The Clan Destined Blog.

Use your vote in the U.K. General Election on May 6th 2010!

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:38:26 +0100

Greetings sisters and brothers! I hope that all goes well with you and yours, and that your spirits have risen with the temperatures following the worst winter we’ve experienced for the last three decades? Those of you who have followed my work over the years will have undoubtedly realised that I’ve always taken a keen interest in politics. I was writing lyrics about political, social and environmental issues long before it became fashionable to do so.

Thirteen years of Labour ‘government’ have left Britain in a very sorry state indeed. Our nation is practically bankrupt and our society is in complete and utter disarray. Despite this fact our country is currently at war in foreign lands; engaged in the illegal conflicts for oil instigated by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. These needless wars will eventually prove to have had absolutely no winners whatsoever; and by then will have cost countless innocent lives and many billions of squandered Pounds and Dollars that could in my most humble opinion have been far better spent upon schools, hospitals and renewable sources of energy in order to combat the imminent threat to our fragile planet now posed by drastic climate change.

I have studied each of the U.K. party manifestos, and after much careful deliberation I’ve decided to cast my vote for the Liberal Democrats on May 6th www.libdems.org.uk Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems have by far the best policies; and are the only party to display the fresh, honest approach to politics that Britain so desperately needs during the difficult times ahead. The result of the forthcoming General Election will have profound and far-reaching effects for us all, so whatever your political allegiance it is vital that you use your vote and make sure your voice is heard. A great many people have fought and died so that we may live today in a democracy, and we each owe it to their memories to make the effort and visit a Polling Station on May 6th.

Martin Walkyier www.theclandestined.com

One Step Nearer The Fatherland?

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:39:00 +0100

Warmest greetings to you all!

I hope as always that these few words find you in good health and high spirits, and that you’re enjoying a most wonderful 2008 thus far? It is New Year’s Eve as I write this to you, and I am sitting here alone at my computer. This is traditionally a time for reflection on the past; and when I look back upon the truly insane behaviour of humanity so far during this new millennium, I can sadly see no cause whatsoever to celebrate the dawning of yet another year full of needless wars, crippling global poverty and untold suffering.

Apologies if my articles seem rather pessimistic these days. I write about the things I see and hear around me, and there’s very little that has happened in this world to make me smile for quite some time now. I’m actually starting to think that we humans have been cursed with a basic design fault, a flaw in our genetic make-up which now physically threatens our very survival as a species.

Our primordial ancestors led an extreme life indeed, enduring harsher conditions than we could ever imagine. I doubt that there are many modern human beings who could survive even a single month in their primitive, brutal and unforgiving world. Personally I don’t think I would last more than a couple of days at the very most. The fact that you are reading this today is purely down to the tenacity and adaptability of your earliest forebears, all those who since the dawn of life have won the eternal battle to survive. I imagine that an existence as an early human wasn’t far dissimilar to being a member of a pack of wild wolves. Their scant years spent in the ‘Cradle Of Life’ must have been a challenging, brief and bloody affair indeed. Territory undoubtedly meant everything to them, and there must have been endless confrontations between neighbouring tribes over the very limited resources available.

Somewhere during this period of our early human evolution we learned an invaluable lesson; “Folks who either look, speak, smell or in any way behave differently from you are part of another tribe, therefore they are most probably your mortal enemies, or in some way possessed by an evil spirit…even at the very least they are here to steal away your females and/or your food supplies.” A dire threat to which all our dearly departed ancestors undoubtedly responded with an angry chant something along the lines of “Kill them, burn their corpses and dance upon their smouldering remains!!!”

When at times I find myself looking back upon the history of the 20th Century it’s often disheartening to realise just how little has actually changed during at least 3 million years of human evolution. This aggressive and competitive human genetic mutation was once our saviour as a species, and yet denied the thrill of the hunt for the last several thousand years we’ve turned this testosterone-fuelled anger inwards upon ourselves. Living as we do in tiny concrete boxes, often devoid of the most basic human contact, it’s really no wonder that we’ve retreated deep into our race memory. Lacking the constant threat of starvation, rape, murder or probably being eaten alive by some ravening, sabre-toothed nightmare; though modern-day life can often be equally as stressful in exactly the wrong kind of way.

Humanity faces a very uncertain future, and this time around the foes we fear are largely unseen. This frightens us all at a deep, subconscious level, and once again our tried-and-tested primitive biological responses stir into action. There are many among us who have already succumbed to this primeval urge; those who mistrust, vilify and persecute their fellow human beings merely due to the fact that they are of a different race or religion – or often simply because they like alternative music, wear some unusual clothing or even support a rival sports team. At a time when our species wields weaponry of truly diabolic power I feel this is an extremely worrying mindset to possess!

