Graphic Verses (1997)
Graphic Verses is a concept album conceived and produced by Matt Frantz which parallels the struggle between internal and external forces of righteousness and ruin. This sound recording has been designed for repeated high volume listening using only stereophonic headphones under conditions of absolute darkness. Playback on inferior equipment or otherwise failing to comply with listening requirements will result in a significant loss of effectiveness in brain wave manipulation. Due to emotional content of lyrics, listener discretion is advised. First published in 1997.
Reviews
"Graphic Verses is an experimental project combining elements of industrial, ambient and experimental noise, fused into a bewildering maze of sound, which Frantz's spoken word narration weaves it's way in and out of. It's well recorded, produced and beautifully packaged, but is it music? Graphic Verses defies any widely accepted aesthetic that I've ever come across. It's a quality piece of work when approached on it's own terms, but definitely not for the faint of heart." -Todd Brown, independent reviewer (review published through TrueTunes)
"With a ton of vocal effects and industrial influenced lo-fi sounds, this is one weird, yet fascinating CD. Is it even music? Well, yes, but there is no noticeable melody or rhythm, so I'd put it in the "industrial noise" category. The creator, Matt Frantz, told me himself that this could be sort of a "soundtrack for a nightmare." Frantz did all the instruments, water, chains, glass and vocals himself. This album is designed to be listened to with powerful headphones, and in complete darkness... but that might be scary." -Brian McGovern -HM magazine, issue #67
"...Be warned that this is an experience not many will attempt and fewer will complete. I spent two solid nights listening to this album through headphones to get the full experience of the sound of the "singer" moving through various stages in his spiritual journey. Some sections imitate the sound of a mob, screaming and crying so that all the sounds/words blend into a chaotic blend of fear and hopelessness." -Dan Kennedy, The Cutting Edge May 1998, issue # 116
chapter 1: hate, lust, & depression: an analyzation, explanation & attack of
1:1 all i am what’s your reason to try to stifle me when my mind talks? you tell me to look up, to have hope. do you not see that i am beaten down and have nothing left but shame? all i do is hate. all i am is ugly. the sun shows my flaws, every detail. should i not speak? cut off my tongue, nothing good will come from it. rather than curse me for my suffering, count yourself blest because you don’t see through my eyes. i don’t need to explain to you. i have no master on this earth. for me this life is as good as past. i will rise again, strengthened by god, blooming with glory. a great tree comes from a small seed. 1:2 all my friends all my friends are dead. i’m a child in a viper’s den. no one to protect me. i fall down on my own. all my friends are gone. the narrow path is invisible to me. they would be screaming to make me see; instead i trample poison teeth. pieces of my puzzle have been blown by the wind. i’m missing the gifts of my friends. david had a heart after god. solomon had more wisdom than all. job’s righteousness endured the test. paul’s hope lit up the night. all they left for me are pages in their books. where are my friends now? i want to wake them, they can teach me the secrets to cleansing my soul. 1:3 splash i killed my ____ today, i picked it up and took it out. i walked to the edge and threw it down, i shattered the glass and watched the water splash. out with a bang, i wish for me someone would do the same. pick me up and take me out, walk me into the creek and throw me down. shatter my skull and watch my brains splash. why did i? it had to die. i put it out of misery, and it was sick of me, water was dirty and diseased. why should you? i have to die. put me out of misery. i’m so sick of me, my mind is dirty and diseased. 1:4 compass so sick of being sick, i will always be sick. i’m so afraid of fear. the fear of losing is turning me to failure. sick, scared and failing, i have grown tired. so tired of dying. too tired to die, to rest, to sleep at night. insomnia, always turned on. my nightmares are always on. thinking about it all, i’ve lost all thought. thought has stopped, numbness hasn’t arrived. what i feel is alone. i’ve been left alone so long i don’t know how else to be. i sit in my corner and pray; i'm ashamed. i am ashamed of the hate i have for you. i hate you for making me hate. i have so much hate it makes me sick. i’m so sick of being sick, i will always be sick. 1:5 stalemate locked up, stiff and sweating. no space to move, no place to go, no room to breathe. burning tension, anxiety works like gravity. i’m held down, locked up, stiff and sweating. shaking wildly, rigid, cracking, friction, muscles contracting. craving release, air to breathe. counting the seconds, waiting for an impossible victory. i feel a year’s time in each heart beat. i’m gasping for air. ten short breaths and one swallow. this game is over now. no one to wear the winner’s crown; still, i know i’ve lost. 1:6 reflection i’ve been standing behind my grave waiting for flowers that no one gave. i’ve been standing behind my grave looking for people that never came. were you too tired from the pain or did you have games to play? were you too afraid of the things i say? you never smiled to hear me speak. now i talk to no one, i only listen to the air. i hear the hate you have to share. i saw a boy standing at the gates. he was crying for the lives he couldn’t save. he saw me and walked away. this grave must be reflecting who i was yesterday.
