Cast (1): A Britpop band formed in Liverpool, England in 1993.
Cast (2):… Read Full Bio ↴Cast (1): A Britpop band formed in Liverpool, England in 1993.
Cast (2): Progressive rock band from Mexico, active since the late '70s.
Cast (3): Norwegian rapper from the late '90s.
Cast (4): Russian IDM / Glitch project.
Cast (5): A Romanian hip-hop group.

(1): Cast was formed in 1993 by John Power, the former bassist of The La's. They released four albums between 1995 and 2001. Cast were at the height of their popularity during the mid-90's Britpop movements. Whilst popular, they were seen as one of the "lesser" bands of the moment, often overshadowed by the likes of more popular bands such as Blur, Oasis and Pulp. It has been suggested that the name "Cast" was taken from the final line of the final song on The La's eponymous (and only) album. The song "Looking Glass" ends with the line ""The stone is cast, the glass is smashed".

After the commercial failure of their final studio album Beetroot in 2001, Cast split in 2002. John Power would subsequently release a solo album. In 2005 it was announced The La's were reforming with John Power included, this would seem to preclude any comeback for Cast for the foreseeable future.

A 2004 greatest hits album - The Collection - also failed to chart. It was criticised as it failed to feature the hit singles "Alright" and "Walkaway" from their most popular release All Change and was comprised largely of album tracks.

Since 2002 Peter Wilkinson has recorded and toured with a number of artists including Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's reformed band, Echo & The Bunnymen. Wilkinson left Echo and the Bunnymen in mid 2005 and has now rejoined the Liverpool band Shack who are currently signed to Sour Mash , Noel Gallagher's record label. Shack are due to release their new album On the Corner of Miles and Gil in March 2006.

(2): CAST was founded in 1978 in Mexico. Like so many other progressive rock groups they have evolved through the years and the music and influences have been changing between each album. Generally you can say that they are playing melodic progressive rock with many long instrumental passages combined with influences from baroque, bossanova, classical music, Heavy Metal, Jazz and Tango. The lyrics are mostly based on fantasy themes.

They have a very keyboard oriented British Neo-progressive sound and although they are from Mexico there are no distracting accents. You can hear influences from many different progressive rock bands such as CAMEL, EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, DREAM THEATER, mid-period GENESIS (their main influence), JETHRO TULL, LED ZEPPELIN, MARILLION, PENDRAGON, PINK FLOYD, RUSH, SAVATAGE, UK and YES. All of the CD's are passing 60 minutes, with an average track length about 8 minutes long.

CAST is definitely one of the best neo-progressive bands together with MARILLION and PENDRAGON. It's very strange that they haven't gained more recognition in the neo-progressive genre. CAST is also said to be a very good live act.

3) Cast debuted as 50% of Norwegian rap group Equicez with the now-classic 2003 album "State of Emergency". He has always been one of the most controversial rappers in Norway, due to his former drug addiction and his expressed support to convicted criminal David Toska.

4) Denis Kaznacheev was born in 1983 in Tashtagol, in Siberia. Music was his greatest hobby since early childhood. His interest in hip-hop eventually evolved into an interest in electronic music; he was only 18 when he started his own IDM project, Cast. At about the same time he joins the Moscow minimal techno community and starts experimenting in the genre. The performance was a striking success which exceeded all expectations, and presently the Guttersnipe project can be heard at any of the chief Moscow dance floors, as well as in other Russian cities. The joint project of Denis Kaznacheev and Chizh, a well-known Moscow DJ, was published by Sender records, Germany, and received most favorable reviews from the critics.

Promised Land
Cast Lyrics

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From the banks of the north sea
And down across this land
We stand on top of shoulders, boys
Of blue forgotten clans
Our duty's to the ones before
Who lived and died by sword
In honour of Culloden, boys
Make our voices heard

Make it known to all of them
Which side of the line you stand
That Scotland's for the Billy Boys
The orange promised land
Hey!