Several years ago now I had the opportunity to share a bottle of brandy and a lengthy conversation with a former member of the Waffen SS; the crack troops which formed the spearhead of Nazi Germany’s vicious ‘Blitzkrieg’ killing-machine. This imposing, white-haired old man was no more than a boy as Adolf Hitler’s evil movement rose to power, and I hoped to learn from him what exactly could have driven a normally sane, logical and pragmatic people like the Germans to commit such truly hideous atrocities during this time. Following our discussion, which lasted late into the night, I came to the shocking realisation that the potential for this type of behaviour lurks deep within us all – regardless of era or nationality.

Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s was literally being ripped apart at the seams by serious political and economical upheavals, of the type that we could quite easily witness once again in the not too distant future. The working people of this time were all penniless and starving hungry, and their corrupt politicians cunningly conspired back then to use the religious and racial minorities as scapegoats, falsely blaming them for all their country’s financial problems. Hitler and his cronies duped the German population by telling them exactly what they wanted to hear. They gave jobs to the unemployed, the unwitting masses who found themselves working in the armament factories or constructing the Autobahns in preparation for a second global conflict they didn’t even suspect was coming. A bayonet is after all a weapon with a worker at both ends! Fascism was then set free to pervade through the entire country like an insidious, invisible virus; spreading slowly at first so as not to arouse too much suspicion. By the time anyone realised what was actually happening out there it was already far too late.

It was not unknown for Hitler Youth members to report their own parents to the Gestapo secret police; my friend once witnessed a man shot dead in front of his entire family just for not giving the correct Nazi salute. It was only after the war was over that this now mild-mannered, elderly German gentleman was finally able to mix for the very first time with people from different racial and religions backgrounds. He then realised in his mid 20’s, (much to his lasting shame and regret), that absolutely everything his leaders, teachers and superior officers had taught him throughout his youth was all part of a monstrous lie.

As our conversation drew to a close that drunken evening, he looked me in the eyes and said; “Young man, one thing I’ve learned over the years is that just because someone is different from you it doesn’t make them your enemy. My biggest mistake in life was trusting and believing in the wicked lies of those who looked just like me and pretended to be my friends.”

And so the midnight hour has long-since passed, and 2007 is lost forever; fallen like a tiny and insignificant grain of sand into the fathomless hourglass of human history. I wonder to myself exactly what manner of future awaits us all. Will this New Year’s Day merely herald the dawning of yet another New Year’s Evil? Even as I write these words to you I am sure that elsewhere in this vile, corrupt world some funda(mental) religious, business-mad-men are laughing loudly whilst plotting their latest wicked, right-wing schemes; a lone Islamic suicide-bomber says his final prayers, then gives his weeping wife, daughter, brother and trembling mother one last kiss goodbye; and meanwhile not far away from here upon some chilly street a teenage girl is abused by drunken thugs merely because of her style of clothing, or another poor, young lad is beaten to a bloody pulp either for the colour of his skin or football team shirt.

Fragile humanity has so far survived countless environmental threats as well as several truly global catastrophes over the millennia; and it’s only because of our varied racial and cultural diversity, plus the eclectic talents of all our early ancestors who’ve shared and united their combined knowledge, that we have been able to survive and prosper as a species to the present day.

As we stand on the brink of an uncertain future it would prove bitterly ironic if the thing that ultimately brought the human race to its knees were an ancient and redundant aggressive genetic trait which no longer serves any useful purpose, or has any relevance today on a planet that’s swarming with over 6 billion equally fearful people. All of our assorted differences, once allied, could yet turn out to be our species’ greatest asset. So then my fellow homo sapiens, I guess that the choice is solely ours. Should we all then collectively strive to climb another rung higher on humanity’s evolutionary ladder, or would you rather that we now take one step nearer The Fatherland? May your guardian-spirits be with you always! Martin Walkyier www.theclandestined.com

The Clan Destined – A Beautiful Start To The End Of The World Video!

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:59:31 +0000

I think it was Bloodstock 2006 where the seeds of the idea were first sown. Chatting with Martin about The Clan Destined and mentioning Blue Dog Films – we’d just finished a music video for singer/ songwriter Abi Moore. Joking that we should do a video for TCD I offered to send a DVD for Martin to see – especially as we pretty much work on similar ethics – Creativity is everything and anything can be achieved with determination, inventiveness and hard work! You can see the video at www.bluedogfilms.co.uk along with our other recent videos – including the insane video for Black metal band Eibon la Furies’ ‘… And By The Moonlight’.

