How is TEOATTC...

[thestratocaster]

How is the album The End Of All Things To Come related to Metaphysics? I understand that a recurring theme in the album is the nature of nothingness and the transcendental, which is in itself completely related to Metaphysics, but I was wondering if anyone else could give me any input as to what they think could be other relations to this particular philosophy.

An overview of Metaphysics: essentially it is the philosophy that deals with the ultimate reality - what is real and what is not. It studies what we know (or more accurately, think) to exist, how we know it exists, the correlation between mind and matter, personal identity (what makes us who we are), what is time, etc. It also deals with determinism, fatalism, free will, and compatibilism (a combination of both determinism and free will).

I'd fuckin' Dig it if anyone could share any ideas, thoughts, images, websites, etc that could help me with this.

[stallan]

Silenced deals with determinism, free will and personal identity. The lyrics question censorship and how that limits our personal reality and expression. We are therefore determined to revolt against it with our free will to ensure that we can live our lives without limits.
Trapped in the Wake of a Dream- One could argue that personal dreams (goals, not the ones when you sleep) and destiny (fatalism) go hand in hand. Chad seeks to break free from someone else's control to be free to live his life his way- more determinism, but also fatalism being transformed into free will. Also in the lyrics "Throw the chains all away, take control of your life", he motivates the listener to do the same.
Not Falling- Reflecting upon one's own being and existence. Realizing that all one needs to succeed is determinism, and that regardless of whether life is made of destiny or free will as long as one has determinism that they will get through life (see mid section's lyrics)
(Per)version of a Truth- Questioning our very existence and the world we live in. This song appears to have a negative bias (not wanting to be here), but as metaphysics involves nothingness, that seems to relate. The mentioning of daath can make this whole thing even more difficult to dissect, so I'll give you this- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%27at_(Kabbalah)
Mercy, Severity- Referencing the Tree of Life, Aleister Crowley, and Yin/Yang, there is certainly plenty to be found here. This songs seems to take on a more surreal, almost sci-fi feel. This one is tricky, but you're the one in philosophy class April, so I'll leave a lot of it to you, lol. But the main thing I get from this one is that with sacrifice, one can achieve enlightenment. Seems metaphysical to me.
World So Cold- Similar to (Per)version, Chad feels like he is trapped in a dark world (existentialism and fatalism), but looks to break away at any cost to be free (compatibilism, transcendentalism too I think)
The Patient Mental- The narrator's existence is nothingness. Begging to transcend into something more. I dunno, this one is kinda vague.
Skrying- These are some of the trippiest lyrics I've ever heard, so if you can get something out of it, then congrats, cuz I got nothing, lol. But I'm sure some sort of existential meaning can be got out of it.
Solve Et Coagula- Basically the theory that the only way to achieve world peace is by there being no more humans. Hitting the restart button on life. Metaphysics to be found I'm sure.
Shadow of a Man- Questioning reality and existence by wondering whether there is another realm out there, similar to ours. On a more personal level, a person with multiple personality disorder using a secondary personality as determination to get through life. In both cases, Chad questions which is the actual reality, and suggests that maybe there isn't a primary one and that they have to be subjective to one another in order to co-exist.
12:97:24:99- This one has got a lot. Transcendentalism, destroying fatalism with free will- therefore being compatibilism, personal identity, 11:11, etc. Some of the best lyrics I've ever read. This could work as the focus of your project. The album's wikipedia page has got a good explanation of this song.
TEOATTC- Some more compatibilism involving personal transcendentalism to overcome oppressors. Some more Solve Et Coagula in here too.
Key to Nothing- Existence is nothingness in this one. Questions reality when it is picked apart and broken down piece by piece. It also implies that all of this is inevitable ("murders in the hands of motion, as it seems to be"), so there's some fate in there.

Those are all pretty basic interpretations of the songs, but you obviously know more about this stuff than I do, so you'll be able to find stuff that I can't and explain it better. But hopefully you can use some of it. And if not, it was fun to investigate and type that shit up anyways, so whatever, lol.

[thestratocaster]

Holy fuck Stallan why don't you just write my report for me? Hahah, thanks a lot though that was really helpful. I'm discovering a lot about TEOATTC through all this research. I'm glad you know so little about Mercy, Severity and Skrying, I'll be sure to surprise you when you read what I've got. A lot of what you wrote I have learned this evening, but a lot of it was new as well, you've given me new views on all the songs and I can definitely work with all of that. I would like to elaborate on all the things you said and make the whole album more clear to you, but you are going to have to wait until I am done, haha.

Thanks a lot.

[scottydog21]

So Skrying isn't what is seems like on the surface. I've done a lot of searching of what the true story of this song is and it comes down to it's a song with a hidden and dark revelation I'm going to copy and paste the most accurate description of this song. This song has a strong meaning behind it that cannot be seen by simply examining pieces of it. Chad Grey is a great storyteller, however sporadic the lyrical content may be. Skrying, in terms of Luciferian theology, is the act of reflecting on ones self in the truest sense of the word. This song is rather scary, this is true. However, not in the occult aspect, but rather in the hidden content.

In essence, this track conveys a sense of constriction and demeaning sexual advances. The lyrics speak for themselves in terms of this idea. "Little girls severity, little boys begging mercy, sticks break on me" this is the first sign of child molestation. He is reflecting (skrying) on the inner sanctum of his adolescence and innocence and how that was stricken from him.

"My cost, the price of a broken doll" is reflecting the concept that a young lady (or possibly male) that was once beautiful, has been destroyed and broken emotionally by these acts. He later chimes in stating "Games of passion taste so sweet" It seems he is reflecting deeper on the emotional torment and falsified sense of love and acceptance that one experiences when subjected to this molestation, and follows with his anger towards this distrust "cut his throat and slaughter meat" finalizing his thoughts he has kept inside as "my secrets."

These reflections are in a pool of emotion, as he states "skrying through reflections in a pool." He sees the death of himself coming in a depressive sense, pushing him to reflect on that one safe place he had, which is signaled as "the bedroom"

Take care to read through this album, as it entails the basic structure of spirituality and emotion, as well as the ties therein.

So the song is Chad's secret confession of some sort of sexual abuse he experienced as a child. The reason why Chad made the song this way was because he either is truly ashamed of the events that occured but he had to get it off of his chest somehow, or Chad is being the Chad we all know and is messing with the listener to see if they find the secret that lies within the song. It wouldn't be hard for a story teller like Chad to trick the reader into thinking this song is about occultism or drugs or whatever you may take from the song. The fact is though that Chad wanted this song to be a mind bender for listeners.