Darkscribes Blog for Robert-33

Fighstar & Evangelion

March 5, 2009 | No Comments Posted

Robert-33 has decided do a little
semi-journalism about the subject
of the Evangelion themes and
references in the music of the
British group Fightstar.

Why? Because no-one else to date
has bothered to do anything vaguely
deep. (Unfortunately, this really
isn't deep enough, either....)

FIGHTSTAR EVANGELION REFERENCES:

This is not a complete, thorough
analysis of every Fightstar song,
but as many would know, Robert-33
is someone who knows many things
the average person is ignorant of.
Robert-33 may eventually take the
time to write a thorough EvaFstar
synopsis, replacing this thrown-
together- in-under-an-hour-
one.

:::A general overview by Album:::

--They Liked You Better When You Were Dead--

    Palahnuik's Laughter:
    In the video, the bassist has
'Neon Genesis' written on his bass guitar.
There is a big explosion. Some would say
that's them all going to hell,
some would say that's some kind of stylised
secondthird impact. Who knows? Palahniuk is a
writer, as many would know. 'Fight Club'
is one of his better-know works. However,
I don't believe this was the song's original
title: it was, I hear, "Swimming against
the flood."
    Lyrically, line of interest is:
    "If I see this all again, I'll try to
take my time. I wonder how fast you can
drive(NB: it might be 'dry' not 'drive').
    Is this some kind of reference to the
scene from the Evangelion manga, where they
drive away from Tokyo 2 at high speed?

    No comment on other T.L.Y.B.W.Y.W.D
tracks. Amethyst is possibly linked,
for the simple reason that Amethyst is
a kind of purple.

--Grand Unification--

    To Sleep:
    This track is eerily similar to
the intro track of the album 'Yui' by
the Mexican group Childs. It reinforces
the alternate rendering of G.U., and that
is that it is about sleep, fear,
nightmares, pleasant dreams, then waking
up to face the future.

    Grand Unification I:
    What this track has got to do with
Evangelion is very, very uncertain. It
essentially does share thematic similarities
to NervSeele. The idea of defiance. The
lyrics screamed near end of song are almost
indecipherable without help.

    Waste A Moment:
    Well...this is very similar to Grand
Unification I. Video used tunnel used
also by the Prodigy. Is probably not
very related to Eva.

    Sleep Well Tonight:
    Another track with sleep as its
central theme. The theme of 'making
a stand' which does have Evangelion
implications. That theme recurs in
later songs, including O.D.S.T.W.A.B.Ys
tracks.
    There is also the line "...I could stay
the *SAME!* [* indicates Charlie's breathy
scream] This has the implication within
the Eva theme of third impact.
    After the 'awesome' solo, (NO, that
is NOT sarcastic, it is skilled guitar work)
Charlie sings, "If we could take away the
summit, we could climb the highest we've
ever been to."
    This could be in some way related to
the principle of man becoming God through
the grand unification. Which, on a minor
point, if we infer there already is a God,
the 'we've ever been to' does carry the
thought that they are removing the summit,
then shifting into that place. But, I
won't go into the labyrinth of issues
surrounding that aspect of mystic
evolutionary theory.

    Paint Your Target:
    The boy with headphones in the video
for the song is reminiscent of Shinji Ikari.
    When he turns around at the very end,
although the footage I have seen is very
blurred, it distinctly looks as though his
pupils form a cross. Lyrically, the song
seems to be about how crap the British
education system is. (Don't feel bad, Charlie,
the Americans have an equally, if not much
crappier one, and so do the Australians.)
However, it really could be about almost
anything. Guns, (Which are cool, no matter
what anyone says) Children with gattling
guns (Not a very good idea) Missile launchers,
(Very cool) destroying public property,
(Possibly cool, depends on structure) And the
thing where the child whispers something to
the girl standing under the window.

    Build an Army:
    The song talks of machines. If you
want to be simplistic, the Evas are machines.
    Crushing empires is thematically
appropriate. The song is similar to 'Tannhauser'.

    Lost Like Tears in Rain:
    Well...with the pretty firm 'Neon Genesis'
closing line, along with 'born from angels',
'it came down to save us', and 'let's start
this all over again'. Yes...it does have
SOMETHING to do with Eva, but apart from the
line 'Neon Genesis', it could be about falling
from a balloon, or getting stuck in a movie
theatre showing a stupid film. Or even
Blade Runner.

    Last Conversation:
    'time that we have left' na na na. Yes,
it's got something to do with Eva. I don't
have enough time to pick apart these songs,
sorry. Include 'Open Your Eyes' under this
heading.

