Comments to this, even if just "you need to get a life, mate!" will be appreciated!
One million years ago back in 2003, I picked up an issue of Terrorizer, I'm not proud of it, but I was bored, and I was flicking through it.
I cam across a picture of the Eagle Nebula which turned out to be the advertisement for some album by some band. I flicked further on.
Eventually I got to some page that had an interview with two very interesting looking blokes, regarding an album by the Eagle Nebula blokes that seemed to be about spirituality and the evolution of consciousness, or some intellectual bollocks like that.
As at the time I was sick of "Wargh, God is a prick!" metal, I thought it sounded pretty interesting.
I went ahead and placed an order for it.
A few days later "Worlds Beyond The Veil" arrived in the mail.
At the time I discovered Worlds Beyond The Veil, my parents were going through a violent and hateful divorce that to me just showcased how utterly superficial and petty the pair of them are, I had just quit my job after three months of deciding that I hated pluming. And I'm an upper middle class type, spoilt rotten, with a metallic and almost silver spoon in my mouth, I naturally thought the world itself had come to an end.
WBTV came and I was impressed with it. I found the pictures of the natural beauty of the cosmos (echoing a statement by Stephen Fry that nature is only capable of beauty, even when it's destroying shit, no matter WHAT it does), and I flicked through and looked at all the long "pompous" lyrics, and after a while I decided to put it on.
This moment is one of my greatest memories, just some sudden realization/understanding/awareness/whatever, of something wonderful, something which may not have neccesarily been THE truth, but is A truth, whatever.
I give Leon/Rayner the same pity/understanding I give Tom Fischer/Ihsahn, both of them are men of tremendous influence yet are overwhelmed by the amount of people who worship them.
Whatever this means.
Anyway, this is one big whole nonsensical barely constructed rant about how significant WBTV was to me.
When I bumped into Leon and Rayner at Emperor a couple of years ago, an experience which, egotistically, left me thinking I was the most important person on Earth, I remember that I discussed with him "the new album". the as of yet unleased "BTSLM", and how much I was looking forwards to it.
I remember several statements on here on how I specifically hoped they didn't surpass certain tracks, riffs, lyrics. etc.
WBTV has since become my favourite album, and Mithras my favourite band. Both of which becoming severely significant things to me, and things that I attempt to pass on to other people, and things that I scowl at when people incorrectly blabber the "Morbid Angel With Distortion" label.
When BTSLM came out I was torn between wanting them to top WBTV and yet wanted them to do an awesome album but not as awesome as WBTV.
BTSLM, for me is a solid 10/10 as far as critique goes, I cannot honestly think of a single fault with it, however-
Upon retrospect, Worlds Beyond The Veil is probably the most significant album to me, as an appreciator of metal and music in general, that I can think of. It's an album that saved a miserable self-infatuated stereotype metalhead's life, one that opened a lot of doors for him as well.
I don't know whether or not Mithras will appreciate this, but I don't consider BTSLM a greater album than WBTV. I pretty much believe that they could exist for a million years and assimilate much more extremely talented musicians and never quite top what they achieved with WBTV.
I do believe that everything they do will be an absolute mastery, but I don't want to believe that anything they do will be foreshadowed by WBTV.
WBTV is a seperate entity. A totally different monster.
I suppose it's also weird bestowing this much reverance upon people who I have met, and have been totally down to earth and fun.
Rayner was fun and nerdy, to me
Ben was mental and fun, to me
Leon was fun and clever, to me
I'm not sure where I'm going with this post, I'm bored and tired, and I love Worlds Beyond The Veil, ok?
I hope that anything Mithras do in the future is as amazing, interesting, musicially proficient, and just appealing to the basic metalhead desires that be "loud and fast" rackets. I wish Ben, Leon, and Rayner, who is regrettably leaving for different pastures, the greatest fortunes in whatever they pursue, musically or otherwise.
I hope that album 4 is an absolute fucking world endingly awesome album, I hope that in thirty years they're the band kids talk about in hushed voices as being the most significant force in metal, I hope that they fucking rule the world.
Sorry for this post that is mostly just noise.
Just wanted to state how sad it is that a BAND are more important to me than oxygen, freedom, and the ability to think are!
Merry Christmas!
***holds Rayner at gunpoint***