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Interview: Carla’s DreamsAnneke van Giersbergen

Tarja - impressions of two concerts- Simona MihalcaHeaven or Hell - Ioana AghirculeseiOtep - Generation Doom - Michela Sereni

Heaven’s a lie

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Teen Art Out nr 41Our editorial team

ISSN 2284 – 6549 ISSN–L = 2284 – 6549

Editor-in-Chief: Simona Mihalca

Editors: Lilianna Henkel Michela Sereni Rareș Zaharia-Lefter Nina Moskowitz Julia Hamermesz Ioana Aghirculesei Kovács Anna Sára Andrei Radu Turcu Dennis Sahl

Cover design: Alexandra IosifDesign: Alexandra Iosif

We reserve the right to select the submissions received before publishing

Contact:www. teen.artout.roteen@artout.ro

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Our editorial team Content

Letter from the editor 5 Style 6

Interview: Carla’s Dreams 14 Anneke van Giersbergen 22

Live: Tarja Turunen-Impressions of two concerts 29

Heaven ‘s a lie: Heaven’s a lie 34 Person, Place or Thing? 36 Heaven or Hell 38 A well -loved place 40 Heaven is a white lie 42 Davin Fincher-a critical review 44

Story time: Worst Dreams do 46 Music Review: Otep Generation Doom 49

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Letter from the editorHeaven’s a Lie

Our 41st issue is themed around La-cuna’s Coil Heaven’s a Lie. We explore what it is that people seek in heaven, imagining it, creating it, and wishing for it. While there are many strict defini-tions of it, it is clear that it means some-thing else for each of us. We are told to be goof and truthful to get it, but more often than not, we have to lie, cheat, ma-nipulate, even in the name of the said heaven.Can we be confined into our ideas and not try to impose them on other peo-ple? We are not talking only about reli-gion here. Heaven can be many things. It simply represents our ideals and goals, our desired hubris. It’s what we yearn for, our state of mind and soul. But it would not be that good a place, be it imaginary, without having other people with us. So we try to convince other people that our heaven is what should be. We want to show them this nice version of our world, without giv-ing a thought whether they want it, whether they need it or simply whether they agree with it. We promise things, we make tiny exaggerations, we change things. And that is how the lies begin, small, white, innocent, until they snow-ball into one huge mess.

We are here to say that your heaven’s a lie! We won’t stand for your impos-ing your views on us. We shall not be fooled into submission. We have the voice, the will and the wits to con-quer the world. We shall make our own heaven. We shall decide what we want. We shall not be played. We want to be set free, to be allowed to exist on our own, to be given the truth and the freedom to act on it as we see fit. Check out our articles for takes on this fascinating theme, to find out what heaven can mean to many of us and to really understand how it can be a lie. Open your eyes and mind and reason with us and with everyone around you. Learn how to be honest with yourself and with others, how to see illusions for what they are. And most impor-tantly, learn not to impose your views on others, let them be, grow up, expe-rience. Guide them and teach them, support them as they discover their truth.

Simona MihalcaEditor-in-Chief

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STYLE

Styling: Florin OanceaPhoto: Alexandru Pavel

Make Up: Flaviu Gafton – Dalles GoHair: Ciprian Gradinaru – Dalles Go

Scarf – Smuggler StorePants – Smuggler StoreSandals – Call It Spring

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Styling: Florin OanceaPhoto: Alexandru Pavel

Make Up: Flaviu Gafton – Dalles GoHair: Ciprian Gradinaru – Dalles Go

Pants – Laura Lazar – Cult StoreSandals – Call It SpringLeather Jacket – Zara

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Dress – Laura Lazar – Cult StoreLeather Jacket – Zara

Leggings – Laura Lazar – Cult Store

Pants – Laura Lazar – Cult StoreSandals – Call It SpringLeather Jacket – Zara

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Dress – Laura Lazar – Cult StoreLeather Jacket – Zara

Leggings – Laura Lazar – Cult Store

Pants – Laura Lazar – Cult StoreSandals – Call It SpringLeather Jacket – Zara

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Heaven's A Lie

Drama, disappointment, libertinism .....a visu-al story at the age of sexuality inspired by rock culture. In order to accentuate the importance of the freedom of speech, there have been added some sadomasochist touches to the angelic face. Therefore the spectator imagination is aroused and left to run wild, continuing the story.

Dress – Smuggler StoreBlazer – Laura Lazar – Cult Store

Sandals – Call It Spring

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Heaven's A Lie

Drama, disappointment, libertinism .....a visu-al story at the age of sexuality inspired by rock culture. In order to accentuate the importance of the freedom of speech, there have been added some sadomasochist touches to the angelic face. Therefore the spectator imagination is aroused and left to run wild, continuing the story.

