The third song from The Poison Skies!

 davidn
At the very beginning when I was putting a vague plan together for the songs on the album, the note I had under this song title was “Try to write Deadlands by Gamma Ray”. It’s almost eerily appropriate to the story, describing someone evading snipers in a city, and you’ll be able to hear obvious influences from it. And the image of Marcus’s run in the novel was definitely the point where I realized I had to do something musically with this story.

Every song seems to be a first for something on this album, and this was the first one that I finished both the music and lyrics for, all the way back when I thought this was going to be a Modplug project. It was also the first that I used to experiment with moving into a full DAW with Impact Soundworks’ Shreddage plugin. I loved the results even after the first pass and just kept learning as I went!

This is a much more straightforward song than either of the others before it, with a simple ABABCB formula, but there are a couple of unusual touches in it I like, such as the stumbling part after the first chorus that doesn’t keep constant time. And at the end, the harpsichord plays the riff from Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name” in the background, another song about a character close to death.

 kjorteo
The inspiration for The Afflicted originally came from a dream I had. There was plenty of revising and editing and fleshing out ideas to turn half-baked illogical dream scenes into a complete and cohesive story, but one of the very few images to survive completely unchanged was that of Marcus' final run through the abandoned city. Even the vision of Keeper Edward afterward used to be handled differently, but the run itself was always as it is here. It was something I saw in the dream and that resonated deeply with me, something that I really wanted to do something with when I woke up. David cites that scene as something powerful enough to grab him and let him know he had to do something with this, to which I can only say... me, too!

This is one of the first songs David made for the album, and its original rendition predated his new approach of using Reaper and Shreddage and his own real-life vocals. If you've heard any of Albion's earlier albums, they used to be pure Modplug files with a flute instrument serving as the "vocals." Said flute instrument is alarmingly high, leading me to believe David imagined Michael Kiske or Ben Sotto in his band when he was putting those tracks together. The Poison Skies started as a Modplug album, too, which led me to wonder how he was going to turn those impossibly high flute notes into real vocals when that change was made. His voice couldn't actually do that, could it?

Indeed, there were some elements that had to be adjusted or rewritten accordingly. The chorus to Out in the Wilds, for example--I still really like how the melody sounded in the original, but it just was not physically possible in real life. The prechorus in this song was another part I wondered about, but for this one, it turned out that David's solution to the high notes was to defy my expectations and sing them. His voice quite literally rose to the challenge, and so this one floored me the first time I heard it.

Lyrics
[Marcus:]
Born to success, to stand apart
My life was planned out from the start
With no permission to be free
The one to keep the noble name
To carry all their hopes and dreams
A future severed
When one night became forever

Now on the boundary I stand
This is my one and only chance
To make a difference
Just by being alive
And suddenly I see it clear
This is the reason why I'm here
To take one last chance
To be out there and free

I will run
And I'm invincible
A blur that can't be found
I'm faster than sound
And I'll run
Here I'm unstoppable
Far from the hunters' eyes
I'll run, cause to stop is to die

Our pasts don't matter any more
Where we're from or who we are
It makes no difference in the wilds
He trusted me, I realize
To guide and unify the tribe
I'll justify his faith
Live up to my name

And for a moment I am free
Their future now depends on me
I'll make a difference
Just by being alive
To fall now is unthinkable
To disappear impossible
Don't need to put my faith
In life after death

I will run
And I'm invincible
A blur that can't be found
I'm faster than sound
And I'll run
Here I'm unstoppable
Far from the hunters' eyes
I'll run, cause to stop is to die

Noble my name
And noble my deed
My curse turns to blessing
Unnatural speed
Don't look behind
And I promise you'll see me again
For all of our lives

I will run
And I'm invincible
A blur that can't be found
I'm faster than sound
I will run
And I'm unstoppable
Far from the hunters' eyes
I'll run, cause to stop is to die

And I'm running
Got to run for my life
Run for the future
As I run from my death
Dangers unseen and unheard
I'll run to the end of the world
And still I'm going
Too fast for the eye
Never stop till I die