Slaughterhouse

June 10, 2014

the recording notes

Edgars Rakovskis - vocals, guitars
Andrejs Upmacis - drums
Jānis Narbuts - bass
Kārlis Šteinmanis - guitars

Produced by Relicseed with Bryan Carlstrom
Recorded by Bryan Carlstrom
Assistant Engineering by John Nuss
Mixed by Dirk Kloiber at Hybrid Sound Visions
Recorded May 2012 at Tranzformer Studios in Burbank, CA
Mastered by Maor Appelbaum at Maor Appelbaum Mastering Los Angeles, CA

Album design/Cover art by Arthur Berzinsh
Photo by Arthur Berzinsh

© 2014 Relicseed
℗ 2014 Micrec Publishing

tracklist and song information

Serial Leader

Inspiration

The song theme is inspired by Norwegian terrorist and right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik who killed eight people by detonating a van bomb amid Regjeringskvartalet in Oslo, then killed 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League (AUF) summer camp in a mass shooting on the island of Utøya in Norway, 2011. Verse 1A especially reflects on the murderer's crippled mindset which comes from his ruined childhood. Due to heavy moral and physical abuse from his mother he believed that the only "cure" to the world is pain (killing).

Lyrics

VERSE 1A

Here we go!
In front of the justice
I`ve never felt so gorgeous and brave
Without a selection one by one
I sent them right into the grave

The more I get to see, the more I believe
The world really needs a cure
The more you`ll try to cut the steps
The heavier becomes the sword
In a father`s hand

VERSE 1B

I will strip you to the bone
Would prefer to eat you alone
I will strip you to the bone
Would prefer to eat you alone

CHORUS

I was born to lead the branch of death
Blood will feed your every single breath
Human race – it needs a stack of pain
Leader is the master

VERSE 2A

Different Earth: do you see!?
Lightning plants punishment seed
Frightened eyes – better keep `em shut
Dreaming of new lives to cut

VERSE 2B

Disbelievers – the time is running out
The bullet`s on its way to the brain
Judgment day – it`s here for sorting out
It makes your single muscle to strain

You can always try to run, even try to hide
The spirit of a beast makes me laugh
I will spit into your wide opened eyes
Lives are just toys in my hands

CHORUS (x2)

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Looney Tunes

Inspiration

The song reflects the crippled upbringing, educations system and the overall boxed thinking. Things have to be as they have to be - nothing more, nothing less. And any time "the new world order" comes in place, everyone is obliged to follow the rules. This all brings to the real life cartoon where actually nothing is real.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Colorful cartoon heroes appear on the mind
But no looney tunes are on air
Powerful landlords are assumed to be found
But no kingdom`s around

Sacred secret propaganda is filled in the brain
As the future of the mankind
Poorness has led into porn that shows
How to become intellectually blind

VERSE 2

The easiest state of the manipulation
Sterilized chaos incomplete
Broadcast of a mass convergence was made
To create the social color-blindness base

Hypnotic seem the symbols being introduced by
The prime upper human race
Certain roles, dependent rules, loony stamps
Will be smashed right into your face

CHORUS

Another Earth is being invented to complete
The sickness of the so called artificial intelligence
Soldiers are picked from the kinder garden
And made to creep upon the nuclear fence

Minds are being treated in order to awake
The cripples who’ve been given a power overdose
Some of the addicted could still be saved
But they already have nothing to lose

VERSE 3

Now is the time when it seems we should get at least
One further notice of faith
How could that beauty so suddenly transform into a beast
Who ruined all we did create

We could remain as friends even though
There are no smiling faces at all
Artificial overpower, multicultural war for peace
Anyway – these values shall fall

CHORUS

Domestic Devil

Inspiration

The inspiration comes from ridiculously greedy, mercantile politicians who never have enough. Money is everything for them and they will sell their closest ones for that. However, the coffin does not have pockets.

