‘Pride Before Fall’ – This is a literal interpretation of war, both sides go into war believing in their cause and thinking the other side is wrong or immoral, but when the war is over and both sides have lost huge amount of both soldiers and innocents there is a huge sense of loss. This loss and the destruction that war has caused shows that the war in most cases was not worth it. This title is the pride going into war compared to the humility they feel in the wake of it.
‘Arrogance’ – This title is in keeping with the anti-war theme, many anti-war campaigns imply that war is for posturing. “the Israeli media has been chock full of reports hinting that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is imminent … Up to now I’ve been convinced this is mostly posturing …posturing can spin out of control” – Arab News Blog, “Israel vs. Iran: Imminent war, political posturing or something else?” Nov 5th 2011. This is a post from a blog that deals purely with the Middle East conflicts, the writers seem to try and remain neutral however some of the posts written by individuals about aspects of the conflicts have an anti-war ideal behind them. The word used in the article ‘posturing’ is important because it implies that politicians think of it as a game and it makes them look arrogant from an anti-war point of view.
‘Seventh Level of Hell’ – The title implies religious roots. While part of the bible is pro-war, another part is anti-war, and looking into the anti-war part we find Luke 6:37 – “Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” While this quote seems to be talking about love and forgiveness, it implies that if those who follow Christianity will be condemned if they condemn others, in terms of war, killing another person will condemn you because you condemned them. The title name, ‘Seventh Level of Hell’ refers to the nine levels of hell in the 14th Century poem “Inferno”, the seventh level in this idea of hell is for those who committed violence against others.
‘Fear’ – A basic human emotion and the most common in war. This title is short and eloquent as it says a lot about humans. While war has been commonplace since the beginning of the human reign over the world we still feel fear over it, and despite feeling fear we still go to war and hundreds of soldiers lay down their lives for the cause. However war may be the lesser of two evils for some people, we know what to expect with war, for people to die and for a single side to win out over the other, it has some sense of comfort because after the war there is a definite outcome, while if two enemy countries were not at war, the anticipation of one side striking first could be the cause of more anxiety and fear than war itself because of the mystery of it.
‘Empire of Power’ – Refers to Roman and Greek times when the world was split into empires. War before civilisation had properly set up was for expanding land in a country, while today there is a similar need for resources we do not use the idea of empires. This title represents the idea that history repeats itself and that individuals in power want to expand the domain they rule over like the emperors, kings and pharaohs in our history.
‘Prisoner of War’ - This is a play on the real meaning of prisoners of war, which are enemy soldiers captured and sometimes interrogated for information. However I am using it in the sense that the prisoners of war are the soldiers themselves, those who are trapped in war that is difficult to escape.
‘Dead Eyes’ – This title refers to what was known in the First World War as ‘Shell Shock’, known today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Many soldiers come back from war traumatised by what they have seen, not only do many solider and innocent civilians suffer from this they can have a myriad of other condition brought on by the stresses and horrors of war, disorders such as night-terrors, anxiety, flashbacks and tremors to name a few. The BBC History website said this: “the 'return to the mental attitude of civilian life' could spark off severe psychological trauma.” The effect of returning to a normal life could result in mental trauma that cause the soldiers to lose touch with reality, which is the reason I chose this title as it implies this trauma.
Final Choice: After talking to some of the performers in my video I have decided to use the album title 'Dead Eyes' through popular choice. After looking at other album titles I found that most of them, both for the metal genre and the anti-war theme have emotive album titles that reinforce the album art ideology and 'Dead Eyes' is the most emotive title and also has the most intertextual references to war as I explained above.
Album Title: Dead Eyes
