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The White Plague

by Dead Work

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Alastor Blake
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Alastor Blake Wow, I absolutely love this. Fantastic blend of black metal, folk, and other elements with an important theme. Conveys both tragedy and fury so well. Reminiscent to me of Peste Noire except for not being a bunch of racist fucks. Favorite track: Resistance.
Michael Mambrino
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Michael Mambrino Beautifully harsh crust for the anarchist in everyone, can't recommend. enough Favorite track: Fauna.
folkblack
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folkblack This is one of my favorite albums. It’s an amazing mix of Folk, Punk, Crust, Blackmetal with a little ska thrown in at times. A Fucking wonderful album from start to finish. Favorite track: Pestilence.
TheTrueMoonroot
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TheTrueMoonroot Its hard to describe the music just by genre influences. But, well, imagine one country lover, two crust punk and two black metal heads ending up in the 16th century in the village of Taíno people writing music about their era with their instruments unplugged. This is perfection. Not only the music is absolutely brilliant, but the concept is so amazing, its really interesting and highly educative for me as a person from another part of the world. Definately must read more about it! Thank you!
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1.
Welcome 06:52
From the heavens came first light to drown out the darkness Shining like jewels in the great open sky A map for the makers, illuminates with brilliance A world that is ready for light Born out of nothing, into existence Swaths of abundance with purpose and sight Sat back and pondered, would all this be squandered If not for a being to revel the might Be it no god, nor earthly flocks But from cracked firmament The mortal Locuo descended to his earthly realm Balance was found, left to astound The possibilities A world to call ones own, named guardian of all they see Through open hands Fall grains of sand As wind Carries them all to the end Rise with the suns ascension Caressed by morning rays Sweet nectars treat the lips and Give another cause for praise Down by the oceans boundary The waters cool and clear Eyes drawn towards the horizon As hearts are struck with fear One by one, emerged Gathered to peer A sight, devoid of words A white plague has cursed our shores
2.
Pestilence 07:33
Pestilence spreads through the heart of a foreign land Extinguishing light with a silent hand The virgin soil panted red Erasing, consuming All those encountered Led to the slaughter Violently torn from the last shroud of innocence Punished by isolation Sentenced to annihilation The sun will rise, over a flourished continent And set, amongst the ashes of the dead And so our eyes, will never see A world untouched by this modern disease Transcribed in a light, much fairer than truth Snatching tongues from the mouths Until the rest have fallen mute Circle round the fire And pray to stop the fall The island, not sit empty The torches, have all been drowned Within a lifetime, when all was lost The memories undone Laid bare, the casualties succumb Having left what they could not take A land of bone and clay Now all that remains for us to claim Curse the horizon The waters and shore The blood within That marks our skin
3.
Gods 10:40
Demanding blood Cut from the insolent Belief is not enough Demanding gold As payment for your sins For shame of thine existence Of flesh and bone And pure as fallen snow A "savior" that mirrors Unjustly flattered souls Wicked is he Found free of shame and greed One god fulfills Your every want and need Destroy the ones who birthed you The soil, sky and sea Hold nothing valuable that On which your soul can feed The book will give you shelter For life eternally Knowledge passed through the ages Erased by western speech Constructing monuments to Your masters childish whims While desecrating those that You find no solace in Each day the bell tolls over This worn and stolen land A lie perpetuated Claims to be sovereign Souls cut from earthly flesh Find redemption in death Gods felled to civilize Now sharing soil with your lies Repent or face the blade Rejoice in holy grace Arise, born again Now free from mortal sin
4.
Expulsion 09:54
Silence brought forth by snow Erasing these trails of woe Each body forced to kneel Acculturation enforced by steel There is no mercy in these laws Justified by the wise and awful grace of god Before the ink starts to dry The cogs are set to spin Muzzled backs pushing west Existence is their only sin Through forests and rivers A country delivered The altar is painted With blood spilled From those whom you have claimed to save These rolling plains Will echo for eternity The forgotten names Ancestral chosen places No longer claimed Set free for blind expansion Emptied of graves The dead will find to solace here The sun will set O'er land out west Where sky meets earth Has found new worth The sun will rise Revealing to eyes Where earth meets sky Uncharted lands where you can die
5.
Fauna 08:50
Roaming the hillsides grazing the land Innumerable beasts in the shadows of mountains Spirits of life signal death for all men A gift meant for all soon to meet their demise Setting their sights on the staples of others A plague that is looming like clouds in the sky As god preaches on that all men are brothers Your claim is that demons are stealing your rights Wantonly kill what you cant tame Your sense of worth is not innate A trail of dead lies in your wake Unused and left to rot away A product, a diction Constructed a victim Brought near to extinction Emptied of all that made it great Freedom of movement has become a curse Over inflated are egos, importance and worth Steaming ahead to the vastness beyond Where you piled your problems that you wanted gone Finding yourself once encroaching again An enclosement of steel, lashing out from within The gunpowder cracks and the knives now unsheathed A mountain of bone when the smoke, it has cleared Once herds roamed 30 millions strong Now dwindle to the point of none Erased from modern history Found on your 5 cent piece No we will never get them back That much is a genetic fact Specters of what they used to be No longer roam a golden sea
6.
Resistance 08:28
Cities rise in the heart of Araucania Numbers swell with each passing expedition But always in vain The forest conceals those who lie in wait 6 thousand strong erupt from the darkness To make amends for the years of mistakes Soon overrun and left to the forces Soldiers encircled and buildings were razed Forced to regroup, account for their losses and wait For reinforcements to gather and set out again This push and pull Will last a thousand lifetimes Where one leaves off Another stands to face it While pushing north Met with great opposition While pushing south Met with such great hostility Withdrawn to foment and rally the nation The cities rise from the ashes anew Penetrate deeper again into darkness Convinced that all have been slain or subdued Four legged beasts carry power on forward Repurposed tools in the grasp of new hands Forged in the fire of incessant warfare A brand new army is trained and now ready to stand Awoken from deep slumber A terror born once more March forth with indignation Across the rivers shores Into the lands once stolen Now come to claim as rite From those who dared to take it Doomed to their foolish pride How long will the end consumes us all 300 years and still refuse to fall Unto you as thralls Everyone pays When life is assigned no value These nation states Have caused more harm then good Lines on a globe That which you spilled your blood for You cannot own Yet still attempt to stake a claim
7.
Mute 09:25
The world of fire The last to be discovered Nowhere to hide All maps have been filled in No land unclaimed Power consolidated Voracious hands Pick through the bloody bones The age of exploration Will see it's final foe In these nomadic people Who call these lands their home The waves that carry with them The final truth be told Blood lust does such to drive them As does the fame or gold In 20 years near all were lost Expansion paid at any cost In 50 more the line was done The fires dead Now left to rot beneath the sun This story mirrors others And they all end the same A tome of endless slaughter With total lack of shame A product of the whiteness The plague of pallid skin Ever so condescending Despite being internally akin History has been wiped clean From all of modern history Past indiscretions lie Under the ashes of lost time Millions of lives cleansed of their thoughts Two continents connected by their loss Thousands of cultures no longer lived Their gifts of knowledge Forever held captive by dead languages