After seeing this vid Martin phoned up talking about the track ‘The Beautiful Start To The End Of The World’ being a good proposition to take on so myself and fellow Producer/ Director, Matt Owens, started working on a rough storyboard of ideas based on the original idea for the lyrics (It’s really for Martin to explain the ideas behind the lyrics for the song but the story is both bizarre and heartfelt to the backdrop of Germany during WWII) – at this point I really stressed to Martin there’s low budget – then there’s us - no budget! But as I say a lot can be achieved by determination, inventiveness and hard work.

It’s great at this stage of developing a new film. You just let your imagination run wild. A few beer fuelled evenings at the pub and we had most of the ideas down and the video was really taking shape.

Then the sober thought hit us. Where do you get authentic German WWII soldiers, two female leads (prepared to share a lingering kiss with each other!), and bombed out streets of war torn Germany – all around Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire! Of course a big budget will buy it for you but we’re not quite Hollywood!

A number of phone calls from us all started to yield results. One of our friends has a healthy love of theatre, live action role-playing and air-soft – in fact I’m sure he has more props than the Royal Shakespeare Company these days!

Most of our military costumes were borrowed along with various prop rifles – some of which were old props from the recent(ish) blockbuster ‘The Mummy’. These were a real find because as they are professional film prop rifles it was fairly easy for us to get permission from Lincolnshire Police Firearms Licensing Department to use on a rather cold morning video shoot in the Arboretum in Lincoln. I must say both Lincolnshire Police and The City of Lincoln Council were extremely helpful with this. I think we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the cameras had started to roll – it always feels so much more real when you finally get going on the actual filming!

This was shortly after filming The Clan Destined performing the track at Bloodstock 2007. The video really has two main parts - The live footage, seeing the band playing in front of an enthusiastic crowd, and the story element with a small crew of actors. The Bloodstock crew were great and everyone was extremely helpful for the shoot.

If you were at Bloodstock, what you probably didn’t see was all the work we did with all the various members of the band filming close ups of fingers flying up and down fretboards, Jay pounding away at drums – and of course Grim Rita’s ‘outfit’!!! There’s some first class footage, I tell you! But the real joy was filming the band at full pelt in front of the crowd – it was always important to get that feeling across because something Matt and myself realised early on listening to the song was its power driven adrenaline rush and that really needs to come through. One of our regular Cameramen, David Andrews made a short documentary about the Bloodstock filming which you can see on the BBC Lincolnshire website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire/content/articles/2007/08/30/bluedogfilms_feature.shtml

A long day but one part in the can!

Meanwhile we’d been setting up various locations for the main parts of the story element. This ranged from being a nightmare to people really pulling in just when we thought there was no hope.

You see we’d found a top location in the form of an old asylum/ hospital in Lincoln. Huge sprawling and filmed the right way it had the look of bombed out streets. Just as we approached the company who now owned it they started their development work basically scuppering any plans to use it! We did a load of scouting for locations really quickly after this and as luck would have it started finding places - one being at a farm in Lincolnshire, owned by a friend who we’d worked with before on films. He has a great ‘street’ on his farm with old outhouses falling to ruin. We had a big clearance job, getting rid of all the weeds to make it look authentic, though. You can see the ‘street’ in the picture of the bomb-blast.

Matt was now working on our green screen effect ideas as we need to think about compositing the sprawling mass of a bombed out city behind. All is going well with this although it’ll be a lot of late evening work from us both to build these shots up. I think when you see the finished video you’ll think it’s worth it!

Whilst doing this there were two locations that were still eluding us. A good interrogation room (if such a thing exists!), and a courtyard for a firing squad. Lincoln Castle has an old Victorian prison and I couldn’t get it out of my head that this would be perfect but probably unobtainable so we started looking at other options – the irony is the other (lesser) locations proved unobtainable yet Lincoln Castle were really welcoming to our ideas and their help came at the 11th hour and by my reckoning really add to the feel of the video.

The pictures from the interrogation room and of the soldiers stood outside the cells are from this. The area that we filmed in is closed to the public but there is enough open that if you visit Lincoln Castle you’ll get the feel of what it was like.

An extremely long day of filming with everyone giving their all – especially from Martin and Grim Rita behind the masks as the interrogators! I think our soldiers, Dave, Anthony, Charles, and Robert had the best of it that day in their thick army coats – it was cold in there! Our female leads, Cara and Lea probably had it worst as they just had thin cotton dresses - although fleeces and scarves were quickly donned after each take!

