(Earache) Wormwood Chronicles had the opportunity to speak with Biomechanical mastermind, John K about the concepts that intertwine all of the band's records together and the real life concepts that inspired the frenzy of albums like Cannibalised:"The whole thing started in 1999 when I decided I wanted to write a metal album. Before that, I concentrated a lot in studying composition, instrumentation and orchestration so that I would have the right knowledge to get involved in film music.
My love for film music led me to write an album that followed a story rather than to write a few songs and then use the most appropriate tracks for the album. The story grew though and I realized that it would be better to get it done on three albums. The titles of the albums were there pretty much from the beginning. Also their content (story wise) and a general idea of the musical style too. Also the concept behind the story that runs through the albums doesnΉt necessarily run from A to B but is used as a vehicle to describe issues that I wanted to talk about through the BIOMECHANICAL music.
The concept of EIGHT MOONS is about fear and our ability (or lack of ability) to fight against it.It goes through human emotions and describes a life of a down and out guy who is waiting for a painless death to be freed from his frail body. On the verge of death he finds hope in the darkest place of his mind. The inspiration for this came from a real situation. I read about a Brit who was captured in the Middle East and was tortured relentlessly. He said that the only way he could survive the torment was by retreating within himself. It was the only way he could maintain his sanity.I also wanted to find a metaphor for the everyday horror we call "life". It's about the fight of your darkest fears (i.e. drug addiction, abuse) and if you think about it, we all live under different circumstances that define our universe. A problem to me could be how to sort out my bills on time,while someone on the other side of the globe is dying from starvation or torture. The different extremes create very different perceptions of life and even almost creates two different worlds.
The songs go through the state of mind of the character with "The Awakening" which brings him to his reality. The album progresses to the point where in the end he re-awakens to our reality and the cycle goes on and on until he breaks himself free from his torments.
On the second album THE EMPIRES OF THE WORLDS, he becomes what he was fighting against.He falls into the trap of the ancient command that has been running through our veins for ages. It dictates the entire Human race and drives it to commit horrific atrocities in the name of God, Money, Country. Constructed reality for a justification of a meaningless purpose. He re-awakens as the album gets closer to Absolution and realizes the truth with the tracks, "DNA Metastasis", "Survival", and "Existenz".The track "Absolution" is about his struggle for spiritual ascension through realization, and "Disintegration" is the end of all things as he becomes pure energy in order to obliterate evil.
As I said earlier, it's all a metaphor through a futuristic angle. This album explores the fact that we as humans are driven to conquer anything that has a different genetic code than ours.The ancient command that resides in our genetic blueprint commands us to expand our existence like a virus. Blinded by everyday life we refuse to accept that our so called "reality" is a mixture of transmissions and non existent problems thrown at us so that we canΉt see the horrific consequences of our will to dominate.We mask the horrors of reality with what we call 'modern life' .This concept was written to reflect these issues on a personal level so that the story of the album is not some kind of a fictional situation -even though it is a futuristic story- but it becomes one with the listener as these issues derive from real life.
The last album CANNIBALISED talks about the human spiritual death. About the fact that the spirit is in constant decline purely because we donΉt care about anything other than our own skin. And those who do are lured into the internet where thoughts have become easily lost. Just log out and the problem isn't there anymore. In the "real" world we are bombarded by images of new things to consume and in the meantime society becomes more and more violent slowly returning to the roots of its primal instincts. Back to the animal state. Emotionless.
The story is told from somebody who realized there is no way out of this reality and CANNIBALISED is the acceptance of the death of his spirit. Every song is a different take of his emotions. The songs don't run like a story but describe different thoughts as he plunges into darkness."
Read all this and more in Wormwood Chronicles' interview with BIOMECHANICAL's John K at this link
