Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"Phoenix" - Track 3 off The Tank by The War I Survived

To download this free track (320 kbps MP3), right click & choose (save as): http://bit.ly/03_Phoenix

Rise from the ashes
After we burn
Same old reactions
We never learn
Bridges we set on fire with words that we say
Rivers we drown in when we get in over our heads

I can't say this is what I planned
Or make this easy to understand

I reach for the stars with my hand
I fell short again

The tongue can be our own worst enemy. We forge fires with slander, and heap bundles of kindling on the burning mess with rumors, and fan the flames further with lies and deceit. We can try to learn from our mistakes, but it would seem that most of us are doomed to repeat them. All of this starts, as we try to get ahead in life, but take the wrong path to get there.

When I was eighteen, I moved to Phoenix. This was the start of a new journey for me. I had dropped out of school, partied hard, watched my parents split, had seen death, and all its fearsome glory. When I came back to Iowa a year later, I rose from the ashes of my old life, and started down the new road that would lead me here.

When this song first sparked in my head, I was stuck watching a great friend of mine dig a hole in his life that I knew he would never fully be able to get out of. In fact, this was another musician, and our final show at the pinnacle of our mutual music career, was in Phoenix. It was in our hotel that weekend that I began to jot down the first lines of this song, and fiddle with the riffs, that would become the song "Phoenix".

The song is simple, yet complex. It's the process of constantly striving for more, but ending up with less, the doomed fate of the ones who never learn from their mistakes, and end up starting from scratch, over and over. The ones who say too much, when they should say little. They never intend to lose control, but for whatever their intentions are, their lives spiral down, until they are drowning in a whirlpool of mistakes, and broken promises.

You can keep reaching for the same things that drove you to this point, trying to fulfill unreal expectations, or you can start again. Get your life back, and start on your new path. Rise from the ashes.

I hope you will read this and think about where you are, and where you could be. And I'm not talking about physical locations here; I'm talking about your life. I'm talking about the death, and rebirth of your spirit. The renewal of things that once were, or could have been. Rise from ashes, after we burn the relationships in our life that got us to where we are. It might not be what you wanted, or easy, but everything happens for a reason.



Remember, each Tuesday for the next 9 weeks we'll be releasing another track, blog, & music video until October 25th. Check back each week or join our mailing list to get these tracks in your inbox. Thank you so much for your continued support!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

"Aesthetics" - Track 2 off The Tank by The War I Survived

To download this free track (320 kbps MP3), right click & choose (save as):
http://bit.ly/02_Aesthetics

If you feel like getting out
Get out
If you feel like breaking down
Break down
If you feel like you're alright tonight
Don't forget that you're on borrowed time tonight
Don't you get it why we close our eyes?
You're so aesthetic that it lulls our minds

Do you feel like it's enough enough?
Do you feel like you got it rough?
So rough
Do you feel like you're in touch?
A touch
Do you know why you're in such a rush to lush?

Don't you get it why we close our eyes
You're so aesthetic that it lulls our minds
Wake up and smile now
You don't get it
It's so poetic
I fall in love with your vacant eyes

I don't want to get stuck in this hole
I don't want to get stuck in this hole

Let's take a second and think about that last line. How many of you have said that same thing about your life, job, hometown, or relationship? If you answered yes, then let's go back to the beginning, and figure this out.

In last weeks writing, we talked about passing trials and tribulations. You need to make a decision, and stick with it. But, make haste, for we have little precious time in this world to make something happen in our lives that will inspire others. Do not get caught up in what's trending now. Close your eyes, and focus on your dreams, and do not let the hollow, meaningless things of this world put you into a shallow, translucent state, where you are held back by an uncertain fog, a haze of fear that clouds the once certain purpose you had in this life. Once you are taken captive by something shiny and beautiful by this world’s standards, you are forever malcontent, always needing more to satisfy, more, and more, until the final rest is upon you.

This is why we close our eyes, and set our sights on something greater than this world has to offer. Otherwise, we are put to sleep, strung out, and weary from the race to fill our lives with as many things as we can, that we think will bring us happiness.