Lincoln Castle also provided us with a great courtyard for our firing squad scene (actually, am I giving too much away here?!), although it has the stiffest door in the entire world to access it – in fact we had a worrying 15 minutes thinking we may be denied access!

The banners fluttering in the breeze really helped set the scene off – big thanks to Camille Fox for all the work on these and the insignia around each soldiers arm.

Something that was discussed early on was the imagery and it was decided that we wanted to use The Clan Destined Nexus logo as a symbol of good whilst using something else rather than the Swastika as the symbol of oppression. Martin’s designer came up with the design that you see on the banners, cannily looking like a dollar sign.

Also I haven’t mentioned yet – but you’ll probably be wondering about the white masks? Martin was talking about a faceless enemy and ran the idea past us – we loved it. Something that really struck us was that with the story of these two women they were up against such an overbearing regime that didn’t want their individualism, it wasn’t welcome. When you have only 5 to 6 minutes to put across a story as powerful as this you really want to have a strong image and when we did the first tests this really worked. There’s something very sinister about filming soldiers bursting through a cellar door, flashlights moving around the room and that same emotionless white face staring at you from all the soldiers.

Hopefully this gives you a bit of a taste for what the video for ‘A Beautiful Start To The End Of The World’ will entail – and I haven’t even mentioned the day’s chroma-key filming on a huge green screen we built in Newark, the filming with the DeVille Dolls Burlesque troop, the cars that Lincolnshire Vintage Vehicle Society (http://www.lvvs.org.uk/) lent us and the interesting 1940’s lingerie Cara and Lea wore for one of the shoots!

Enjoy the pics and I’m sure more will appear over the next couple of months as the video takes shape.

Cheers, Paul Sims (www.bluedogfilms.co.uk)

In loving memory of Roy Orlando Walkyier (1921-2007)

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:37:45 +0000

Greetings sisters and brothers! It is with a deep feeling of sadness that I write these words to inform you all of the recent death of my father, who finally passed-away in hospital following a long illness on the evening of Sunday the 25th of February 2007.

Roy Orlando Walkyier was a kind and loving husband, father and grandfather, who will be greatly missed by the members of my family as well as all those who knew him personally. He was also the oldest and amongst the most dedicated members of The Clan Destined. His steadfast support and encouragement during very difficult times was undoubtedly one of the main reasons that I was actually able to finish the TCD demo recordings for you all to hear.

Roy was always a constant source of fatherly encouragement to me during every stage of my musical career; from the very beginning to the early days of Sabbat, through my many years in Skyclad and then recently with The Clan Destined project. Without him being behind me it is highly unlikely that I would have been able to do any of the many albums and concerts I have recorded and played for your entertainment over the last two decades.

I promised Roy on his death-bed that I would carry-on with my work in whatever way possible, and that I shall one day complete something truly very special indeed, which I shall dedicate to him as a lasting tribute to his memory. I would like to kindly ask all those among you who have followed my work, and been influenced in any way by the music I have made over the years to assist me in this noble quest. Roy was without a doubt a unique human being, greatly loved by all who knew him; and the world is now a sadder and emptier place without him in it. I take consolation from the fact that he is now finally at peace, and that one fine day I shall meet him again in Valhalla.

May your guardian-spirits be with you always!

Martin Walkyier www.theclandestined.com

It’s time, let’s rhyme!

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:56:09 +0100

It’s time, let’s rhyme!

It’s time, let’s rhyme – United Pagan Massive!

Greetings to you my sisters and brothers! I hope that this blog update finds you all in fine health and having fun? Things have been rather hectic to say the least over the last few months, but I shall earnestly endeavour from now on to keep you far more regularly updated on what has been happening in The Clan Destined camp. A very special thanks to all of you kind people who have already purchased a copy of the “In The Big Ending…” limited-edition demo package from the TCD merchandise page. Thanks also to those among you who have sent highly positive comments or messages of support to the website. Whilst we sadly don’t have the time to reply to most of you at present, rest assured that we read and fully appreciate absolutely everything you have to say. There appear to be many of you out there who are still in shock about my recent announcement that “In The Big Ending…” will be my final ever musical release. I can assure you all that this is certainly not a decision I have taken lightly. There are just a small handful of people who have any idea whatsoever of exactly how much I have endured in order to get this latest TCD c.d. completed and out on sale. Finishing these recordings has cost me dearly in both time and money, not to mention the rather substantial amount of emotional trauma I’ve also had to face along the way. I have been writing my lyrics and singing them to you for the best part of two decades now, so hopefully you’ll appreciate that I’m not the kind of person who gives-up easily and without a fight. I always knew that setting-up something as new and truly unique as The Clan Destined would be a serious struggle, but could never have imagined that the musical aspect of this project would cause me so much stress. I have therefore decided to concentrate my talents in the future on a full-time writing career, as this currently seems to be a far more rewarding and productive use of all my time and efforts. As with all the greatest tales ever told, (especially those that involve a struggle of some kind), the full story of The Clan Destined is one which is brimming with heroes who were stout and true. This yarn also has its fair share of villains and cowards with only their own selfish interests at heart. When the going got tough the heroes stood their ground and fought courageously until the bitter end, whilst all the villains and cowards simply changed sides or turned-tail and disappeared off up into the hills without a trace!

