New York metal alchemists, A STORM OF LIGHT, will unleash their long-antici… Read Full Bio ↴New York metal alchemists, A STORM OF LIGHT, will unleash their long-anticipated new studio offering this Fall! Entitled Nations To Flames, the 11-track follow up to the band’s critically-lauded 2011 opus, As The Valley Of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade, was recorded with Travis Kammeyer (OCOAI, Generation Of Vipers) at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee, mixed with Matt Bayles (Isis, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Botch, Mastodon) at Red Room Recording in Seattle, Washington and mastered by Brad Boatright (Sleep, From Ashes Rise, Nails) at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, Nations to Flames features Soundgraden’s Kim Thayil and Indian/Nachtmystium’s Will Lindsay on select tracks.

Centered around the apex of human failure, Nations To Flames bears witness to the fall of all governments, all nations, and all religions. The record is both musically and thematically captivating and marks the STORMcollective’s darkest, most immediately punishing creation to date.

The album has been christened “the soundtrack to our damnation,” in a near perfect review by About.com, “On Nations to Flames, A Storm Of Light have an intensity that burns with the fire of creativity and artfulness while still relaying the message of how seriously doomed mankind is. It may not sound like Cathedral or Pentagram, but it’s still all about the doom. A band that refuses to rehash the same formula has quite possibly brought us one of the year’s best releases.”

ALPHA
A Storm of Light Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We come spinning out of nothingness
scattering stars

All CREATION bears the MOLECULAR MEMORY of a TERRIBLE
EXPLOSION OF ELECTRICITY, ENERGY, MATTER AND MOTION.
A VIOLENT ERUPTION OF WHITE LIGHT WHITE HEAT.

CHAOS IS THE LAW OF NATURE.

Do you really believe that before us,
nothing existed here?
No one?
That we are totally alone here?
That we are unique, dreadfully unique?

You think more of what has been than of what will be
But no one has lived in the past,
And no one will live in the future

The present is the form of all life
The present is terrifying
Because it is irreversible
Because it has a will of iron
The past represents its future,
It advances in a straight line,
Yet it ends by coming full circle

Time the endless circle

One long slow deep breath that goes on forever
One long slow deep breath that stinks of sulfer

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of A Storm of Light's song, "Alpha," set the stage for a contemplation on the nature of existence and the universe. "We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars" suggests that everything we know came from nothing, and that the universe was created in a vast and explosive process. The following lines state that all of creation, including us, remembers this explosion on a molecular level - it's as if the very building blocks that make us up contain echoes of the Big Bang. The lines "Chaos is the law of nature" and "Do you really believe that before us, nothing existed here?" continue this theme of contemplating the mysteries of the universe and our place in it.

The later verses of the song delve more into the significance of time and the present moment. The lyric "The past represents its future, it advances in a straight line, yet it ends by coming full circle" acknowledges the paradox of time - that it seems to move forward in a linear way, yet everything that's happened before also makes up the present moment. The lines "Time the endless circle, one long slow deep breath that goes on forever" and "one long slow deep breath that stinks of sulfur" reinforce the idea that the universe is cyclical and infinite, and that we are just a small part of its grand symphony.

Overall, "Alpha" is a song that invites philosophical contemplation and reflection on our place in the grand scheme of things. It suggests that we are both insignificant and deeply connected to the universe in ways that we may never fully understand.

Line by Line Meaning

We come spinning out of nothingness scattering stars
THE BIG BANG THEORY STATES THAT THE START OF THE UNIVERSE WAS AN EXPANSION FROM NOTHING AND THE COSMIC DUST (STARS) FORMED OUT OF THAT EXPANSION

All CREATION bears the MOLECULAR MEMORY of a TERRIBLE EXPLOSION OF ELECTRICITY, ENERGY, MATTER AND MOTION. A VIOLENT ERUPTION OF WHITE LIGHT WHITE HEAT. CHAOS IS THE LAW OF NATURE.
EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE CAME INTO BEING BECAUSE OF AN EXPLOSION OF ENERGY THAT CREATED CHAOS.

Do you really believe that before us, nothing existed here? No one? That we are totally alone here? That we are unique, dreadfully unique?
THE LYRICS ARE QUESTIONING THE BELIEF THAT HUMANS ARE THE ONLY BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE AND THE ONLY LIVING THINGS IN THE COSMOS.

You think more of what has been than of what will be But no one has lived in the past, And no one will live in the future
PEOPLE TEND TO DWELL ON THE PAST AND WORRY ABOUT THE FUTURE, BUT NO ONE HAS ACTUALLY LIVED IN EITHER.

The present is the form of all life The present is terrifying Because it is irreversible Because it has a will of iron The past represents its future, It advances in a straight line, Yet it ends by coming full circle
THE ONLY MOMENT THAT WE TRULY LIVE IN IS THE PRESENT AND IT IS SCARY BECAUSE IT CANNOT BE REVERSED. THE FUTURE IS DETERMINED BY THE PRESENT AND THE PAST AND BOTH SHAPE THE FUTURE.

Time the endless circle One long slow deep breath that goes on forever One long slow deep breath that stinks of sulfur
TIME KEEPS GOING AND GOING, ETERNALLY CIRCULATING THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.

Contributed by Miles Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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TRACKS