    Mono:
    Well, the line 'I've started up this
race' could POSSIBLY have something to
do the the Apostle Paul's, 'running the
good race' letter. In other comments,
the backmasking (Please don't get angry,
Charlie - I know most bands hate their
backmasking being written on the
internet.) says:
    "Fear is constant, life is a challenge."
It's probably a quote from somewhere,
but kudos if it's an original sentiment.
    Also, lines such as, 'now we're not
the same' could be to do with anything,
really, (Leaving Busted, buying a new
brand of hair dye, who knows?) I will
suggest, though, that it is Eva-centric.
    Screaming in the ending sounds like,
"Well I couldn't help myself...' then
the rest is too uncertain to decipher.
Could be 'escape, again' or anything.

    Hazy Eyes:
    The video gives no clues. Seems
to centre around the issue of the
evils of surveillance, something also
covered in 'English Way'. The lyrics
are usually interpreted to mean the
deaths of one or more of the main
characters in Evangelion. However,
Charlie could really be singing about
anything; like sentience in non-human
life, much which does not exist is read
into unrelated things.

    Grand Unification II:
    This could be about 2nd3rd Impact,
or it could be Charlie actually believing
Al Gore. Who knows? Charlie knows,

    Wake Up:
    More on making stands, more on
sleep related topics. Who has the
answers? And such. Ends with main
protagonist awakening. Then the
album ends. Pirates scratch their
heads, all us videogame designers
who bought legit hard copies instant
make a beeline for the nearest
copy of Audacity to look for
backmasking, and to (unsuccessfully)
filter out the distortion on
screamed lines.

    Time for an intermediate bit: the
singlesone offs:

--non LP stuff--

    Gracious:
    This came on the 'W.A.F.N'
single, which I possess. The song
seems to be about spitting on the
world, (or wanting to) the Final
Judgement, and 'making it easier
for us'.

    'NervSeele' & 'Shinji Ikari':
    Ho hum, this is solid, is it
not? Except for the utter ambiguity
of the tracks, and the lack of
accurate lyrics. (Next Robert-33
project?)
   
   'NervSeele' could be hypothetically
considered Charlie Simpson's take on
the Evangelion subject, whereas 'Shinji
Ikari' is Alex Westway's take on the
same, but relating to an individual's
contemplation, rather than a collective
exchange of anger presented from the
point of view of an individual also,
ironically.

    Thought - Shinji doesn't smoke.

    This is admittedly only hypothesis.
Also, very little information is publicly
available regarding Alex's religious
views, but it is ironic that he never
sees to say 'fuck', whereas the 'Christian'
Charlie Simpson seems to have no qualms.
  However, it is not wise to draw
absolute conclusions from external evidence.
This aspect very well be because Charlie
does most of the singing, much to the
'Charlie is still on Busted ego trip'
detractor's chagrin.

    But, the over-arching sense in
'NervSeele' is of: angerhatefighting
against an impersonal force trying to
'take this away from me'. Is this
speaking abstractly of the evolutionary
unification taking away the individuality
of the singer?
    In 'Shinji Ikari', the feeling
is more of: contemplationsorrow
saying last goodbyes (Why they didn't
take the plunge and sing 'sayanora'
rather than 'goodbye' is a matter of
pure speculation, leading to all sorts
of possibilities; including that they
never actually watched Eva in
Japanese.)and is slightly similar to
'Unfamiliar ceilings' in aspects.

    It is very difficult to be certain.
Anything from the band 'the Fray' contains
many eerily Evangelion-esque lyrics, yet
no-one seems to have made any connection.
(ps. If someone finds 'the Fray love Eva'
on Wikipedia, it was written here first!)

    The difficulty is that Eva covers so
many emotions, so many ideas, that almost
any song can actually be set to footage
from Evangelion; the FMV scene shows this.
If I see another k* **** AMV...(ellipses
of veiled threat to power of 18 cubed)

    Also many did not notice, it
sounds distinctly as though Charlie
is growling 'Sodomite' at the end.
Is this so? The internet lyrics never
mention it.

    Dark Star:
    This song has the lines
'there are chains to hold it down' and
'Firefight. When everything's dead and
gone, we'll find a place to hide from
the bright lights'. So it probably
has something to do with Eva.

    Now, to the next LP.

--One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours--

Slightly out of order tracks--

    We apologise for nothing:
    In the video, is the man
and woman playing cello and violin
in any way a reference to Evangelion?
Lyrics are ambiguous.

    99:
    The lyrics are always misprinted,
but they seem to have little to do
with Evangelion. The name 99 is
apparently to do with a laptop
keyboard not working after being
dropped down some stairs. It could,
however, be a faint, if unconscious
reference to 1999, the year before
second impact.

