Purification
A Torch to Pierce the Night

Militant vegans were apparently not well represented enough in the music business today, which is why the members decided to make a new Purification album. I personally really hate militants of any kind (except for those revolting oppressive dictators and their armies of course) as it is just a sign that they cannot really produce convincing enough arguments for their cause without resorting to violence and destruction, it is just idiotic. Spreading a message through music though, that is fine to me as long as that message isn’t just shoved down your throat and thrusted on you from every direction because music is a form of art and those should be enjoyable wether you share the artist’s view or not. The message should be put out so that you want to research and know more about a certain thing but not really knowing why, that is a good way to spread your message in music because not all will agree with your opinion no matter how sound it appear to you. They do have a good looking album cover these italians, but what about what is underneath that?

Well, it is hardcore. Standardised hardcore according to the guidelines of that musical format, kind of like they have made it like you draw one of those pictures where you draw lines between numbers. Nothing that stands out is what I want to say with that, the production is also rather typical. The album has one intro and one track in a non-english language and it has a spoken word track which I will get back to later, that is actually something that does stand out but not in the musical sense of course. But all you can really say about this album musically is that it is a typical hardcore album with a spoken word track and that begs to question if it was only to spread their message they decided to return with a new album?

I would guess that the answer to that is yes, they really do push their opinions down you throat or whatever, there is really no way to ignore them. And as the lyrics wasn’t enough there is a spoken word track that spans over five and a half minute speaking of the bad things with genetically modified crops or GMOs as they are called, a rather one sided affair forgetting some valid counterpoints for the one wanting to form an own opinion (I think things like that is called preaching and is often used by fanatics and fundamentalists). One point the speaker forget in this genetics argument is that genetically modified crops are more rigorously tested for both health effects and environmental effects than “regular” crops which of course doesn’t mean that we can know all effects of them but it conflicts with the speakers claim about it being untested. Another point is that these crops can be tailored to give bigger harvests (not just longer shelf lives and whatever else the speaker said while forgetting bigger crops) which might be considered beneficial to all those millions (if not billions) of people that starve in the world, and more access to foods also lowers the prices of foods which also can make it an economic argument. Then of course there is that fact of all the crops we eat today is modified by crossbreeding and actively so for hundreds of years, sure it is not made in a lab but it achieves the same effect.

I think each and everyone should find out for him-/herself what they make of these things, but is there really a difference between crossbreeding food plants with certain weeds to make them more resistant to certain problems than doing it genetically in a lab? I am not telling you my standpoint but for the sake of argument one should always have two sides of a coin and in that spoken word track all the arguments against genetical alterations are present but no argument for it. But there is one more argument in this situation of what to eat and what not to eat, people starve as there is not enough food on this planet for all of us and that is a fact that can not be disputed by anyone. Would John Joseph really avoid certain foods if every day was a fight to survive in a situation where he had not enough food? Would purification?

Those above questions are quite valid to this argument I think as it is easy to be picky about what to eat and what not to eat and start moralising about it when you have an abundance of food and can easily get enough to eat every day and even eat yourself fat if you like to. I could easily say that you should not eat cheap food as I don’t but most people in the world cannot afford to eat the kind of food I eat and it would be wrong of me to tell a starving african that the fruit he is about to eat (which may be the first thing he eats in days) is genetically modified and he cannot know what it will do to his health or the environment many years from now, I don’t think he cares, I wouldn’t in his situation.

Anyway, food arguments aside, this album has one good track which is the one after the intro. The rest of the album is just boring standard hardcore which I have heard to boredom a long time ago. And before you mailbombing me about the movie he mentioned and other arguments about GMOs and stuff, I have seen that movie and several other documentaries on the same subjects and read a lot about it. I have not told you my personal standpoint on it either just quoted other people’s arguments and I will not say what I think as it is none of your business, I will however tell you my standpoint on this album and that is to throw it in the thrash and then I will sit down and eat some nice good yellow pepper while waiting for the ice hockey and then later the F1 qualification to start. It is nice to live in prosperity, isn’t it?