chapter 2: confliction: an analyzation, explanation & attack of
2:1 arrogance time is without beginning or end. your own life is less than a spark. you claim to know about the very nature of existence. thinking in one dimension, counting on ten fingers; do you think you will meet me where the stars end? no faith in the divine, you construct the lies. your arrogance is missing no links. 2:2 pulled down the more i look around, the more i get pulled down. the more i try to run away, the more your bars get in my way. now the only things i fear at night are your sirens and flashing lights. i’m not the criminal. i play the victim. i won’t bow down for you to stick it in. what would true justice be? to judge with harshness learned from being me. you’re a hated child, a hated youth. now you’re soon to be abused, boy. 2:3 left with yourself everything will come together when you fall apart. self preservation, such a waste. you have nothing worth saving. live for what you take. you’ll take nothing to an empty grave. nothing makes me smile like you. i know more than you. i know where greed will take you. i know how it will kill you so i won’t have to. it makes me smile, puts a shine in my eye, to see something so low die. to pull out the thorn in my side. as your bones break and your body rots, you’ll be left with yourself. left with a thief, left with a liar, left with a killer, left with yourself. 2:4 on the anvil my enemies are fools. my enemies are the blacksmiths that beat me. they use hate to mold me as they hold me in the flames. pounding and pounding, sharpening that sword made of me. a fine weapon, they wait to sell me. face down on the anvil, i can tell you molten lava flows hot, cools to hard rock. my enemies are fools. they made me into this blade that i will put through them. it’s not me or my fault. just beat me back to who i was before. that child knew how to smile. 2:5 atom bomb my mind is my greatest weapon. you can’t take it away. you’re a child with a cap gun, my mind an atom bomb. i will go where i want to go. i will say what i want to. to only one god will i pray to. i’m not going to bow down to you. you can’t hold me with your bars, i’ll break through them like i broke your laws. my mind is my greatest weapon, my prized possession. i use it well. 2:6 hollow points you don’t know me. you can’t see what i have, what i am, what i have learned, what i had to become. hollow. hollow inside waits to split you, to cut right through. i rip a bigger hole. open wound, time for me to spit. to infect you with my waste, with my hate, with my eyes. see just like me. you would be better dead. i won’t kill you, that’s a mercy you’ve never shown to me. i will leave you crying, bleeding and begging with my hate and my eyes. with my hollow points in your side.
chapter 3: us: an analyzation, explanation & attack of
3:1 illegitimate start again from the end. do it right. be just like your parents. pretend a child is happy all alone. has no father to come home. just a whore giving birth, your bastard child pollutes the earth. a sick cycle. a sickening scene. it’s sickening me. now i shine with shame and my hate for you. your gift no one should receive. what i did to ask for this began with you and a little kiss. like a mouse in your trap i’m pinned with hate. come and check the trap tonight. tomorrow what you will be is a chalk outline for everyone to see. no one to hear you when you scream, who would care anyway? start to pray but it’s too late. your gods won’t hate me for the life i take. gold and lust have no power to give you now. what you did to ask for this began with him and a little kiss. 3:2 right to assume i had some extra nerve today so i put myself to the test. staring up at the window. your old window. the one we used to plan climbing out of in the middle of the night. i saw a light flashing. i wanted to talk so bad, i held my tongue. something new to me. i had too much to risk. was it you or a new you in your room? even worse, was it a new me in your room? you know me. maybe i have changed but one thing is constant. i always assume the worst. i always assumed the worst about you. 3:3 window the window seems so far away now. a million miles away but i am only one driveway away. the memories come crashing down on me every night. they come crashing down with such force. they must be falling from out of that window. not exactly the future i predicted for us. maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for me if you could just close the blinds or shut the window. i don’t want the feelings that fall out. not exactly rapunzel but i would have thought this ending just as unlikely. i’m not exactly romeo but i wish i could have had as real of an ending. i outlived us so now i have our ghost in my head. maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for me if you could just open your window. i have a favor to ask of you. let this ghost fly in your room. just for a moment. i need to stretch my wings. i need to get my second wind. this thing is breaking my back. 3:4 bitter i saw you today. i turned to follow. chased a blank. no smile, no shine. was it you or just your face on another girl or your memory stuck in my eye? your face rests on my mind like a scar. everyday, unchanging, though i know you have changed. i know i don’t know you anymore. all i know is that i’m missing my only friend. the reruns play in my head while my fingers crave your skin. your hair smells so sweet in my nightmares made of you. your absence is so bitter. 