    Floods:
    This one is ambiguous. It is
meant for a British film, and it
also does have relevance to Eva.
    However, the overall feel is an
acceptance of this unjustified paranoia
sweeping the globe that global
warming is a real threat which must
be acted to prevent, just like
the 1970s ice age, and the Y2K bug.
But that is another issue, one which
is not worth dying for.

    One Day Son:
    Zombies. Dead people walking.
The line 'when there's no room in
hell, the dead will walk the earth.'
No obvious Eva link.

    Deathcar:
    This one is pretty self explanatory.
Deathcars are Chinese unconsenting organ
donor vans. The Chinese government gets
up to all sorts of things; this is just
the tip of it, and yet the world just
eats its Happy Meal. The song is also
supposed to be related to Charlie's
girlfriend leaving him. Lyrically,
some of the opening screaming needs
deciphering, because all the internet
versions are almost completely wrong.

    I Am The Message:
    Making a stand, which seems to
be something Fightstar never tire of
singing about. The most tight, clear
song in the Fightstar catalog. Phrases
such as 'Angel, you mean nothing to
me' are countered by 'Halo, you mean
nothing to me'. So the Evangelion
relevance is uncertain.

    You & I:
    This has possibly got something
to do with the ending of Evangelion.
Because of this, the fact that the
central line is shared with '99'
is taken by some to indicate that
99 does, after all, have Evangelion
relevance.

    Amaze Us:
    This song is unusual. It can be
interpreted in an Eva related way:
'the Beast', a phrase actually
ripped straight from the book of
Revelation. "And they wondered at
the beast." 'Wonder' is very similar
to 'Amaze', which is interesting.
    So, essentially, when Charlie
is singing 'You amaze us all with
the hope that you bring' is very
akin to the prophecy that the
anti-Christ, aka. the Beast, will
offer breathtaking peace and hope,
in the form of solutions to all of
Earth's problems, to the nations
of the earth. They will be filled
with praise and admiration at the
hope he brings. This is essentially
what the Eva Unit 1 is actually
achieving, also. So they both are
'protector's' with very evil
natures.

    H.I.P (Enough):
    What is this? This seems to
be a warning of the hope turning
to bloody violence. And the fact
that this is what was intended
all along. And, many noticed that
'Human Instrumentality Project' is
formed by the initials. Another
slightly strong indication that
Fightstar never checked the facts
surrounding Eva's translation.
'Human Completion Project' is
the more 'correct' translation,
although Anno admittely made
'Instrumentality' the English
language phrase. Their call.

    Tannhauser:
    Well...this one is odd. It's
the sacrifice of self, the choosing
of a saviour, the probable damaging
of Charlie's vocal cords. Its theme
is of an old German mystic, so far
as I know.
    A very immoral mystic, at that.
The link between him and Charlie is
unclear, but the 'German' thing does
link it slightly to Eva.

    One Last Common Ancestor:
    The name is tricky, and can
be spun two ways; 'common ancestor'
to the Evolutionist means the being
all human races evolved from. To the
rest, it is a common ancestor of all
peoples, Adam, or in a limited sense,
Noah. Really depends on whether
Charlie and the guys are Evolutionarily
inclined or not. The song is a ballad
of sorts, and doesn'tseem to have too
much to do with Eva, although the title
does have implications within Eva.

    Unfamiliar Ceilings:
    Hmm...this is an offbeat song
from Fightstar. Apart from making
some people snigger at 'flowerpots and
dirt' the song is simple and works.
    Honestly, this song is ambiguous
and could really be talking about
anything. Still, ambiguity is better
than:

'And we'll all go forth and fight
the Angels! Yea, Yea! Aim and
fire! She's a liar! Faster, higher;
demon crier! Yea, Yea! Into places
where the angels fear to tread,
and where the voices get inside
my head."

'Cough, [Robert-33 hides pencil and
paper] cough.'

--Be Human--
    The new LP isn't out yet.
The two videos released, 'English Way'
and 'Mercury Summer' do not seem to
have any Evangelion centric lyrics
or themes. If there aren't any Eva
songs on 'Be Human' a good deal of
people are going to be disappointed.
Still, it's their music, and there's
nothing worse than being slaves to
public opinion.

Anyway, that's it for now. But one
last note:

    Is Charlie Simpson a 'real'
Christian?:

    To be cold and honest, there is a
90% chance Charlie isn't a Christian,
for the simple reason that the Alpha
course doesn't explain to people why
they need to be saved, and what is
involved with repentance from their
sins. It is essentially brushed up,
new age influenced, Roman Catholicism.
But, I cannot say with confidence
whether Charlie is or is not. I
hope so, for his sake. It is tragic
to be so close to the truth, yet be
so far from understanding it. Like
a life jacket without straps.