Spring 1996, this song was inspired by (and describes) a dream: climbing a mountain I encountered an old man with a gun. I was writing whole concept albums of material, and this was from a six-song collection that I called Tender Destruction, whose tracks each addressed different ways of dying. Cheerful, no? (The EP length was probably inspired by my love of NIN's Broken.) Not 100% sure where this song was written, but I know I composed some of that EP when visiting my friends Melissa and Kassandra in Belgium.
lyrics
Quartering:
As we lie on the voodoo of kings and their lies
Like an acid outburst, worms empty your eyes
And it’s hot as an ulcer and it’s dry as my tongue
And I’m making a promise to let her die young
Can I stop this evolving, this my Hamlet Machine?
Falling coasting bleeding moaning writhing running dying
Into my hands, into my dream
And then the withered man draws out his gun
See his revolver twitch—we weren’t anyone
Here is the house where I live, he said
Why are you coming for me?
A mountain a bridge you’re splitting your life
The hail of the traveler, me
This is the hill with no summit, boy
Only the death of a fool
Strike your end and you'll be gone
The laughter was everything cruel
As we lie on the bodies of those whom we seek
We wonder the purpose of climbing up high
The peak always growing the wind always blowing
We see with a stone, we cry
Paranoia how I miss you
The pain of serenity?
But when you're lost, exhausted
Knock the door, you’ll know it’s me
I am a queer goth who works in climate. thanks for giving my soul an outlet for all this despair. I too dream of gutting billionaires... and would gladly drown when the flood comes for them. thanks for helping me keep the abyss at bay and stay in the fight. can't thank you enough for this album. alder-knight
Darkwave synth that directly addresses our modern dystopian political environment, with proceeds going to the Voting Rights Project. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 17, 2018
On both Avalanche and the Whirlwind Remix particularly, Seeming manages the seemingly impossible feat of making it sound like there's 2 or 3 different songs going on simultaneously, in the best possible way. Such a huge spacious sound, and immaculate production and songwriting.
Also, I'm pretty sure Leonard Cohen would have heartily approved of this version of "Avalanche". <3 Conor Connolly