Sandals – Call It Spring

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Laz

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Interview : Carla’s DreamsSimona Mihalca

There is no way you’ve been living in Romania, Mol-dova or even some other parts of Europe without hav-ing heard of Carla’s Dreams, the most successful proj-ect to take the music world by storm. Coming from Moldova but with some new, local additions, they are

a super-group that relies on their anonimity more than anything else. It’s not easy to know any-

thing them, but what you must know is that they are without a doubt the

artists of the year, putting out hit after hit after hit. On May 7th they released their album, NGOC, to a full show in Arenele Romane. It was the mo-ment everyone was convinced beyond a doubt that they are not only good musicians and composers, or „cantautori”, as they like to call themselves, but also great entertainers. A show with guests, singers, dancers, lights, colours and

everything else. And now they get ready to con-

quer Bucharest again on

J u l y 14th.

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Carla’s Dreams: There no song we prefer permanently, as our preferences are tied to our moods and each song we have released has been dear to us in the period we made it. We are glad to have the possibility to not release anything but what we want and feel.

Simona Mihalca: You have been confirmed for Shine Festival, a presence that has taken a lot of people by surprise. Spellground and Blaj aLive are also coming up. What does a big festival mean to you? Do you prepare other than for your own headline shows?Carla’s Dreams: We see no difference in the public. The only thing that differs sometimes is the level of hypocrisy. We are just being ourselves, whether in Arad, or Iasi, or in a festival or in general rehearsal. As for sur-prising people, we don’t particularly follow that. We know our capacities and we would always prefer “lack of disappointment – sur-prise “

Simona Mihalca: You are always active on social media and constantly answering fans. What makes you be personally involved and how much are you affected but what they are saying, both positive and negative? Carla’s Dreams: Fortunately, people of the page have created together with us a set of communication rules that are being re-spected, no matter the circumstances. We are EXTRAORDINARILY (yes, we stand by that word) happy and even proud that on our Facebook page you can find an intelli-gent public, respectful and warm, just as it is in concerts (at the entry, during the event or afterwards). We really believe that this is the greatest joy that an artist can have in the sense of a relationship with the public. A public that smiles, thinks, discusses, ap-preciates or doesn’t appreciate. But there is respect.

Starting from the beginning, we wanted to find out more about the project, one that en-compasses not only the lead singer, not only the band, but many other people that work tirelessly behind the scenes for the project to work as smoothly and as greatly as it does. “The organisation system which we have managed to create and on which we are still working does not entice explaining and sharing the rules which govern it. Therefore, we cannot answer this question. Or at least, we cannot answer it truthfully and we as-sume that nothing is more than fake. ”

Simona Mihalca: How easy or hard is to compose and produce songs that cater to every taste?Carla’s Dreams: We have never thought of that when composing and producing, but it is obvious that we do keep that in mind in some way or another, though more in the rhetorical sense, after the track is done. We try to keep our fans in mind, but only in the big picture. The creative part does not bend for anyone or anything, it has no rules to abide by.

Simona Mihalca: There are many famous acts associated with Carla’s Dreams. What attracts you to an artist to collaborate with him or her?Carla’s Dreams: We choose our collabora-tions according to the song in question. Picking songs depending to artists is what producers do and we produce for someone else extremely rare.

Simona Mihalca: A lot has been discussed about your face paintings. Did you ever think about having visual art projects?Carla’s Dreams: No, not yet.

Simona Mihalca: What is the song of all you’ve done so far that you are the proudest of?

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17 Credit foto: Carlos Funes

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Simona Mihalca: Tell us more about what it meant to you creating the soundtrack for At-letico Textila. Do you wish that in the future you can create movie soundtracks?Carla’s Dreams: We’ve done this before underdifferent names. We like soundtracks, it relaxes us. We don’t set this as a goal and something we need to do, but, of course, it is close to us from an ar-tistic point of view.

Simona Mihalca: What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?Carla’s Dreams: We never liked and we don’t think we will ever like questions and answers that are restrictive. Each artist and show we support are so different that it would be hard to argument a classification. As far as one artist and his concerts are concerned, it is simpler. Like it is the case of Michael Jackson’s concert in Bucharest from 1994, concert to which I have not been. That concert was truly a spe-cial one. This way, each artist has wonderful genius moments or less spectacular ones and we are not capable of making a selection. Even a personal one.

Simona Mihalca: What are some of the songs you consider to be a point of reference, that have changed you or that have changed some-thing around them?Carla’s Dreams: John Lennon – Imagine, Queen – Friends will be friends, Show Must Go On. Also some songs from the Russian rock scene we won’t exemplify. We believe re-sistance songs in a culture play different roles in different times.

We have all felt differently, listening in dif-ferent years and different moods „Lume, lume, soro, lume”. And that doesn’t just change, but also creates room for change.

