Finally, after what seems like an eternity, DRAXSEN have released their first full length album in 12 years. The band never stopped in there endeavour to record music. The band, while often felt disheartened by their situation as a band and as individuals, never gave up. Try as they might, events and situations beyond their control became the obstacles they had to navigate to achieve their dream. Basically life got in the road of a group of talented and an often over opinionated group of people.
In the late 1990’s DRAXSEN where trying hard, travelling continuously from town to town, state to state, calving out a small base of fans that still clung onto the old school metal. While everyone moved onto the new and trending hardcore and death metal styles, DRAXSEN maintain true to their path of musical genre. It was getting harder and harder to get gigs as the new style metal bands and their fans did not want to be on the same bill as DRAXSEN. Occasionally bands would go as far as to inform their fans not turn up until they were to be going on or turn their back to you for the entire set. Childish yes! Effective yes! Frustrating yes!
It was around this period that the stresses of touring, holding down full time jobs and not being able to get gigs started to weigh heavy on the band. At this point if someone had told me that the three members of the band would be struck with very similar afflictions occurring in three separate occasions, I would not have believe them.
Fast forward 12 years and a countless number of surgical procedures, the odd addition to pain killers and a couple of attempts at suicide and you end up with and outcome of an album called Chronic Pain. The album is a reflection of their journey. The lyrics are the sum of their lives and the music is sets the emotional sound-scape against the back drop of a whole host of what if’s and if only's.
You will hear the band go through the grieving process of the lives they led prior to their injuries which they will never regain, in the instrumental “Grieving”. You will also feel the anger and rage that they went through after facing incompetent doctor’s and a health system that is remarkably flawed, in the songs” The cowardly Few", "The Stain" and "Your.”
The song "Where the Darkness Screams", describes graphically what it is like to be scheduled into a psychiatric hospital. This is a song written from a very personable point of view. It’s also quite funny in weird way at the same time. When you are scheduled into a psychiatric hospital, it’s a natural response to think why I am put into this place? You don’t feel any different than any other day and the people in there with you are absolute Looney Tunes. You don’t belong here with all these crazy people. It’s not until sometime later you find out that they all think the same as you. Everyone in the psych ward thinks they are sane; it’s just everyone else in there that’s crazy. It really is a big eye opener and shock to the system.
All in all, the album is 12 years of grief and pain. It’s a voice for all chronic pain sufferers. It’s a toast to the true friends that stuck by you in the really bad times and it’s a celebration of achieving a goal, when life did everything possible to ensure you would never reach your dream. That’s the power of the dream.
A good friend said to me once, "there are only two possible outcomes when taking on a challenge or achieving one’s dream. The first is if you give up. You will definitely not achieve your dream. The second is if you don’t give up you will achieve your dream. That’s the power of the dream!"
In the late 1990’s DRAXSEN where trying hard, travelling continuously from town to town, state to state, calving out a small base of fans that still clung onto the old school metal. While everyone moved onto the new and trending hardcore and death metal styles, DRAXSEN maintain true to their path of musical genre. It was getting harder and harder to get gigs as the new style metal bands and their fans did not want to be on the same bill as DRAXSEN. Occasionally bands would go as far as to inform their fans not turn up until they were to be going on or turn their back to you for the entire set. Childish yes! Effective yes! Frustrating yes!
It was around this period that the stresses of touring, holding down full time jobs and not being able to get gigs started to weigh heavy on the band. At this point if someone had told me that the three members of the band would be struck with very similar afflictions occurring in three separate occasions, I would not have believe them.
Fast forward 12 years and a countless number of surgical procedures, the odd addition to pain killers and a couple of attempts at suicide and you end up with and outcome of an album called Chronic Pain. The album is a reflection of their journey. The lyrics are the sum of their lives and the music is sets the emotional sound-scape against the back drop of a whole host of what if’s and if only's.
You will hear the band go through the grieving process of the lives they led prior to their injuries which they will never regain, in the instrumental “Grieving”. You will also feel the anger and rage that they went through after facing incompetent doctor’s and a health system that is remarkably flawed, in the songs” The cowardly Few", "The Stain" and "Your.”
The song "Where the Darkness Screams", describes graphically what it is like to be scheduled into a psychiatric hospital. This is a song written from a very personable point of view. It’s also quite funny in weird way at the same time. When you are scheduled into a psychiatric hospital, it’s a natural response to think why I am put into this place? You don’t feel any different than any other day and the people in there with you are absolute Looney Tunes. You don’t belong here with all these crazy people. It’s not until sometime later you find out that they all think the same as you. Everyone in the psych ward thinks they are sane; it’s just everyone else in there that’s crazy. It really is a big eye opener and shock to the system.
All in all, the album is 12 years of grief and pain. It’s a voice for all chronic pain sufferers. It’s a toast to the true friends that stuck by you in the really bad times and it’s a celebration of achieving a goal, when life did everything possible to ensure you would never reach your dream. That’s the power of the dream.
A good friend said to me once, "there are only two possible outcomes when taking on a challenge or achieving one’s dream. The first is if you give up. You will definitely not achieve your dream. The second is if you don’t give up you will achieve your dream. That’s the power of the dream!"
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