This is the only song from the band's debut album "60 Minūtes Sapņa" what made it to the "Slaughterhouse" record. The original song in Latvian - Slaucējs Smalkjūtīgais.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Dollars, violence, healthy stomach
Super-power image melt
Bag of bones, roaming snout
Sympathy is never felt

VERSE 2

Too weak the lambs are sawing air
Shellfish courage, helplessness
Determination swinging rare
Creature yelling endlessness
Domestic devil feeds the soul
Frustrating brainwork, tickling death
What makes them feel the path to goal
Illustrating sinking breath

CHORUS

Disguise – it won`t relieve
You`re dead if you do not believe
The fight is “for” but not “against”
You`ll never live the time you waste

VERSE 3

You don`t get satisfaction until
The whole world lies under your will
Your money and your wealth – that`s the pill
What creates the sense you`ve got the rights to kill

CHORUS

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Queen

Inspiration

Song tells about the self-made "high-born" character - the one who thinks he is the queen, the king and looks down to anyone else. However, deep inside the character is lonely, sad and desperate. Therefore the arrogant, selfish and self-centred attitude makes this loneliness more darker place despite the fact the character keeps thinking the opposite.

Lyrics

VERSE 1A

Facing the solitude – the kingdom is leading down
Cheater of the master`s soul must be identified
Promises were made to keep but showing off broke the crown
Members of the court start yelling loud – no compromise

VERSE 1B

Ready to smash with a streamer of fake
Humanity failed as a trait – for God`s sake!
Trying to turn emptiness into gold
Too shy to be honest – the soul has been sold

VERSE 2

Roots of the sanity – oh, poor heritage
Boots of arrogance rip open along the seams
Armor made of fear, idyllic complex rout
Crawl as fast as you can – we`re coming back

CHORUS (x2)

Gratitude born as a pray, made as a scale
Betrayal valued as strength – forecast of fail
Have burned down a church makes the feeling belief has been killed
The opacity taken for queen brought by the insane

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Slaughterhouse

Inspiration

The song is a story about a little boy who died on the hospital several days because the doctors could not manage to examine the boy on time. Despite the huge scandal on local (Latvian) media, no one was mentioned as the responsible one and parents were left devastated and destroyed ("Agony is what they get as a prize for being desperate in front of the life").

Lyrics

VERSE 1

The body`s resting collapsed
As a piece of a scrap
They got a notice of faith
In a subsequent way

“Dear parents! Please, calm down!
There`s no reason to object
We did it with care, so
It`s all to be clear”

CHORUS

Agony is what they get as a prize
For being desperate in front of the life
Infinity is what is used to build the size
Of a feeling that there`s no more place to hide
Freaks, you know – they will be sorted out

VERSE 2

Pointing to each other
Making nonsense of anything asked
You forgot to drink
The blood of a child who just passed

What is the benefit that you receive
From being executioner?
What if you just turn from a hunter
To the kill of a shooter?

VERSE 2B

Priceless is one`s life
Upon the Hippocratic oath
Too expensive is to save a child
You better stop to see
How he Dies

Where the hell has disappeared
The promise that it was not a disease?
You will respond in front of thyself
On Your Knees

CHORUS (x2)

CHORUS 2

Sickness stands for the local merchant cost, yes
Priceless seems the martyr pain but
Hopeless thoughts appear waiting for your turn
You should not miss the train
Freaks, you know – they will be sorted out

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Brothers' Tears

Inspiration

The song is dedicated to Tibet and those Monks who sacrificed their lives by self-immolation to protest China's policy in their homeland. The piece was performed by Relicseed to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama before his lecture "Culture of Compassion" in Riga, Latvia in 2013.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Hide and seek around the world
Too small, too weak to find the word
We gather here to pray for peace
Bodies burn to plant the seed

VERSE 2

The surface melts aside the mind
Flames are kissing empty thoughts
No more shelter do we find
Brothers` tears roll down for roots

VERSE 3

Fashion spells the potent greed
Abandoned human feelings feed
The suffocation what is agreed
To be the normal way to proceed

CHORUS (x2)

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Mary Beth

Inspiration

The song is a story about Marybeth Hazzard - a woman whom the author calls his another mother. Lyrics describe the environment at Mary's home but mainly her character, soul, and the ability to give unconditional love to people.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Loads of human feelings were known as pattern
Overloading brain as the control
Versus prior screening path I`ll choose the different way
Every single moment since now

VERSE 2

Morning brought this different feeling inside
Of the stereotypical shell
Rough looked the face under shadows but in the
End I figured out how to spell

Barely can I remember seeing when
Even a dog has a smile on its face
Evolution has changed down to the core
Right after that it feels in this place