Simona Mihalca: What are the traditions or rituals you care most about?Carla’s Dreams: Bearing in mind that we are an extremely diverse group in religious, cultural and social attitudes and beliefs, it is impossible to classify them. The answer is either in combining them or in their ab-sence, whatever they are and however many people would believe in them or would ne-glect them.

Simona Mihalca: What are the things you observe at other people or other artists and about which you want to say “I will never be like that”?Carla’s Dreams: I have never mane such an analysis and I hope never to have to make it. It’s a hope that is probably arrogant com-ing out of the trust we have in natural and the power natural things have of piercing through.

19 Credit foto: Carlos Funes

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21 Credit foto: Carlos Funes

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Interview: Anneke van Giersbergen

By now, Anneke van Giersbergen needs no in-troduction. You can always tell she’s around by the light and warmth surrounding her. A great musician and a great person. We caught up with her at one of her shows to chat about her present and future projects. The venue where Anneke played an acoustic show is located just at the edge of the city center of a small town in the Netherlands. We arrived early and met Anneke with her husband and son at the door. Spontaneously she invites us in, changes her timing and swaps interview and sound check. After grabbing a Coke, Anneke is ready for the interview.

Dennis Sahl: You are on an acous-tic tour – what is different?

Anneke: Everything is really dif-ferent. The venue is smaller, the audience is closer. It almost feels as if you are playing in a living room. Also the procedure is so much simpler: It is just me, I bring my guitar, plug it in and that’s it. No big set up needed.

D.S.: What does that mean for your performance?

Anneke: It’s more pure, more di-rect. People see and hear every-thing. A big band – no one will notice a small mistake. With the acoustic shows people are much closer to me. Mistakes can happen and people will notice them. It is a special intimacy between me and the audience. It really is pure.

Dennish Sahl and Camyla Eslayne da Silva Cruz

D.S.: You have so many projects, how do you coordinate all of them?

Anneke laughs: Yes, I really am doing a lot. Re-ally a lot! But now I am focusing on the acous-tic shows and then my solo album. I have been doing a lot for it already. And after the album release a solo tour. With Amorphis it will only be a gig but no more because I really want to focus on my acoustic stuff and on my heavy album.

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D.S.: What can we expect?

Anneke’s eyes sparkle even more: It will be heavy. Definitely it is going to be a Metal al-bum. I am recording it with the band of The Gentle Storm, so the sound will be going into this direction. And also a little bit of Prog. The Gentle Storm has inspired me with this too, but there will be fewer folk influences.

D.S.: And how was your writing process?

Anneke: I am still in it. I do a lot of traveling and I really like it. I get many new impressions, different countries, and different atmospheres. And I meet so many new people. All that in-spires me to write new music, to come up with ideas. When I am in the hotel room for exam-ple I always write something, try to come up with ideas. And I listen to a lot of music too.

D.S.: And what’s that lately?

Anneke: The new Amorphis album is awesome as well as the latest Mastodon album which was released I think two years ago. A lot of progressive Metal. And Opeth, I love Opeth. They are amazing! … Although the album, their latest I mean, it is not pure Metal. It is more like 1970s Progressive Rock. Very cool ...

D.S.: Speaking about Opeth: They always change their musical style and not always to everyone’s expectation. What’s your thought on that?

Anneke: You know, I have also had my Pop Rock phase. Not all fans liked it, but all in all I have the feeling they just weather it out. Peo-ple have had patience with me for example. I have very loyal fans and I am grateful for that. They may dislike an album but they always come back. And an artist is always ahead of the people. The music is written and produced before people have listened to it.

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There is new and fresh ideas in it and the artist might al-ready be moving to the next phase when the fans first hear the work.Anneke takes a sip of her Coke and starts coughing: That always hap-pens to me! I was in the car not so long ago and I was sing-ing, learning songs and drinking Coke and doing all at the same time. I kept coughing Coke the whole day.

D.S.: Singing in the car, is that how you practice?

Anneke: Yes! I just sing a lot. I don’t do scales and all that. I just try to sing as much as I can. Ev-ery day. It is like a muscle that you need to exercise and keep it warm so it stays flexible. Also for me as a singer, to develop my abilities Ar-jen (Lucassen) and Devin (Townsend) have helped me a lot.

I learn the most working with other people. Both know my voice very well and they always try to get more out of it.They wrote music for me to sing that I would never have thought I actually could …D.S.: They pushed your limits?

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Anneke: They did. Not even explicitly, they just wrote the music. They said “You can do it” and when I tried it worked. I learned from them that I always have to try to explore more and to go beyond what I think I can do.

D.S.: And the guitar? Was it hard to learn?

Anneke: It was not super hard to learn. I have already played before and could refresh that. It was a bit hard to sing and play at the same time but I made it.

D.S.: So will there be any Anneke-played gui-tar solos on the new album?

