the lyrics aren't easily deciphered, then maybe an explanation is at hand.
'A Votive Offering' has taken me around a year of weird turmoil and manifested from one thing to another until it became what it is now. Previous posts i left hinted at the idea of a character piece and various religious/ spiritual aspects and i've kept true to that but instead of originally moving around different people this is the story of one person.
The original idea we had was called 'Reign Of The Mortals' and this does tie in with that and it's something i hope i can revisit later on. This is also the first time i've ever really done anything story wise, i'm usually quite literal with what i say and the message is defined.
In terms of what i was trying to convey, this is very much based on mortality, people that know me personally know that during the time this was written was the worst of my life, and it has heavily influenced my writing. There is alot of spiritual undertones, and a lot of misanthropy too.
In terms of the story, it starts off based on two theories/phenomena. The first is the idea of a 'Starquake' which without a huge essay of explaining is a movement of the crust of a neutron star which causes huge gamma ray flares. One occurred in 2004, it released more energy in one tenth of a second than the sun has released in 100,000 years. You read that correctly. It was 50,000 light years away and managed to change our ionosphere on earth. If it was 10 light years away it would cause planetary extinction.
The second is the phenomena surrounding 'Dimethyltryptamine' or DMT, which is a compound found in most animals, plants and in humans. This compound resides in the Pineal Gland of the Human Brain and is believed to be released upon Birth and near death experiences, it sends people into a euphoric state etc etc. I'm not getting into people taking it recreation-ally, or the ethics, this is simply a story.
So the basics are, a starquake happens that is close enough to the Earth to cause extinction, and everyone is given a month to live. A woman's frail heart cannot take the news and she dies, leaving her son to see out his last month alone. He looks out and sees people looting and destroying everything, he sees the greed and the filth among each other and disconnects from humanity.
He concludes that instead of waiting for this starquake to kill him, that he must act now and try to find his way back to his deceased mother, instead of being taken and living in pitch black for eternity. He works out that he can find his way to his own form of heaven through DMT, as it will be released as he is close to death, and since time is just how you perceive it, he can live forever in the moments of his death.
He hangs himself and begins his journey through the rungs of hell, purgatory and through seas of souls. He passes through the rings of heaven and finally heads to his Beatific Vision. He concludes and accepts his mortality, and his journey has lead him to something completely different than what he searched for. He knows he may not have left a legacy, but the world was meant to break his heart, as it is for each and every one of us.
So yeah thats the general ins and outs of it, i haven't really put in anything about what happens regarding the rest of the time leading to the mass extinction because i want to approach this in later songs, and it will obviously influenced by the way things have gone in my own life.
I have actually written a rather lengthy short story to accompany this, and was hoping to make a graphic novel, but my ambitions are far ahead of the budget and i'm not sure anyone reads this stuff?
But anyway thanks for your support in making this EP
This whole thing is dedicated to my late mother Sandra Ricketts , she was literally the beacon to my existence and i miss her everyday.
origamiaround
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
