Amnistia – Neophyte

Amnistia is a band hailing from germany that started in 2003. In june 2007 they released their cd Neophyte on Scanner. Their style reminds us alot of bands like Skinny Puppy and Frontline Assembly without sounding like a copy. Nice pumping beats, an overall dark sound, well placed samples and depths in their vocals. Don’t expect a typical 4 on the floor act. Really a band that people, who love the above mentioned bands, should give a listen.

*g.s.w./rage*

The song is the last song, we wrote for “neophyte”. The main idea and the voice-samples are taken from the film “payback”. It’s a song about revenge and arbitrary law which is taken because the legal system doesn’t prosecute violence. The protagonist knows about his incorrect behaviour, but he continues to satisfy his thirst for revenge for a short time. In sum, this is a song about the satisfaction of caveman instincts against rational thinking. We wanted to show, that on one hand revenge has no deep sense but on the other hand for a moment your own world can depend on that. We condemn violence, but we can also understand why violence is sometimes chosen. In the depth of the content it is the philosophical question if law is fair and who should set the rules for what is right or wrong.

*red coloured emotions*

This is the first song, we ever wrote as Amnistia. We worked on it over 2 years, changed a lot of sounds but saved the main ideas over this time. If you want to see it so, r.c.e. is the forebear of the musical identity of our band. In content it is an anti-war-song and describes war through the eyes of a war-reporter. In this case, we pass on speaking about destruction, bombs and weapons and so on. We went to the observing mind of a reporter. On one hand he is a human, who holds the hand of a dying friend but on the other hand he photographs him dying, because he has to do his job. Front-reporters are modern soldiers, which transport the war to every household with their weapons, the cameras. This is critic on the media-concerns, that conditions this awful pictures demonstrative and connect them with facts and meanings that legitimate the war. The consumer has no chance to get an objective view on that, because of the small content in news and their excellent psychology.

*prosperity*

Prosperity is one of the younger songs on “neophyte”. We released it on several CD-Rs, but the version on neophyte is different instrumented and nearer on the main idea of the song. We changed the voice-samples a lot too. Al Pacino did a good job for the final version. The lyrics are about faith-originated violence, with the real motive being a political, religious, military etc. one. Fanatic people use violence to get released by faith. Sometimes they want to release other people in the name of faith. At the end it is just an action/reaction-scenario. This is an explosive topic, because since 9/11 the whole world changed and terror in the name of faith arose. If you read the lyrics of “prosperity”, you could associate that with 9/11, but this is just one aspect of the problem.

*headfake*

Headfake is the most authentic song on “neophyte”. The music was created on one day and has been changed since just in some small details. The lyrics and the sung melody followed 3 or 4 days later. It was the first song of Amnistia that came to my (Stefan) mind after a night, so I am very proud of this piece. It is still a favourite of mine. The lyrics are about a group of people that blame only the outside world for their mistakes while believing that they themselves are impeccable. The song is written from the perspective of such a person.

*tempted*

Tempted was made out of an abolished instrumental-song and a drum-line, that we created for a potential headfake-remix. The voice-samples and the deep baseline were added long after the song was first finished. The song is about an affair without chance of love. If you listen to the song cursorily you might think that the song is mainly about sex, but that would be too easy. The narrator describes his mental torment and feelings while having sex with his unanswered love.

*self-defence*

When we wrote the original version of the song, we had a good feeling that we were on the right way. The baseline was triggered very groovy, the drums were straight, but not 4-for-the-floor and the sounds fitted our personal taste perfectly. We did the clubbier remix for a compilation, where it never appeared on, and decided to put it on our longplayer, because most of the people liked it more than the original. The lyrics are about the possibility to handle experiences with writing them down and deleting them in the head. The thoughts about the experience stop repeating when they are fixed on another medium. So you can get new power to concentrate on new challenges. This shows how Amnistia sometimes works for us, because we handle things that affect us this way.

*fear [v.2]*

The main idea of this song is from 1997. I (Stefan) already made music with a friend that time. In 2005 Tino and me took new sounds, changed the lyrics a bit and added a chorus. The lyrics are about experiments with human beings. Our protagonist has to go trough delusion, anaesthesia and detox.

 *untitled [1978]*

We discarded this song first, but a few days after that the song started beating in my ears and so we put it into action. The lyrics are from Ian Curtis (Joy Division). So we do not want to speculate what he wanted to say.

*mindswitch*

This is a song about someone feeling blue after being left by a loved person. The world is full of pain and anything reminds you of the gone partner. But beside all desperation the song shows hope for a better time.

*Y.c.b.l.*

This song was just an instrumental for a long time and in the first version about 10 minutes long. Tino added vocals and we shortened it. It is a song about the fact, that love is the strongest force of human mankind. For the first moment this sounds very drippy, but we think it is as true as it is simple. You feel love not only to your partner but also to your family, friends, hometown and planet and so on. Love can lead to the accepting of weaknesses and defects. And love is not rational, not assessable. All that is this song about.

*However [Good-bye]*

The song arose when I (Stefan) listened to some songs of Joy Division and other guitar-bands. So the song got very gloomy and a bit more organic. It is about love again. But about love that has gone in this case. There are people who stay with their partner because it is cushy. If you ask them why, they can’t say it. Because this is not an easy topic, the lyrics are phrased very drastic. It is about the situation when you realize, that it won’t work in the future. Disestablishment is never an easy “job” and is always connected with courage and mental strength, because you have to leave somebody alone, you break a heart and you start a new beginning while being alone.