If you have a physical copy of the new album you'll be aware that I didn't print any lyrics in the liner notes. Here they are, give or take some last minute changes/mispronunciation.

I am everything you see.

I swear I've never seen you before.

I know your every thought.

I don't know you at all.

Do you dream at night? Of course I do.

I made that world. But I don't know you.

All solid things melt away

And day must bring a breath of wind.

A face which breaks, spots of clay

Scattered lost amongst your things.

A trail of bread threads on ahead

To a home you can't be sure is there.

Alone amongst beloved dead

Breadcrumbs dancing in the air.

All desire rests in me. You don't know what I want.

But I decide what you can have. Why do this to me?

Every rule you ever breathed

Now rests quietly in books of law

And god retreats to profane leaves

Unholied by their very form.

Human works stretch on beyond

All the wonders hands have built,

With all creation stretching on

Reflecting our collective will.

All eyes will be gouged out

So the feet will not give way.

They will drag the bodies on

Towards the promised day.

I see it all. But you'll carry on.

Corruption streams from every sore.

Rivers teem with ash.

Body. God. Earth. Shit.

Cower. Wail. Gnash.

Satanic gasses spew across the plains.

Poverty. Clashes. Poison. Rain.

Sinister fucking shit.

Existential threat.

Sinister fucking shit.

Existential threat.

All the water is ruined.

All the food is gone.

The house is empty.

I'm coughing blood.

Sickness is everything.

No one is left.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Death.

Everything is screaming.

Everything is fucked.

Vomit clouds my vision.

Nothing is enough.

I am not a person.

I am not a thing.

I am not a thought.

I am screaming.

Could you ever know yourself

With violence holding you in place?

Can you really be your own

With violence holding you in place?

A million possibilities

Barely even seen.

What do you call yourself

With violence holding you in place?

Violence holds you in place.

A million possibilities

Barely even seen.

A million personalities

Barely even seen.

A million new humanities

Barely even seen.

A million further histories

Barely even seen.

God and antigod

Have synthesised a whole.

They have cast you off

And imprisoned you in flesh.

You can not grasp their ethics.

There is no law.

The cosmic dialectic

Is unholy (eternal) war.

All souls are in excess.

They will not be returned.

You will see no other shore.

You are already reborn.

You can not grasp their ethics.

There is no law.

The cosmic dialectic

Is unholy (eternal) war.

Writhe in squalor

While I carry your burden.

I will watch you starve.

I will lead you to god.

Relish your struggling.

Life was never to be enjoyed.

I will leave you to suffer.

I will make you like Christ.

God has granted you poverty.

His most noble gift.

I will gather up our sins.

I will please god with your pain.

Let us carve a hole in space

And pass through and out.

And observe from our new home

The goings on within.

Within the old space

Is a sickening order.

A sacrifical pyramid

Built of worthless falsehood.

Denizen of the cosmos,

Lay claim to your realm.

Be master of your labour

And master of your time.

Recognise no order.

Be cowed by no violence.

Reject all false freedoms.

Criticise all gods.

We will outlive all law.

We will outlive all nations.

We will outlive religion.

We will outlive work.

Stand amongst the heavens

And spit upon the earth.

And curse mankind with glee

For now you are human.

Kastchei's new album "Communist Black Metal Madness!" is now on Bandcamp. It is the inaugral release by The Dropa Collective. Downloads, streaming, and RED cassette tapes.

When I was nine my dad came home with a bag of unpopped popcorn. The brand was called "Colonel Corn" and the bag featured a cartoon piece of corn dressed as General Patton. I think about that popcorn mascot a lot, wondering if I'll ever see him again. I guess the manufacturer probably went bust by now. These things happen.

Some day there'll be a new system. Instead of rewarding ruthless animosity between brands, we'll reward creativity. The brands that live on will be the ones who have the most relatable mascots. We don't care what's in the bag, we just want to know that the tiger or the strawberry or the spaceship on the box would be our friend if we met them in meatspace.

Colonel Corn will lead us once more.

With God dead, humanity has found itself puzzled by the infinite possibilities offered to it, and has mistakenly become caught in a problem-net. Earth has grown cryptic beyond all prediction. "Kastchei" is a meeting of vexation-priests who will trouble their guests with bothersong. A troubling experience can be yours.

I'm currently working on new material for a release some time in the first half of this year. This will be an album in the sense that it will have more than seven tracks and will break the fifteen minute mark (I'm a punk, not a metalhead). This music is heavily informed by the work of Sepultura, Von, Negative Approach, Vlad Tepes, Bone Awl, Bolt Thrower, Pharmakon, Throbbing Gristle, 13th Floor Elevators, and, as always, Dark Throne. The lyrics are informed by writers and artists such as Tristan Tzara, Max Stirner, and David Lynch, as well as the vomit-soaked political events of the past year. The working title is "Screeching Communist Black Metal Madness". As with the Grimmness split last year, there will be a physical artefact available in order to needlessly drain our planet of resources and thus kindly hasten its demise.

Best wishes
J.