Life Death Time & Space

(Except not the ones Madeleine or Joey say they are because there are way too many of those)

The King - crumbling walls, secrets lurking in cobwebbed corners, crashing waves in a storm. Being protected, forgotten, isolated, smothered.

The Creature - scratching, clawing, screaming. Torn curtains and bloodied nails, you have to get out, you have to get out, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT, YOU HAVE TO GE-

The Old Man - broken promises, hair so tangled it brings tears to your eyes when you brush it. A too-tight corset. Being sent to bed without supper. Wondering what you did wrong, why won't they love you?

The Fox - screaming at your own reflection in a cracked mirror, branches whipping at your face as you run through the forest. It doesn't matter how fast you run, the truth will always find you, always be waiting for you.

The Trees - tall branches and taller tales. Climbing through branches that could crack under your weight, but knowing they won't, that their support will lift you higher, ever higher. Watching the earth fall away beneath you. Wondering if you'll ever feel the ground beneath your feet again, and if you even want to.

The Hollow Folk - watching, whispering, waiting. Shadows flicking through the corners of your vision, devils and guardian angels and everything in between. They hold no secrets in their hearts because there is nothing there to hide, nothing even to see. Empty shells of former people, observing and oh-so-patient. They will get what they want, in the end.

The Saint - staring your mistakes in the face and knowing you'll never change. Burning your past and dancing in the ashes as you suffocate in the smoke that coils itself around you. You can never escape the flaws that reside deep in the furthest recesses of your soul. You will never get it right because you dont even know what right looks like anymore.

Good Man Grace - tough love that won't take no for an answer. Empty promises to be there for you that crumble to dust as soon as you ask for help. You could be better than you are if only someone would tell you how, but nobody will. You'll never be on your own, but you're always alone.

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It's NYE, and I made it! 31 days straight of TADposting! That in itself feels worth a celebration to me, so I'm raising a virtual glass to myself and to all of you. I started this challenge expecting to drop out within the first week, so honestly this is unbelievable haha, who knew I had this many thoughts about one band? Everybody knew, lets be real I never stop thinking about them but that's beside the point.

I'm so excited for what 2024 is going to bring. There's a new album to come, with all the emotions and inevitable posting on this account that it will bring, and I'm hoping to have the Entity List™️ finished and ready to post at some point soon. I am tempted to wait for the new album though, so that I can include any new additions to the lore, but it's really going to depend on how quickly I get the current draft finished. I'm sure I'll have lots of other TAD thoughts to unload onto this website in the meantime (I've been having FEELINGS about Secret Worlds recently!)

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I'll be honest, I looked at this on the 22nd and wished I hadn't made all those posts about Battle Cries already :')

So instead I want to look ahead to the new album. So far, all 3 albums have shown a different stage in a relationship. Love Run is the beginning, finding someone and choosing to run towards their feelings embracing them and the power it grants them. THATW is the collapse of the relationship, the fire and fury and madness that tore them apart. Ruin is the aftermath, looking around once the dust has settled and finding the parts of you that are, in fact, still you.

So where will this new album take us? Will we have a new adventure, finding out new things about yourself and becoming a new person in the process? Will we go back to the start, beginning the cycle anew without learning anything? Will we find someone new, leading towards a happier ending? Will it be something altogether different? There are so many direction this album could take, and I can't wait to see where we end up.

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This might be a bit of a cop-out response to the prompt, but honestly doing TADvent has been so much fun! I've absolutely loved finding lines to analyse and having these prompts has helped focus on elements I never would have thought to consider before. It hasn't always been easy (I've been struggling to stay caught up since the 10th when I caught a sickness bug of some kind and couldn't think straight for 3 days!) But as of writing this I haven't missed a single day which feels like quite an achievement.

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There's something truly spectacular about the live versions on YouTube. Not Yet/Love Run is particularly wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spotify versions beyond belief, but the live versions, with the group all performing together, just them in a room with music are something else altogether. Its such a beautiful representation of the community this band has created.

Maybe this is generalizing, but on the whole I feel like Amazing Devil music is for lonely people. The magic and the fantasy appeal to people who feel alone, who want an escape from their own lives and simultaneously feel represented as Madeleine and Joey sing all the emotions that we could never hope to put into words. A community of the lonely, brought together by music so that for a brief moment, we see how we are part of something bigger. Though we might be scattered across the globe, when we hear The Amazing devil we are, briefly, together.

@theamazingdevildiscord

I think the flowers mentioned in Elsa's Song are really interesting. You can, of course, look at the meanings they all carry (sage - health and wisdom, liles - purity, innocence and rebirth, roses - love and passion, forget-me-nots - faithfulness/fidelity, true love, and memory). In forgetting the forget-me-nots, Elsa has admitted to moving on, finding someone new and forgetting about her lost love. What's really interesting about this, though, is the type of plant each of these is.

Sage, roses and (some!) lilies are perennial. Year after year, they will come back. They might fade and wither over the colder months but as long as they are properly cared for, come spring they will return and flower again.

Forget-me-nots are considered semi-perennials, meaning they may well come back for a few years but will ultimately die. If you plant a forget-me-not in your garden, you do so knowing that in a few years you'll have to replace it. It lives on a limited timeframe, and nothing you can do will change that.

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Now this wind feels so warm on the back of my neck, as we walk with the Sun hand in hand from the wreck.

I know I've already made a TADvent post about how Battle Cries is a beginning and not an end, but I think this line needs more appreciation.

The relationship is over. It's crashed and burned, damaged beyond repair. They are done, once and for all.

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If I'm completely honest, the first time I heard Marbles, I wasn't that impressed. It was a nice enough song, but off the back of such intensity as Pray, Not Yet, and The Horror and The Wild, I just found it forgettable. And forget about I did, for several months, until it came up by chance on shuffle. I wasnt paying much attention, until one line suddenly stood out to me:

I'm scared of the dark.

It was so vulnerable, almost plaintive, and yet filled with trust for the person being sung to that I had to go to the beginning and listen again, paying attention this time. Now, when I tell you it devastated me, I'm not exaggerating. I listened several times in a row, and let me tell you on second listen it hurts even more.

The first time around, it's a lovely, classic story of a normal couple which then takes a turn when they get older. It's emotional and lovely and touching.

The second time, you listen to them bickering about their flat and holding each other through the difficult moments, and you know that all their comfortable domesticity is going to be ripped away from them. It already has been, they just don't know it yet.

And then Madeleine says, so weakly, so desperately, that she's scared of the dark. Childlike in her fear, you know that there's nothing that can bring her back. Still, he loves her, still, he's there, but it will never be the same. The dark isn't coming, it's already here, and no amount of love can pull her out of it. All he can do is hold her, all he can do is wait and hope. And it won't be enough to save her.

Alternatively:

Me: *having a normal day*

Marbles: I'm scared of the dark

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The Old Witch Sleep offers comfort akin to death. To be comfortable is to give in, to stop fighting, to let her win.

The Good Man Grace offers life with the price of pain. To live is to suffer, to be slapped across the face again and again in the name of love.

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I've said before that Pruning Shears is the sound of falling in love, but really I consider it to be one part of a whole beautiful love song.

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