Anneke laughs: Noooo, no! For that I have the band, they are all very awesome musicians and I don’t play those super fast metal solos. It is no blues after all.

D.S.: If you could pick any artist, who would you still like to work with?

Anneke: I have my favorites. Of course Mikael Akerfeldt would be really splendid. But also Mike Patton is one of my favorites in the scene – ever. My collaboration with Devin Townsend already has come true for 5 times or so which is awesome. Funny, I always come up with vo-calists. And I get to sing with Amorphis soon. Tommy, their singer, is really good.

D.S.: Being on tour, what do you do to stay fit and healthy?

Anneke: I need sleep. A lot. My instrument is my body so I need to take care of it. Eat and sleep and drink a lot of water is essential. But I never do enough because the days are long and full and also I work odd hours. And when I should be resting in my hotel room actually what I do is to write. So I sleep very little be-cause I want to do everything. I get more tired easily. When I was 18 I did not care about any-thing but now I have to watch out more.

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D.S.: We’ve seen a couple of yoga pictures on the internet. When will you be a master?

Anneke: Nooooo, ha. I just like to do it, espe-cially when you travel a lot, you sit so much and the body gets stiff. It is a great way to stay flexible. And now with the acoustic shows all I do is this (Anneke mimics playing a guitar) and I don’t move. So it is twice as good to do some more sports. I can’t do all the tricks like stand on the head and so. But yoga can be so killing and super super heavy. That’s really good for me.

D.S.: What else do you think is important when touring?

Anneke: I think there are many unwritten rules. The key is always respect: Respect for the people around you. Respect if you are opening for the main act and as the main act respect for your colleagues that open for you. You have to respect everyone’s work in the tour, the ven-ue, the crew and all the people who are there who help you. Also there is the audience who is coming to see you. Always be respectful and honest about what you do.

D.S.: How important is the contact with the fans for you?

Anneke: I very much like to be in touch. If it was not for them, if they would not come to my shows I’d have a big problem. I never take that for granted. People come to see me, buy my albums, the tickets and when they come we can share the music, the atmosphere. And that is the greatest thing in the world. After smaller gigs like on my acoustic tour I can go and have a drink and a chat with the fans af-terward. With bigger shows it is a bit harder because it gets too much.

D.S.: What do you do with the presents that you get?Anneke: You know, sometimes it is hard to carry everything that I get because when I fly there always is so little space in the suitcase. And if I ate all the sweets and candies I get I would be so big. So I share with people and re-give a lot. I leave things for the people who clean the hotel rooms for example. I always try to spread it to everyone and share the atten-tion. But I keep the little things people make for me like dolls and so on.

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Can you believe it, they make dolls only for me! I keep these things at my place in a col-lection.

D.S.: What was the most surprising present ever?

Anneke: It was a coffin! With my name on it. A girl made it for me, a small coffin, filled with black rose leaves. People in Gothic Metal they love such things and I see the romance in it. But also it was a bit macabre; being confronted with your own death I mean.

D.S.: Who do you think is crazier, you or your fans?

Anneke: The fans are. But maybe they think otherwise. For example Devin Townsend, he has the reputation of being crazy and he has done some crazy things. But actually he is very focused and very intelligent, nice and funny. He is super serious about his music, his life. People sometimes picture artists as crazy be-cause it is entertaining. I am a very easygoing person for example. Not loud and crazy, I just make music.

D.S.: So you never got into trouble?

Anneke: Meeee? No! I Am so not Rock ‘n’ Roll! I never did anything super weird. I am so bor-ing. But I think I will live longer and maintain making my music longer. I don’t want people to worry if I have my shit together. I feel a re-sponsibility for people who buy tickets. And I never did drugs, it does not interest me at all. I have seen too much already. I know a lot of musicians who have their addictions, you know.

D.S.: Speaking about responsibility and being late – what do you think about Axl Rose join-ing ACDC?

Anneke: This is so cool man! One of the great-est bands that ever were is Guns ‘n’ Roses and that coming together with the best-selling Rock band ever, ACDC – I like that a lot. Guns they made classics, I grew up with them!

D.S.: Ok then! What’s your favorite guilty plea-sure?

Anneke drops silent and thinks a while: I don’t have one. I never feel guilty with anything I do! But if I have time off I put on jogging pants, no makeup and eat lots of chocolate. But that’s no guilty pleasure.

D.S.: Last one. Are you sad that the Nether-lands are not going to France (to the Euro 2016)?

Anneke: A little bit but I am not so much into soccer. My husband is more into sports and when he gets sad it affects me too though. We have this fantastic young Dutch Formula 1 driver (Max Verstappen) though and he won the other day. But with sports in any moment everything can change in one moment. I like that. And also that’s true for music – every-thing can change.