Come together or forever remain impassive.

It appears to be a common misconception that The Clan Destined has in some way split-up or ceased to exist, so I would dearly like to take this opportunity to put you all straight about this matter immediately. The Clan Destined as an international Pagan collective is actually far stronger now, and has many more loyal members than at any time during its three-year history. As with any other dedicated organisation, there will always be an initial period whilst things first get started when you have to sort-out the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’ as the saying goes. In the army they call it basic-training, and it soon becomes clearly apparent who will show long-term commitment to the cause, and who has merely come along just because they think they’ll maybe look good in a uniform. When The Clan Destined project initially began, I found myself surrounded by numerous people who really liked the general idea and loved wearing their TCD shirts and badges at our group gatherings. Unfortunately, (but not surprisingly), once all the intense hard work began in earnest these shallow, shortsighted individuals were nowhere to be found. I have learned an awful lot of things over the last few years, and now choose the people I wish to collaborate with most carefully indeed. During the last 18 months I have painstakingly assembled a solid core of talented individuals from around the world who have proven themselves more than capable of the serious challenge which lies ahead of us. With the TCD “In The Big Ending…” recordings now released and on-sale, the time has finally come to move-on to the next stage of The Clan Destined’s evolutionary development. Hopefully with this dedicated team of people I have working around me at present I will never again have to endure the kind of pathetic, childish behaviour which has plagued me all too often in recent years. This unfortunate episode is the sole reason I have now given-up making music, and if you could only know the true extent of the needless bullshit I have endured then I’m certain you’d all fully appreciate exactly why I’ve made the drastic decision to bring my twenty year musical career to an abrupt end.

An evolving revolution of heathen free-thinkers.

“So what exactly is The Clan Destined?” I hear you all now ask yourselves. “Why should the world actually listen to what Martin Walkyier and Co. have to say?” I shall now attempt to answer these questions and explain our aims as clearly and concisely as possible for you. Whilst there are numerous great New Age Pagan organisations, websites and publications available out there, none of the ones I’ve discovered as yet seem that keen to discuss the political reasons behind why our planet is in such a sorry state at present. With drastic global climate change now an eventual inevitability, and the likes of George ‘Dubya’ Bush apparently not content until we’ve all been either converted to Christianity or killed in the process, it seems to me that we each have a duty to raise our voices as loudly as possible and finally see to it that our opinions get heard. Whilst a session of crystal-healing or an alignment of your unbalanced chakras may help cure the individual on a personal level, unfortunately in our humble opinion it has little chance of reducing the carbon emissions and pollution which are presently devastating our planet’s atmosphere, or of making religious fundamentalists turn from a path which ultimately leads to an irreversible loss of civil-liberties, World War III and ends with the final downfall of all humankind. It is the single-minded mission of myself and the rest of The Clan Destined to expose and oppose this suicidal stupidity in every way possible, and to openly speak our minds via each and every medium and method available to us at any given time. We are a highly dedicated collective of like-minded individuals, united against all possible types of prejudice, racism and bigotry in all its varied and insidious incarnations. The Clan Destined judges others purely on what lies deep within their hearts and souls, rather than by their beliefs, sexuality or colour of skin – “By your deeds ye shall be known!” is a poignant lyric from the new c.d. which sums-up this simple TCD philosophy in its most basic terms. We have chosen to collectively call ourselves ‘Pagans’, as this seemed to be both the best and most ancient word available to describe an organisation of people who are literally ‘Not of Rome’. It was after all during Europe’s fortress-wall and empire-building past that most of our modern society’s ills initially began, when the very first seeds were sown of a capitalist cancer of greed and intolerance which now seemingly threaten to decimate us all. Whilst as Pagans we must certainly respect the beliefs of all other faiths around the world, we truly have no desire to die for some pointless conflict, (nuclear or otherwise), over a religious argument which we neither understand or wish to have any involvement with. If George W. Bush and his Neo-Conservative cronies get their way, then the likes of you and I will be among the very first to be lined-up against the wall I can assure you! I don’t for one minute imagine that President Bush is a much of a fan of outspoken Heavy Metal music, and along with all other aspects of freedom of speech and democracy we will eventually realise that we have no useful part to play in the ‘Manifest Destiny’ of his New World Order.