Make it known to all of them
Which side of the line you stand
That Scotland's for the Billy Boys
The orange promised land

From the banks of the north sea
And down across this land
We stand on top of shoulders, boys
Of blue forgotten clans
Our duty's to the ones before
Who lived and died by sword
In honour of Culloden, boys
Make our voices heard

Make it known to all of them
Which side of the line you stand
That Scotland's for the Billy Boys
The orange promised land
That Scotland's for the Billy Boys
The orange
Promised

Land
Hey!

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Cast's song Promised Land discuss the consequences of not changing our ways as a society. The singer questions whether it's worth it to ignore warnings and not make changes if it means losing the world we promised to ourselves. The song uses the metaphorical story of a man who supposedly has figured out how to keep the world turning to illustrate the importance of changing our ways. The line "Tell me what did he say to change your day and keep the fear at bay" is a direct reference to this man, as the singer is curious about what he said to cause such reverence.

The lyrics continue to discuss the idea that the world must pay for its actions and that no action goes unnoticed. The line "Every penny that you spend, you're gonna pay back in the end" illustrates this idea. The song also highlights the fact that we won’t be able to save the promised land unless we change our ways. It emphasizes that people cannot continue to live unsustainable lifestyles and ignore warnings, or else the world will burn and turn to sand. The final lines of the song suggest that we should recognize our mistakes and rebuild by taking back what is ours and freeing our soul.

Overall, "Promised Land" is a song that teaches about the importance of listening to warnings and changing our ways before it's too late. The man in the song serves as a prophet, warning the people about the end of the world if they don't change. The song is cautionary, yet hopeful, with the final lines suggesting that we have the power to make things right.

Line by Line Meaning

You say you caught a glimpse
Someone claims to have seen a glimpse of something.

of a man with reverence
The glimpse was of a man who was highly respected.

And if you could ever meet
Assuming one could meet this highly respected man,

would you please report to me
the person wants to know what the person met with the highly esteemed man talked about.

Tell me what did he say
The person is asking for a retelling of the conversation.

to change your day and keep the fear at bay
Whatever the highly respected man said had a positive effect on the person who is asking for the information, making them less fearful.

If you did you better learn to pray
If the person did not catch a glimpse of the highly respected man, they should start praying.

I'm sure I heard them say, there'll come a time when all must pay
There is a time coming when everyone will need to pay for their actions.

And every penny that you spend you're gonna pay back in the end
Eventually, everything that you have done will catch up to you.

Tell me, was it worth the cost if all is lost and the world is robbed
The person is questioning whether whatever they did was worth everything else being lost and the world being destroyed.

The only sound is the echo of your sob
If everything else is lost, the only thing that will remain is the sound of the person's crying.

And so the fire burned and in the final days the world refused to turn
The world was destroyed, and nothing remained.

All the oceans turned to sand, ain't nothing left of our promised land
Even though there was supposed to be a promised land, there is now nothing left at all.

Got to learn to change our way if we want to live and breathe another day
We need to change our behavior if we want to survive.

But what it is they just can't believe
They cannot comprehend what needs to be done.

We're comin' in out of the dark
We are emerging from a dark time.

We're gonna reach high for the stars
We are striving for great things.

We're gonna take back what is ours
We will reclaim what is rightfully ours.

With a kiss you will betray
One might betray others even with a seemingly affectionate gesture.

and all you give you take away
Everything that is given can be taken back.

And in our finest hour we recognised the taste is sour
During our best moments, we might realize the outcome is bitter.

What is it you just can't believe, we're comin' in out of the cold
What is it that people can't believing as we are emerging from a trying time?

We're gonna buy before we get sold
We will invest in ourselves before others have a chance to take advantage of us.

we're gonna make new what is old
We will renovate the old to make it new again.

and free our soul
We will liberate ourselves from negative influences.