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Tarja Turunen impressions of two concerts

LIVE

Simona Mihalca

If there is someone who needs no introduction, it’s Tarja Turunen. I won’t even tell you where she’s been, because we are now talking about Tarja, the solo artist, the great singer, the per-former, the entertainer. We are talking about Tarja, who is releasing not one but two albums this summer, the long-expected The Shadow Self and its prequel which has already been re-leased, The Brightest Void.

Starting with her previous release, Co-lours in The Dark, she has redefined her-self, or better yet, she has defined her-self. She has dropped her big, dramatical symphonic background for a more heavy metal sound. And let’s be honest, with a voice like hers, she could sing anything and we would love it. But what she is do-ing now fits her like a glove.I have been truly following her for a num-ber of years, so I jumped at the chance to see her again at Rock on Green festival in London. Said and done, I packed my bags, got on a flight, listened to her new album and prepared myself. The festival started with many bands, but I only ar-rived at Amaranthe, another act I love. They gave it all on stage and their energy is electric. I love their upbeat tunes and how they defy categorization and simply defy metal elitism. They make you feel good and they have a hell of a good time doing so. And it all just works. I loved seeing them, but seeing them before Tar-ja was something else. They match so well together, being similar and different in all the right ways. I really hope they’ll one day tour together.

It’s true that I was fangirling about this con-cert, but worry not, because so was Elize Ryd (singer of Amaranthe) about getting to meet Tarja. It’s the normal reaction to have. So there we go with Tarja preparing to go on stage. I now have to take a moment to talk about what the London metal scene looked to me.

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The concert was in an O2 arena, quite a small venue, but a gorgeous one, being an old the-ater. I am convinced this line-up would have gathered more people in Bucharest. The av-erage age of the genre enthusiast is quite big (35+). I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it simply feels different seeing grandmas in the front row rocking it out with Tarja. What I do like is how the public doesn’t need much to get excited about music. Maybe they had their pints of beer, maybe they just enjoy the weekend or maybe that is how they react to a concert. What is certain is that there is no need to warm up this public. They are there and ready to sing and shout. They will clap and rock on and dance and do everything to enjoy themselves.Here comes Tarja, starting out with No Bit-ter End, the first single of her prequel, The Shadow Self, one for which she had released a music video. We have seen some old songs we know and love, such as Never Enough, Die Alive, Until My Last Breath or Victim of Rit-ual. It’s interesting to see that she has dropped her reference song I Walk Alone, one that has grown weary on many people, but which is always a golden ticket for lesser audiences. Being at the start of her tour, promoting two albums, she graced us with some new songs, such as Demons In You. We know that song features some very interesting vocals from Alissa-White Gluz, but we’ll just have to wait until the album is released to hear them. Then we have Shameless, which we already knew from her fresh new album, a good hard rock song. My utmost favourite song was Suprem-acy, a cover of the Muse song. It is such a vo-cally demanding song, only a select few would even dare to touch it. It showcases what I love most about Tarja’s newest materials, that she really goes classical and she wows us with her delivery of long, high notes, she belts them, she whispers them. It was magical. Calling from the Wild was a nice surprise, and not at all the woodland fantasy you would expect by the name.

And then, of course, Goldfinger, the cover of the James Bond theme. She shines on it! The night ended with Over The Hills and Far Away, a cover of Gary Moore’s famous song. All in all, she shined, she enticed us and she truly demonstrated why so many people think of her as the almighty Tarja, the one to lead the genre, whose vocals are unmatched. She can dance and jump and still deliver those notes just as well. The public loved her from beginning to end, there is no denying it. It was a gamble show-ing off that many new songs, but she came out on the winning side. What was the downside of the concert was how short it was. With just 11 songs and no encore you were left stu-pefied, not able to grasp that it was all gone. We asked her about it afterwards and she said the fes-tival organizers only let her sing that long, much to our dismay.Hyper and ex-cited, we left the venue, but not before waiting for Tarja to come out and greet her fans, patient-ly taking photos with each of us, signing our tick-ets and talking.

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It’s not the most common occurrence to get to meet her, but being the first show in the tour, and a great one that is, we were lucky. Honor-able mention to the Amaranthe guys and girls for coming out at the merch stand and later outside the venue to meet us.Now it was really over. Just like that. It felt like we blinked and that was that. We enjoyed it all, but it was time to say goodbye. Or was it?

