About the Song: Waste Away

The music for "Waste Away" was written in late fall of 2008, and was one of 4 songs that we had ready when we recorded the 3-song 2009 demo (read "About the Song: Defiance" for more about that). The 4th was "Awake", which we never recorded and for some reason none of us really knew why. Instead, we recorded "Waste Away". The music was originally called "Weird Harmonies", since...well, it has weird harmonies in it. Actually, it has harmonies throughout it. The 2 guitars really don't play the same thing at all (aside from the occasional chord) until the middle part of the song, which might be considered a breakdown of sorts. This is also the rare song that actually got longer as we arranged it. The "Life of insanity, hate for humanity" part (also known as the "Rock You Like a Hurricane Section" was added on the fly while arranging when it seemed that it needed something a little extra in the end. Of course, we had taken out a section that was meant to be a Troy solo, because it really messed up the flow of the rest of the song (the section, not the solo).

Lyrically, it's about a person that I know who is more or less something of a complaining misanthrope. Well, at least that's how he comes off to me. Drives me nuts. At the same time, I sometimes have the same tendencies, so I guess in writing the lyrics it's as much an indictment of myself as anybody else. The vocal line for the chorus is similar to "Jailbreak" by AC/DC. I consider it a bit of an homage. Seems funny that the AC/DC influence comes through in what is probably the notiest song that we do, but that's kind of how it goes.

You can listen to the song here:

The lyrics are as follows:

You've been mistreated.
You got the shaft.
Everybody got it all, but you got only half.
You've swallowed a bitter pill, washed it down with pain.
Knocked out, flat down on the ground, living life in shame.

It happens to us all.
We fight and sometimes fall.
Life just isn't fair, but when you choose to lose then all you do is...

(Chorus)
...waste away another day of life. Living for your misery and adding to your strife.
Waste away. This day is dead and gone. You just choose your own defeat when you cannot move on.

Everybody's had it rough, but you've had it worse.
They couldn't handle life, living with your curse.
Rage against the hidden plans of those who hold you back.
You're suffering injustices that keep your life off-track.

It happens to us all.
We fight and sometimes fall.
Life just isn't fair, but when you choose to lose then all you do is...

(Chorus)
...waste away another day of life. Living for your misery and adding to your strife.
Waste away. This day is dead and gone. You just choose your own defeat when you cannot move on.

BLIND! You're blind in your ignorance.
DEAF! You're unwilling to hear.
MUTE! Your voice lost in dissonance.
NUMB! Paralyzed by your fear.

Life of insanity. Hate for humanity. Constant calamity. You're reaping what you've sown.

What's a "?th Seal?".

Maybe somebody has noticed a change on our Facebook page, or possibly our Reverbnation page. A few pictures get changed, the band name gets taken down, and it's replaced with some ?th Seal? junk. I could get into the nitty-gritty of it, but here's the quick rundown. If you have read our other blog entries, you can see that a whole lot more happened under the name "7th Seal" than "Act of Defiance" So we're doing sort of a "7th Seal" reunion.

The final lineup of 7th Seal (Troy Salonen, Chris Fritz, Dave Stensland, and Travis Woyen) played live only a half dozen times or so. From there, it became a struggle to get the "name change" project back up to gigging speed. 4 years after our last show together, the final 7th Seal lineup will again see the light of day. This is the lineup that recorded "Defiance", "In the Wake of Fear", and "Waste Away" on the demo that has been around for the past couple years. We've had two rehearsals so far, which have resulted in about 90 minutes of giggable music. We are playing a benefit in March for sort of a "soft opening", and are then looking at getting some full nights booked later this spring once we've added another half hour of tunes.

We're still ultimately going to change the name, and it won't be "Act of Defiance". There have been a total of 5 shows with 3 different lineups under that name. So, for the time being, I'm referring to it as "?th Seal", which will also not ultimately be the band name.

Finally, we'd like to thank our former AOD cohorts Jeff Engebretson and Jon Ryan for helping keep things rolling over the past two years.