A moral obligation to abandon mental blinkers.

When I was just eleven years old I was asked by my teachers to write a play which would commemorate the centenary of my school. The ideas I came up with were eventually performed in the schoolyard by myself and my fellow pupils, and even managed to be deemed worthy of a small mention in our local newspaper. Looking back I often wonder what my teachers actually thought of this play, which predicted a world one hundred years in the future where the ‘blank’ kids were programmed with information in the same way as soulless computer chips on some vast, automated production line. I realise now that this was actually the turning-point in my early life, and in fact I was preaching practically the same ideals and dire warnings way back then as I have continued to do for the subsequent twenty-seven years. Those among you who have followed my creative career will be fully aware that at no stage have I done this for the money, as during many periods of my life I have existed on ‘wages’ so low that they make Social Security seem almost like a king’s ransom. I have done this ‘job’ solely because when I look around me at this wondrous world we have been gifted, (and the most shameful, corrupt manner in which it’s currently being governed and exploited), I cannot help but feel within my heart that there just simply has to be a far better way. Do you honestly believe that in twenty-five years or so down the line you’ll all be able to gaze deep into your children’s eyes, and calmly explain to them without the slightest feelings of guilt and self-loathing exactly why they live upon a defiled and dying planet that now bears absolutely no resemblance to the once vibrant paradise with which our present generation was so foolishly entrusted? I for one have no desire to someday perform the grave duty of making my feeble excuses for why I did nothing to preserve at least a faint glimmer of hope for our future generations to inherit, and neither do any of my loyal comrades in The Clan Destined. Though the great work which yet lies ahead of us may at times seem insurmountable, and now both social and planetary meltdown appear more of a probability than a possibility, we are each steadfastly resolved to ensure that The Clan Destined reaches its full potential and eventually becomes a roaring voice of truth and reason in a world beset by greed and hatred. I am because we are! Martin Walkyier on behalf of The Clan Destined. www.theclandestined.com

Jack-in-the-Green

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Thu, 25 May 2006 23:52:00 +0100

Jack in

The Green

Just in case anyone thinks that being in The Clan Destined is all work and no play, here are some photos of us all having an awesome day out that we'd like to share with you. They were taken at the "Jack In The Green" festival in Hastings (UK) on May 1st 2006. Here we can see various TCD members and friends demonstrating that when we get together we know how to have a truly great party! I am because we are! Martin Walkyier.

THE NEIL SIMS VERSES

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 24 May 2006 12:00:00 +0100

REVELATIONS

Photographs of the sculptures and paintings of
acclaimed U.K. Pagan artist and TCD member Neil Sims. Contact him directly at:
neilsims@blueyonder.co.uk

"In the Big Ending...." demo reviews!

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Thu, 04 May 2006 13:21:15 +0100

"In the Big Ending...." demo reviews

Review by: Britton Dicks, 28th April 2006

Hey, am I actually, really, truly and honestly reviewing this album? I thought I would never see this get to see the light of day! READ FULL REVIEW.........

**"It’s an incredibly well put together package, beautiful case, thoughtfully designed. There’s obviously a lot gone into it, other bands take note, this is someone who cares about his product. Then once you play it, it does exactly what says on the tin! Great production (Andy Sneap, what more need I say!) Punchy, well crafted great thumping songs. "Swinging like Judas," and "A Beautiful Start to the end of the World," stand out for me. 3 Words? IT’S FOR REAL!!"
Dr Clive, Doctor and The Medics Website on The Clan Destined demo "In the Big Ending" during interview!

**"In the big ending is a triumph, personally I know how hard a project this has been for Martin, but he keeps going, the passion comes through in the work, as always the provoking subject matter of each song makes us realise there are different ways to think. Musically I can sum it up in three words... out... fucking... standing!!!
Neil Sims, neilsims@blueyonder.co.uk on The Clan Destined demo "In the Big Ending" during interview!