Being one of those involved fans (not to brag or anything, but I do am the president of the Romanian fanclub), I got a chance to go see Tarja perform in a private “pre-listening” concert in Metropolis Studios. While I first thought it would be just a rendering of the al-bums, it turned out into such a special expe-rience. We, the special few, got to sit on the floor, just between Tarja and the cameras. She was recording the shows for Act 2 (the sequel to her live DVD, Act 1). It was such an inti-mate thing, but such a big thing. Crowded on the floor, we got to see the magic happen right in front of our eyes.Of course we would start with No Bitter End. While the song did not quite impress me in the beginning, it has grown on me. It has a great hook and it will be loved live. We then had Ea-gle Eye, arguably the fan-favourite of her first album. It’s electric, it’s personal, it’s relatable. All you could wish for in a song. Sing For Me, Medusa, Victim of Ritual, Die Alive and Until My Last Breath were the “older” songs we were graced with. From the new albums, we got to hear Love to Hate (I don’t know what this is about but I know what’s everyone’s thinking), Calling From The Wild (this time with an acoustic guitar from Mr. Alexander Scholpp, who asked to speak up about the song and was so clearly flustered and shy), Innocence (one that has unfortunately leaked through an indiscretion of a streaming platform. You’ll be able to sing it in no time as the chorus is just singing Innocence over and over again in many different ways) and Too Many (great song, catchy, good rhythm).Once again, I have to give her the credit for cre-ating such vocally demanding songs for her-self. She could take the easy way out. Her voice is versatile enough to sing absolutely anything. But she keeps pushing herself and her music, she keeps learning, she keeps improving. She wants to be better, both for us and for herself. With the classical/hard rock instrumental, her voice shines more clearly.

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You have moments where you really have to stop in awe and say: wow. Sure, there will always be nay-sayers, people you cannot please, people who get stuck in their mind frame. I do love her more symphonic work, but I understood that she has moved on from that. Her music is unapologetic. Take it or leave. And we take it every day. It probably won’t be your hit of the summer, or something to break all charts, but it’s personal to her and it becomes personal to many of us. What she may lack in instrumental complexity she makes up with her vocals. And she’s a wonder as a live artist. Soon enough she’ll announce her touring schedule for this year and the next one, so stay tuned, listen to her and try to see her live.

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Heaven’s a LieRares Zaharia - Lefter

Your heaven’s a lie, but is it your heaven? Is it your heaven when I dream of it? Is it your heaven when I’m promised it, when I chase it, when I earn it, and I find out you still don’t want to give it to me? When you know it’s all I need to live, yet you keep it for yourself, or hand it out to the nearest stranger whose heaven you desire. Your heaven is a lie, a lie, a lie I live by and for. I will not beg for you to free me – I love your heaven even more when it’s yours and only yours.

But, what about my heaven, the heaven promised to everyone – is there any heaven at all. The truth is heaven is what we make of it. Heaven’s a lie now, heaven’s the only truth tomorrow and in the end it’s up to us. So, to reach it, ask the angels in it for directions. You may get an answer as simple as “Go straight towards Orion and take a left turn after Cloud 9. When Ursa Major is above you, you have reached Heaven”. At least this is what you wish for. After all, why wouldn’t it be this simple? If until now you have only found it under a lock, and you had to go to hell and back to get the key for it, and when the Seraphim guided you wrong and Cerberus didn’t have the key between his fangs.

Why don’t you go and look for it inside you, between the piano strings from your neck that make your voice so beautiful, in the sunflower seeds on your skin you so inconsiderately call “moles”, when they really are beauty spots, and among the golden thin wands of fairies so skillfully hidden in your hair? Why don’t you find Heaven on Earth? Because you can only find it in the wooden eyes that you’ll never forget, even when you haven’t seen them for a hundred lifetimes? Because it is a lie? Because the very sight of it blinded you, immobilized you, like a power too great for you to contain? No.Because no matter what you feel, Heaven is still there, at the end of the line, waiting for you, while you, blinded, glaze the sun well. You’re so little and powerless, but there is a place where no stone road, mountain or sea can stop you from getting. That is Heaven, and it’s not a lie.

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Heaven’s a Lie Your heaven’s a lie, but is it your heaven? Is it your heaven when I dream of it? Is it your heaven when I’m promised it, when I chase it, when I earn it, and I find out you still don’t want to give it to me? When you know it’s all I need to live, yet you keep it for yourself, or hand it out to the nearest stranger whose heaven you desire. Your heaven is a lie, a lie, a lie I live by and for. I will not beg for you to free me – I love your heaven even more when it’s yours and only yours.

But, what about my heaven, the heaven promised to everyone – is there any heaven at all. The truth is heaven is what we make of it. Heaven’s a lie now, heaven’s the only truth tomorrow and in the end it’s up to us. So, to reach it, ask the angels in it for directions. You may get an answer as simple as “Go straight towards Orion and take a left turn after Cloud 9. When Ursa Major is above you, you have reached Heaven”. At least this is what you wish for. After all, why wouldn’t it be this simple? If until now you have only found it under a lock, and you had to go to hell and back to get the key for it, and when the Seraphim guided you wrong and Cerberus didn’t have the key between his fangs.