CHORUS

Mother – she prays
For you today ever since
Giving is an instinct you feel
Love is for free – you don`t need to steal
Wherever you go
Whatever you do

VERSE 3

Morning brought this different feeling inside
Of the stereotypical shell
Rough looked the face under shadows but in the
End I figured out how to spell

Barely can I remember seeing when
Even a dog has a smile on its face
Evolution has changed down to the core
Right after that it feels in this place

CHORUS (x2)

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Pointless Gravity

Inspiration

The main subject is the fake atmosphere - fake smiles, fake people, fake lives. The outcome of this artificial environment is the "pointless gravity" - the empty state of an empty mind and soul.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Poison is the name of a pill I`ve
Always taken for the only living proof
Never-ending tending to the pain
Becoming as a spine of existence truth
Always artificial smile that
Covers the ugliest anger`s face
The power taken out of the fail
Is something that is out of this space

VERSE 2

Loving as a process is the best brain cataclysm
Featuring the soul as the past
Waiting is a term without a caring `bout yourself
As a body running out of fuel fast
Trusting is a Judas kiss mistaken for the pleasure
Made of passion to the greatest living art
Every single stone has heart who
Hates the feeling when it`s thrown apart

CHORUS 1

Oh, what a feeling is rising inside
Well, I don`t know how to shout it outside
Have been praying to become
As wise to make demons hide
I`m still willing to make
Moment to feel as a life

VERSE 3A

Pointless gravity spells right
The nameless decision pointing
The endless runaway
Fearless insanity seeks for
The shelter under the world
I don`t want to stay in

VERSE 3B

Pointless gravity spells right
The nameless decision pointing
The endless runaway
Fearless insanity seeks for
The shelter under the world
I don`t want to stay in

VERSE 4

Anger is the outcome of the struggle being caused
By frustrating feeling called the shame
Disastrous, ugly, helpless, wicked, bored, ashamed
The body lost a game without a name
Damage done to soul according to the scheme
That represents the thinking of a mass
It`s leading down to hell with no remorse
You`ll miss the moment when you pass

CHORUS 2

Oh, what a feeling is rising inside
Well, I don`t know how to shout it outside

CHORUS 3

Oh, what a feeling is rising inside
Well, I don`t know how to shout it outside
Have been praying to become
As wise to make demons hide
I`m still willing to make
Moment to feel as a life

Best Friend

Inspiration

The song tells about a relationship based on a broken trust. The character struggles to realize that he needs to get used to pain, trust issues and basically rely on himself only. "Wait until the bleeding has become a friend" - a line that describes the "best friend" (bleeding).

Lyrics

VERSE 1

I hear the voices breathing opportunity
„One more” is „the last” supposed to be reality
Considered to be so obvious
The devil has never been so generous

CHORUS

Wait until bleeding has become a friend
Bleed until the spine of trust has been bent

VERSE 2

Always thought of you as a related one
Answers appear as interrogative
No illusions upon the life as meant to be
So separate hope designed for all we see

CHORUS (x4)

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Surgeon

Inspiration

The song tells a story about the self-centered, excuse-friendly person who is afraid of discovering himself, afraid of success and is always searching for the reason to justify his lack of willpower to follow his dreams.

Lyrics

VERSE 1

Speculating on the present you continue
Spitting in the face of the luck
Looking aside, moving backwards, thinking downwards
You still hope to get on the track

Pointing with a finger towards those who disobey
The religion what creates surviving cell
You barely notice any signs in your way
The heaven has transformed into hell

VERSE 2

The future of the past is the basis of faith  
That indicates a common thinking way
Selfishness has become a trait of character
Served on a confidence tray

Justice used to be a scuttlebutt as it seems
In the most convenient way
Independence you would like to have as a friend
Ha ha ha, it still depends…

CHORUS

Just as an obscene torture feels a single miracle
Everybody else seems like an enormous obstacle
No more further steps to get more and more underneath
Even if you tried as hard as did so far

VERSE 3

Humiliation is considered as a normal criticism
But how much of that would you take?
The content of the sample simply doesn't count
`Cause in the end remains nothing but fake

Pointing with a finger towards those who disobey
The religion that creates surviving cell
You barely notice any signs in your way
The heaven has transformed into hell

CHORUS (x2)

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