“MORE THAN WHORE”

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Mon, 01 May 2006 00:00:00 +0100

“MORE THAN WHORE”

An exclusive TCD studio-report by Grim Rita (Introduction by Martin Walkyier)

The story of how I met Grim Rita, and how she came to perform the female vocals on The Clan Destined “In The Big Ending…” c.d. is one of the very strangest cases of ‘serendipity’ I’ve ever encountered. For those of you who are yet unaware, Grim Rita is the official ‘agony aunt’ from the Faceparty website. A former dominatrix and Alexandrian High-Priestess, this hard-living and hard-drinking Pagan lady is truly the kind of girl who would quaff Cillit-Bang & Absinthe cocktails for breakfast given half the chance! It was March 2005, and I was still reeling from Iscariah’s most unexpected and unexplained departure from TCD. James Murphy was arriving in the UK in around 10 days to begin work with me on the vocals, and the female singers I had intended to work with were either slandering my name upon the internet or refusing to answer my calls & mails. Basically I was going frantic with the worry about my elderly father’s ill health and how I would get the TCD demo finally completed. I’m not normally a chat-room kind of person, but I joined the Faceparty website out of sheer desperation at the lack of any social life whatsoever. It never ceases to astound me, that out of the 6 million members on Faceparty I should ‘accidentally’ happen to message Grim Rita one evening, and that just 4 days prior to James Murphy’s arrival in the UK she should kindly agree to drop everything and travel to Nottingham to help me finish this demo for you dear reader. Grim Rita had never even heard the TCD songs before we began working on the vocals, and neither had she ever sung such highly complex lyrics for a Metal band. The effort and true dedication she showed to the TCD cause was outstanding! She has in my humble opinion far bigger ‘balls’ than the any of the so-called ‘men’ who either sat-back and did absolutely nothing, or spread malicious, kindergarten gossip about me on the net when their time would actually have been far better spent in helping me to finish-off these 6 songs for you all to hear. Horns ablaze Grim Rita! I guess I should let you carry the story on from here… Martin Walkyier.

So there I was happily tapping away at my computer; writing another bunch of arse for my weekly column on Faceparty, when, out of fit of boredom I messaged Mr. Walkyier. We started chatting, well I talked he whinged. “What’s the matter mate?” I enquired vaguely, “I’ve got these songs to record, the producer is flying in from Florida next week and my backing singer’s not answering my calls or texts”. He sobbed, (in a manly way).
“Well”, I said, “Buy my train ticket and I’ll pop up to Nottingham and do it.” Well he did, and so did I!

After a week of rehearsals and the odd exclamation of “Fucking hell Martin, you like to pack the lyrics in, when can I breathe?!”, we went off to Andy Sneap’s enormous pile in the country. I met the producer James Murphy, or “The Pitchfinder General” as we called him, and Martin started laying-down his vocal tracks. The really weird thing was all the while we were rehearsing and recording I kept getting this really odd feeling that we were being watched, Martin said “Yeah that’ll be me old mate, Dave Halliday from the band Hell”. As I walked into Sneapy’s studio there was Dave’s photo. So I put it next to the vocal recording booth and asked him to keep an eye on us.

Well Martin must have buggered-off somewhere when it came time for me to record the falsetto ‘opera’ section in ‘More Than War’, I must have warbled ‘Sanguine Spiritus’, about a thousand times. And each time I thought it was right, James “The Pitchfinder” pipes-up in his laconic Florida drawl, “You’re flat on ya guine”. After two hours of this ‘tuning-torture’ and half a bottle of brandy later, we finally got the damned thing down. Christ that man has the sensitive hearing of a bat!

Then the vocals were finished and the fun really started as various ex members of the band began acting like the retard guests on Jerry Springer. I had to watch as Martin tried in vain to soothe the various leathered beasts. “Of course you’ll still get your royalties”, “Look bro, you left me all alone to finish this demo.”, “Sweetheart, I had to use someone else for the female vocals, as you didn’t even bother to answer my emails or phone calls for months.” And much other such unnecessary, childish bullcrap. “I’ll be fucking bald after all this shit”, declared Martin.

Luckily at that point he met a lovely lady with enormous hooters to take his mind off all the bollocks. I honestly think that if she hadn’t turned-up Martin would still be sitting in a corner now, drooling and scrawling lyrics on the wall in his own excrement.

So readers, when you listen to The Clan Destined tracks remember, from start to finish, Martin never gave up on his fans, never gave up on the music and fought tooth and nail to get these songs recorded and released. I hope you fucking appreciate it!