Why don’t you go and look for it inside you, between the piano strings from your neck that make your voice so beautiful, in the sunflower seeds on your skin you so inconsiderately call “moles”, when they really are beauty spots, and among the golden thin wands of fairies so skillfully hidden in your hair? Why don’t you find Heaven on Earth? Because you can only find it in the wooden eyes that you’ll never forget, even when you haven’t seen them for a hundred lifetimes? Because it is a lie? Because the very sight of it blinded you, immobilized you, like a power too great for you to contain? No.Because no matter what you feel, Heaven is still there, at the end of the line, waiting for you, while you, blinded, glaze the sun well. You’re so little and powerless, but there is a place where no stone road, mountain or sea can stop you from getting. That is Heaven, and it’s not a lie.

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Person, Place, or Thing ? Let’s play a game of 20 Questions. Is it a person?No.Place?Yes.Have we visited recently?No. Is it magical?Yes.Is it heaven?Yes.So. They say heaven is a place on earth.But is it? Who says? Who knows what’s what. I know. I know what heaven is. It is the pools in your eyes when you talk about your passions, as they spill across your eyelash fences and onto the fields of your face. The blues of your irises create iridescent ripples, kaleidoscopes across your freckled cheekbones, so they look as though you were the unsuspecting canvas of a finger painter. It is the tendril of a breeze that swirls through my hair, a flirting technique that you whisper in my ear. The soft-ness of your voice snakes its way to my core, entwining itself around my heart in its seductive and unassuming manner. I can no lon-ger remember a time before I woke up to that voice in the morning, a sunlight in its own right, regardless of the weather outside.It is your hands. Oh, those hands. Those fingertips bitten by fairies, leaving callouses strewn hap-hazardly across the pads. Palms rough but also smooth, like overused sandpaper. I seek out the grit of those palms. I like their marks, their scuffs, the fact that they make you, you.

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I look for the patch of pink at the base of your ring finger, where the skin is just beginning to fully heal. I know it has potential to get roughed up again, but right now it is a beautiful symbol, a sign of dedication and work. You talk about how your wedding ring will have to cover up the scar tissue. I disagree. Callouses are like birthmarks are like scars: unique tags to set us apart from one another. I want yours showing when you marry. I want your wedding ring to be just shy of wide enough so all can see your fairy-bitten hands, and marvel at their work. When you get married, you won’t hide yourself, or your soul. I’ll be sure of that. It is the taste of your love at the end of the day. It is the warmth you send through me when you kiss me hello, or hug me for luck. It is hold-ing hands in any weather, re-gardless of whether they are clammy or not. It is the end-less debate of where to eat and what to do, without ever reaching a consensus. Yet still knowing that no mat-ter where we end up, I’ll be happy, because you’re there. It is knowing I am always the little spoon, and I will always stay warm in your arms. It is you.You, you, you again. They tell me to picture heavenly light and I see a heavenly being, a halo perched atop your chestnut curls. I see whites and golds and feel a cham-pagne warmth. They were wrong. Heaven isn’t a place on earth. Let’s play a game of 20 Ques-tions. Is it a person?Yes. Is it you?Yes. You are my heaven. You.

By:Nina Moskowitz

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People search their entire lives for something they can’t reach. Some of them are looking for money, some for fame, but some look only for love and create love from everything. But at the end of the day, for some, there is no one to provide them with the love they gave, damaging their expectations.Everyone is working on their Heaven, consolidating it and making their life better and better everyday. They know what their final destination is, but just don’t find the way to reach it. Kids are given the liberty to choose what they want to do, in order to start creating their own Heav-en. Yet, many choose to use their liberty in the way that is making others’ lives Hell, ending up transforming even their own Heaven in Hell.For everyone happiness is the resolution of their life. They crave for happiness and happy mo-ments and they will do whatever it takes to make their happiness as perfect as possible. But none of them will ever think in times of utterly joy about the fact that the people around them feel sad or just aren’t as happy as them. At some point, their happiness will make these people feel awful and want to break with them, this often causing the failure of relationships and the end of friendships. Crossing borderlines and not respecting people’s decisions will take the in-dividuals to the point in which they will cross their own borders and start neglect their comfort happy zone.Also we can talk about damaging people’s expectations by killing their assumptions about the fact that we like them or we enjoy their company or anything related to this. They say that people who treat the human beings around them with kindness and the ones that show love to everyone are the ones that are the most broken, the ones that don’t recieve the love they need.

Heaven or HellBy Ioana Aghiculesei

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Heaven or Hell

Those people create Heaven around them by being pos-itive and emitting happiness, by making even the ones that don’t feel that today is a nice day, thinking that: “well, there is hope and things can change”.They practi-cally feed upon this happiness and if anyone kills their vibe, they instantly change into some grumpy people and for a period of time they won’t be in their element.Believe it or not the way we act with the people around marks them, leading to tensions or relaxations between us and the world. It’s always about the vibes that we give and the vibes that we recieve that make our relationships the Heaven we always look for or the Hell that we recieve even if we don’t want to.

