A View From The End Of The World
2010 | Rock
“Do we shape our own truth? -- Do we lie to our youth? -- Do we place our own creed above our enemy's? -- We tell our children who to hate and who to be.”
Trivia
- Robert "Gaz" Stjärnström. Jonas "Gibli" Rörling & Andreas "Gordon" Gerdin have been the core of the group since it's inception.
- In early 2011 the band toured Europe supporting Children of Bodom on their Ugly World Tour. This tour cycle was in support of this album.
- Check out our page on their other song Legion Of Stupid.
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
"Nova Prospekt" is a location from the outstanding video game form 2004, Half-Life 2. Throughout this series of games, and perhaps especially at the beginning of Half-Life 2, there is a lot of care in presenting a totalitarian control on humankind. Dystopian is perhaps an understatement. The earth has been subjugated by an alien race known as the Combine, and so in a sense this song is very similar to "Dystopia" by Iced Earth, which we have covered previously. Nova Prospekt is a prison that the player successfully raids, and it is also a turning point in the narrative of the game. The previously invincible-seeming Combine are on the run by the end of this chapter. The song only loosely captures the game, but the spirit of this "turn of the tide" is nailed perfectly: "Time for the final blow, last stand now go, go go; The time for running now is over; You will reap what you sow, payback for what you owe; No more, we won't just hand it over." Another favorite section here is the second set of questions: "Do we shape our own truth? Do we lie to our youth? DO we place our own creed above our enemy's? We tell our children who to hate and who to be." I've brought this up before, but these type of lyrics are always perfectly adaptable to every corner of the political landscape. Everyone thinks they are the good guys, so it's worth calling that concept into question every once in a while.
Sherry Voluntary
This band is pretty awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed the song and I think it’s very fitting that it’s named for a place in a video game. Conflict, and war on a wider scale are games to the political elite. Much like that oldest of war games, chess, the powerful see you and I as pawns to use in their game of conquest. It’s up to us to resist and encourage and build resistance. Goodness knows the media isn’t gonna do it.
Nicky P
What's a video game? I would never have gotten that little nugget out of this one. Not my scene. I like this song for a few different reasons. For starters, there just simply cannot be enough prog on this list. Powerful, detailed concepts deserve powerful detailed lyrics. So pretending I didn't read Luke's blurb before writing this I'm going to say I see a song laying out exactly how we program and indoctrinate each generation into carrying on our battles. We brainwash them into believing in our arbitrary enemies and carrying our burdensome cultural baggage. The idea of following freedom has always been synonymous with shedding baggage. Be it personal or cultural. Freedom is about erring on the side of peace, baggage be damned.