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The Sacrifice

from Reptile Dysfunction by Tony Castellano

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I've always admired guys like Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings who can regularly crank out a great half-hour long prog rock epic with little or no effort. Although Genesis' "Supper's Ready" (off the 1972 'Foxtrot' album) is well-known as one of the earliest prog epics, and although I like it very much, it's really just a handful of short songs joined together. In my opinion, a REAL prog epic will set up themes and then re-visit them in various different forms throughout the piece, giving the entire work a sense of unity and continuity (such as with "Close to the Edge" by Yes). With this track, I think I finally got my foot in the door of writing these kinds of pieces. I came up with the initial theme first and then over the course of the next few evenings, wrote the remaining sections pretty much in the same order they appear in the finished version. The intro is from a 25-minute long ambient piece I made based around the hissing and spitting sound of the radiators in my steam-boiler heated house. I put one mic each on four different radiators, then recorded an entire heating cycle, after which I added four tracks of synthesizer. When mixing, I tried to create a sense of depth in that two of the four radiator tracks were dry and two had more reverb, giving the impression that they were farther away. The finished result was very relaxing. I knew I needed some kind of sound effect to open this song so I just dubbed the stereo mix of the ambient piece to the multitrack master and it seemed to work, suggesting the engine room of a ship in the midst of a long voyage.

lyrics

I watch the image from the forward view on the bridge of this great space plane looking for a sign to show we've moved but the scene always looks the same we were both young men when from our world we fled but captain and I are now growing old we are the only ones not in stasis beds on this ark of one thousand souls we left home because our sun had cooled couldn't sustain our life forms anymore so we abandoned the place that we had ruled in desperate search of greener shores we fed our observations to the database accepted the trajectory it proposed our only shot at finding a compatible place I hope by now we're getting close a shrieking alarm pulls us both to attention some intense force was pulling on the ship a neutron star had eluded our detection it's immense gravity now had us in it's grip we tried to break free but the pull was too strong pinned the engines at max emergency overdrive then when it seemed like nothing else could go wrong we finally broke free we were going to survive but the damage was done as both engines quit and we barrelled along completely out of control spied an asteroid nearby and steered towards it we could use it's gravity to help us slow our speed had decreased but we were getting too close it was clear that there was no way out of this mess we were going to crash-land on the rock below we strapped ourselves in and hoped for the best the ship survived the crash largely intact the still sleeping crew blissfully unaware my old friend captain succumbed in the impact now I'm the only one left who knows how we have fared the engines are in bad shape don't know if they will work again looks like this miserable rock is where my life will end and what do I do about the frozen crew do I revive them to live their lives in this place I'd have companions but would use up more food and their questions and accusations would be more than I could face I wish I had captain to advise me how to proceed but I can expect no assistance it's clear that it's all up to me it's been about a year now since the crash and I've found ways to survive I've been learning lots of that technical jazz seems a good way to pass the time the crew remain in their suspended state I've gotten used to being alone I go exploring in some nearby caves whenever I get the urge to roam one day I found a treasure beyond compare stumbled upon a rich mineral vein I could use them for engine repairs then the ship could sail once again the work proceeded for so many weeks then was done one glorious day one final look at the landscape so bleak then once again we were on our way it's been ten years since we left the rock and my end is drawing near I'd hoped to live to see our new home and not die alone out here I can't believe my tired eyes a star system looms ahead with a temperate world to support our kind our journey's near it's end suddenly the engines lose power as one of the generators gives out as I awaken the crew I make a split-second decision to re-route life support power from the bridge to get those engines back online this will save the crew but the new captain won't survive but I can rest in the knowledge that my race will stay alive on this new homeworld unaware of my sacrifice

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from Reptile Dysfunction, released January 1, 2015

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Tony Castellano East Hartford, Connecticut

Progressive-rock-influenced multi-instrumentalist and singer who has played with many different bands, including The Bud Collins Trio, Holding Pattern, Ludent Tremmel's Gno, The Realm, and Magnetar, on either bass or bass and keyboards. In recent years he has been playing mostly drums, for several different recording projects and also as a member of his sister's band, Anne Castellano & The Smoke. ... more

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