We try to wake up, but we can't. We've fallen in love with the empty promises, and shiny things of this world, and we've dug our final resting place. But there is always hope, that maybe, just maybe... someday we will wake up, and rejoice, and be lifted out of our holes we've dug ourselves into. Every place is what you make of it, and you decide whether this place is a hole you are in, or whole with you in it.



Remember, each Tuesday for the next 10 weeks we'll be releasing another track, blog, & music video until October 25th. Check back each week or join our mailing list to get these tracks in your inbox. Thank you so much for your continued support!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

"We Burn" - Track 1 off The Tank by The War I Survived

To download this free track (320 kbps MP3), right click & choose (save as):
http://bit.ly/01_We_Burn

Patience lost, tempers rise
We built these walls to keep this quiet
We burn
Fears and whispers spread like fire
They get out and they run wild
We Burn
We burn

We're all burned and we're all tired
We've lost our homes and our desires
We burn
Our minds are tender, can we decide
There is hope through the fire
We burn
We burn

Take me now

This is the beginning of the album. We are tested through many trials and tribulations in our lives, and this becomes a refining fire that tests our very soul, and let's our true nature boil to the surface. This is the beginning of your journey, and sets the tone for your story, your entire being. This is your life.

The song starts at the early stage of the adult mind, when we start letting our fears guide us into a retreat, and we wall ourselves off from others in an attempt to make a safe haven. Once those barriers go up, the communication breaks down, and this is when the hypothetical argument in our head, the fears and whispers, the paranoia that runs rampant through our daily thoughts, guides us further into a bitter retreat. This leads to the next stage.

When we are caught up in our retreat from that hypothetical enemy leading you away from where you imagined yourself as a child, and your taken further down the hole, you give up. You are defeated, and taken away from everything you wanted in life. It is in this moment that you get to make a decision. Hope or despair. You can keep retreating, or you can fight your way back. There is hope, that in these trials and tribulations, you were equipped with something that you didn't even realize. A special gift, something that makes you different from everyone else in the world, and allows you to share your experience with others. You are a rare gem, formed by the fire of every experience you've had, good or bad.

The last, and most important part. This is what happens next, after you've decided to fight back, to not give up, and after you've reached all your goals. What do you do? You get to lay it all down. You get to give all that you are, and have become for your brothers and sisters around you. There is no greater love, than lying down your life for your friends. For this, I am ready, take me now.

This has been an in-depth look into the first track of "The Tank", We Burn.



Remember, each Tuesday for the next 11 weeks we'll be releasing another track, blog, & music video until October 25th. Check back each week or join our mailing list to get these tracks in your inbox. Thank you so much for your continued support!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Plan

So, here is the plan. The War I Survived will release their upcoming album in two phases, overlapping each other, and playing out like a series of events hitting the digital universe in wave after wave of unrelenting audio assault. Phase one begins now, right now! Yes, you can go listen to our first single streaming on our website http://www.thewarisurvived.com, and you can be sure we will be pushing it to radio everywhere we can in the Midwest. We will also be distributing the album to reviewers, internet bloggers, anyone with a pair of ears, and a willingness to contribute in anyway to this momentous occasion.

On to phase two. This is a more personal touch, one with great meaning to us as a band, and as musicians. We plan to share this album, our debut album "The Tank", in a manner that is well defined, and intimate with each of our friends, fans, brothers, and sisters. Beginning Tuesday, August 16th, the waves of "The Tank" will begin reverberating through our universe, and expanding each Tuesday after, until the final release date, October 25th. What does this mean exactly you ask? Expect a fully disclosed release of each track on the album, including in-depth lyrical analysis, music video, and most importantly, a free download. This will start with the first track on the album, and continue each week, one track every Tuesday for eleven weeks. Yes, this album goes to eleven! Again, all this is building towards our epic release date on October 25th, when "The Tank" will be available on the internet, and on physical CD.

In closing I would like to thank everyone who has helped us on this journey, and been patient with us as we work towards the release of this album. This has been a major labor of love, and that's why we do this, because we love it.

The War I Survived.

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