about

This album has been a passion project of mine since I first started Dead Work back in 2012. In high school my teacher would hand out excerpts from A Peoples History by Howard Zinn to go along with our textbook readings. Viewing history from the viewpoint of the oppressed was both heartbreaking and infuriating, but also eye opening. Of all the injustices covered in that book, the one that struck hardest was the cold and calculated extermination of Indigenous populations. My father being Puerto Rican, I first started reading about the indigenous populations of the Caribbean that he would tell me about as I was growing up. It was astonishing that an entire culture could be blinked out of existence in a matter of 30 years. But the more I read, the more I realized that the Taino weren't alone. From the tip of Nunavut, Canada, down to Chile and Argentina's Tiera del Fuego, all experienced the same. And if not for my high school history teacher, who knows when I would have learned about it. American school painted a picture of a few small instances of injustice, but of an overall understanding between two people that one needed more space, and the other was obliging enough to quietly step out of the way.

I wasn't entirely sure how to even cover such a massive topic musically, and so I put the idea aside for several years and focused on other projects. Every time I sat down to start a new album, or write a new song, I always came back to the same topic, but decided it wasn't the time. Then, a few years ago, I made a move to a new state, and Dead Work effectively broke up, since I was losing my bandmates. In a new location, with no friends, I finally felt like I had a fresh musical canvas to make something that was more aligned with my recent musical tastes. So slowly but surely, I started crafting new songs that felt weighted enough to deal with the topic I wanted to write about. I decided each song would describe a different facet of colonization, that when combined, led to the destruction of thousands of cultures and millions of people between North and South America. There is no way to cover each of their stories and do them justice. Some have flourished in recent decades, some have been lost to time forever. Some can trace their heritage back 500 years or more, some will never know what culture they can claim as their own. I wrestled with each of these song topics, and finally narrowed it down to the 6 most destructive (in my opinion) aspects of the colonization of the Americas and the Caribbean. Disease, Religion, Removal from and Destruction of environment, Resistance and Language. These 6 topics, coupled with the opening track, that tells the creation story of the Taino people, who were the first to come in contact with Christopher Columbus, are what I now present to you as "The White Plague". Each track will have it's own description, so I would like to just finish this up by saying thank you for taking the time to listen. I know this album is filled with technical mistakes. I got in over my head when it came to playing the songs I wrote. But I would appreciate it if you look past the goofs and see the picture I tried to paint. I hope people see that I tried to tackle this subject with reverence for the lives lost, and those who continue to live under the weight of their ancestors. There is no righting so many wrongs, but acknowledgement is the first in a long line of steps to mend such old wounds. Thanks again.

Jon (Dead Work)

credits

released November 25, 2018

Jon Pizarro - Vox, Guitar, Melodica, Accordion, Glockenspiel
Trevor Leed - Bass
Micah Butler - Vox on tracks 3, 6 and Saw on track 3
Marissa Sendejas - Vox on track 4
Jonmb Cichy - Vox on track 7 and Viola on track 6
Josie Krbs - Spoken word on track 5

I would also like to extend my warmest thanks and gratitude to Hagiophobic designs for working with me to create the sickest album artwork I've ever had!

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