3:5 drained i’ve been thinking about sitting back and watching you kill me, with lies in one hand behind your back and smiles to deceive me. i’ve been thinking about all the hours wasted with useless hatred, about all the nights alone in my bed. with lonely eyes and guilt trips to confuse me, anything you could to keep hurting me. i wish someone told me about you, about the damage that you could do. i’ve been thinking about all the lives wasted with aimless hatred, i’ve been thinking about you. 3:6 dead thing love is dead. a burning lie on the tip of her tongue. will she swallow or spit it back out on me? poisonous venom hidden beneath her glossy lips. love is a bit of dead thing, a ghost that comes to rot out my dreams. it tempts me and tricks me and ties me in knots. i’ve tried to bury it before, it just pulls me down with it. a lie that keeps turning so fast and grinding so hard, i can think of nothing else. love is a worm that turns inside me, a constant reminder of the fruit i took from her. love is murder. it was her sling as she and her stones tried to kill me. now i am a dead thing, my last breath has left me. driven by hate, lust and my need to kill the one who killed me. underground, we can be together again. 3:7 totalled i am sorry. you are all i want. i am nothing without you. for you i would give everything. i am sorry for myself to have to live without you. i am sorry for you to have to deal with hating me. i am sorry that you are all i want. i am sorry that i took you as my possession. that i gave you all my hate, lust and obsession. that i steered your mind, driving blindly. that i have to relive the collision every time i think of you. i am sorry i couldn’t see the sign. sorry i didn’t stop. sorry i let you ride with me.
chapter 4: flood: an analyzation, explanation & desire for
4:1 release my compressed mania impatiently awaits. trigger me. start the reaction. with your words of waste. with your threats of the cage. with your use of force. watch me fly. transcending. soaring above. searing through. pouring out. i’ve been locked up, contained, repressed. the eruption takes me higher. i won’t accept your resignation. i have taken your advice. i am master. 4:2 current the tide is pulling me in, pulling me under. waves whip my face, fill my lungs. treading just to stay alive and i’m wondering why. all the effort just in vain. trying to fight the sea, a stronger enemy than me. now my feet can’t touch the floor. father, give me faith. father, give me strength. father, give me faith to stand and walk to shore. 4:3 tar pit the sharp spikes are waiting for you. tightly wound spring anxious to let the trap snap. land mines buried underground beneath the visible surface. the road that looks right is filled with chance, constantly pushing odds. though i try to help, you should believe i have bet it all against you.. don’t waste time blazing a new trail just to get caught up in thorns. my back is scarred from them. i have shame for my useless attempt. watch me now as i follow the one eyes can’t see. he leads me through the narrow path. through uphill climbs, no shortcuts and much ridicule, but i will make it to the well. i will be there waiting to wash your feet or to bury my last friend. 4:4 the one eyes can’t see when the liars killed the dove, no one felt any sorrow, they just made more arrows; no one alive to break their bows -but one. when the indians fell, no one asked who tripped them, who tricked them; now there’s no one left to avenge them -but one. when my enemies towered above, no one asked to help me, no one turned to save me; now there’s no one left to heal me -but one. when i acted out pure hatred, no one asked who pushed me, just how bad she hurt me; no one around believes me -but one. now i stop to ask for mercy, no one cares that i’m sorry, no one wants to hear me; now there’s no one left to forgive me -but one. 4:5 pure i will overcome this world. a whisper echoes in my head. i’m going to be clean, i’m going to be pure. this land where i live is coated with filth. those who come to stain me wear it from head to toe. they feed me lies, dancing because of the worms inside. pigs and rats sit on the table, laid out before me. the parade of lust, the charade of thought continues to play. time to bite the hand that force feeds me. my time is here, my chance to spit out what’s been growing inside. rushing ideas, inspiration. the force of a quake. cracking waves. too much to say. the flood will wash it all away. i will win despite my fears. god is working within me despite my sins. i will spit out the poison force fed in me. i will cut apart the dead heart inside of me. i will give my hand to the helpless. i will take away the liar’s voice. i will drown my former self, the one this world made. i will scrape away the scabs that they put on me to mold my face. i am the master of my fate. 4:6 millennia i know you feel it. if you are alive and have eyes that see then you know. the snake that binds with lies has wrapped our throats. the beast outside has become the beast within. no way to escape from yourself. i’ve got something to make the pain disappear. good news the demons don’t want you to hear. the snake that lies will be tied with a thousand year chain. a fiery lake awaits all that you hate.