GRIM RITA www.faceparty.com

STOP WARS

nospam@example.com (The Clan Destined Administrator) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:00:00 +0100

I feel the need to write these words to express my sincerest support and admiration for the conduct of Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith; A doctor and officer in the Royal Air Force, who on the 13th of April 06 was sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to go back to serve in Iraq, because he believes the recent invasion and military presence there are “illegal”. This man is most certainly not a coward. He has already served two tours of duty out there, and has previously been decorated for his actions; (He was also on £40,000 GBP a year, and has now forsaken not only this high yearly salary but also his retirement pension). He is in my honest opinion a most courageous man who has realised what we all instinctively know deep within our hearts, the plain and simple truth that the current ‘Coalition’ military presence over there has far more to do with oil money than the freedoms and liberties of the Iraqi people. Unlike the vast majority of us, he was fully prepared to speak out and even go to jail rather than act against his heartfelt convictions.

It was obvious from the very beginning of the trial that he would be found guilty of “disobeying orders”. Had the verdict gone any other way, then I’m certain that at least half of our brave lads and lasses stationed out in Iraq would have simply have downed-tools and come back home to their families and friends ASAP. Joining the armed forces to defend your home country or fight for a just cause is one thing. Being posted off to far distant places for dubious motives, (and when most of the indigenous population frankly don’t want you there), is quite another matter entirely. Naturally the current Iraqi government have requested our continued military presence in their country; it is after all the only actual reason that they’re in power in the first place. I’m most certain that these puppet politicians are now far richer ($$$) than they ever could have dreamed of being under the harsh regime of Saddam Hussein. Military history has demonstrated repeatedly that very often even the most professional of armies can be out-manoeuvred by ill-equipped guerrilla forces familiar with the local terrain and quickly able to vanish into the background. The once Great Britain has been taught this vital lesson numerous times in Her empire-building past, and the U.S.A. it appears has already forgotten recent historical events of what went so very badly wrong in Vietnam. Did nobody even think to mention any of these facts around the table when Tony B(liar) & ‘Dubya’ Bush were ever-so-eagerly planning their dubious “Operation Iraqi Freedom”? If I were compiling my own personal top-100 of Evil Bastards Alive in The World Today, then I reckon that Saddam Hussein would have rated quite highly somewhere in there. But to my knowledge at least 50,000 of our fellow human beings die needlessly each and every day in Africa due to either a lack of clean water, disease, starvation or ongoing civil conflict. And I don’t see a single coalition of military force keen to “liberate” any of those poor, desperate souls at this present moment, do you? Perhaps if they had 25% of the world’s oil reserves sitting right underneath their feet then things would be ever so slightly different methinks?

So as you lay yourself down to sleep in your comfortable bed tonight, please spare just a single thought and a prayer for Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith. An innocent man who’s serving yet another solitary evening behind bars merely for standing up for his honest beliefs, as we all should have done under similar circumstances. The excuse so frequently given by many of the really hideous Nazis placed on trial in Nuernberg was that they were merely following the orders passed down to them from their ‘leaders’ high-above. Is this honestly the kind of outdated & unquestioning obedience to authority that which we should demand of our armed forces, or would we prefer it that the army should actually be the conscience of the common people? With many U.S. Neo-Conservative politicians presently plotting military action against Iran, I would like to warn you all that the decisions we make in the coming months and years will have a profound effect on the future of both our species and our planet. Fundamentalists of all faiths have already been hacking away at each other with swords and axes for a thousand years now, without ever a single soul being ‘saved’ or any ‘victory’ being won. As a Pagan I can fully respect and tolerate the beliefs of all world religions, but I truly have no desire to be vaporised in a nuclear war over an argument that I simply cannot comprehend and which has nothing whatsoever to do with me. The only ‘positive’ thing about war is that it generates large sums of money. It’s no wonder then that the politicians generally keen start conflicts are often secret shareholders in international weapons manufacturing companies. I firmly believe that the time has finally come to see through the shallow lies we are being fed every day. To stop all this bickering and posturing about whether it’s better to worship God or Allah, and concentrate on the far more pressing problems of world poverty, pollution and the drastic climate change – Which will undoubtedly prove over the coming years to be the greatest TERROR the human race has yet encountered. The unjust sentence passed upon Flight Lieutenant Kendall-Smith is yet another small step on humanity’s seemingly inevitable road to ruin, and Thursday April 13th 2006 is I fear a most deeply tragic day both for freedom of speech and democracy. I am because we are! Martin Walkyier www.theclandestined.com

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“MORE THAN WHORE”

“MORE THAN WHORE”

An exclusive TCD studio-report by Grim Rita (Introduction by Martin Walkyier)

STOP WARS

Jack in

The Green