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A Well-Loved PlaceLilianna Henkel

The old boards mewed at the longing caress of her shoe like calicoes expecting some more loving. The room was living, walls dripped, saturated with decades of voices, and they were a different kind of color. The clear air was thick with old, old words, but it was kind and she did not sneeze. Those books had let those words through and like a breath they dissipated through their world. And “oh,” they sighed when she stroked their weary spines. The posters grinned down at her from the doorway.

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They were wide and sharp, glinting with intention. And when she spoke and when she read the weeping walls found a little more room. She swished away with a last whis-pered embrace, so the cats responded “see you this summer.” They knew. And she left it strewn and misplaced, fully unchanged, but with a different different kind of color, when she left the well-loved place.

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Heaven is a white lieKovács Anna Sára

Heaven is a white lie, a fairytale cre-ated for my kind: the fallen ones who lost everything that was precious in their lives and need something to help them get through the darkness, a last glimmer of hope to hold them back from falling apart. It is a lie that heals souls like mine, broken and worn out by many catastrophes, a lie made up to help. This lie has saved many lives throughout the history of the human race, and I am sure this will not change radically in the future - I believe, some people will always seek and find amends to their sufferings in the prom-ise of Heaven. The comfort that comes with this idea, the relief that once in the end everything will be alright, will never not be wanted and cherished.I do not need Heaven; it could not ease my pain anyway, for I do not believe in it. So, I have to seek other things to trust and put my heart and hope in, I must search for something else to live for. I must find joy and meaning in my life here on Earth in the things I can see and hear, the people I meet and the places I go, I have to find some-thing to love and to live for, and gather hope and courageom it. Eventually, I will overcome my distress by finding a way to live happily, conquering my destructive memories, keeping my strength and making peace with myself once and for all.Is this easy? Does it just work like that - I snap my fingers, and bam, I have overcome my mis-eries, my fears, all the terrible things that happened to me, and I am suddenly happy and whole forever? No, not really. It is a much longer and much, much more difficult process than that: on some days, I actually feel like giving up, suffocating in self-hate, completely numb of pain, un-able to get anything done or speak to anyone, but usually, I manage to stay strong.

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It is a constant battle, but it is not always that hard. Most of the time I win. Sometimes I can even relax, lay back for a lit-tle while and just enjoy it, be happy for where I am - and knowing that I am still capable of this gives me more hope and strength than anything else in the world.Heaven is a white lie made up for my kind, those who are left in the darkness and need some kind of light in their lives, a guarantee for salvation, a final state of peace and happiness in the afterlife. I under-stand why others put their faith in it and I can see how much it can help - but I do not choose it for myself. I do not need Heaven, for I am walking my own path.

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David Fincher -a critical review

Julia Hamermesz

Songs, as the main theme and basis for this magazine, have inspired us to write countless times. Be it on politics, re-lationships, social issues, philosophy: it’s the base I, and many others, have used to fill these pages. But there are more kinds of stimuli, and a little while ago I realized I could combine two of which I love the most: music and movies. Not only because a good soundtrack can change an entire film, but because I cannot keep count of how many short movies I have imagined when listening to our favorite songs. So here’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while: finding movies to go with the songs we love so dear-ly, as spoiler-free as possible, by bringing back our ideas on celluloid.Heaven’s a Lie, by Lacuna Coil, was one great start to my matching. Besides its many possible interpretations and details, it got me thinking, after a little effort, that it was a great opportunity to make my first match be with one of my all-time favorite directors. Beyond the themes: the construction of the song and the craziness of it all, co-ordinated to a careful buildup of many instrument layers seemed perfect to illustrate the careful, yet explosive, film-making of David Fincher.Paranoia, cults, breaking free, breaking norms, a fight with oneself, and difficult – to say the least – relationships are some of the themes one could pick up from Heaven’s a Lie. You know where I’m going with this: it is impossible to say the words “cult” and “breaking from the norms” on a mov-ie-article and not say Fight Club. It is the obvious pick, and it is because it’s classic. But nonetheless, it is good, and so, here are a few words on it.It all starts when a bored insomniac office worker meets another man, much his opposite in his attitude towards life so far, but also much of he wanted to be. Together they start to rebel from societies patterns in the form of, mainly, violence, in what would become the fight club.

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It isn’t, however, as simple as it seems, and deeper than the whole “everything-is-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy” inter-pretation lies Fincher criticizing, also, the like of the narrator’s behavior. There are, furthermore, several small details and patterns through the film that will be much more interesting to discover af-ter you’ve watched it at least once, so a small post-watching curiosities research is a sure way to like this piece even better. And if you still need one more reason to watch it, maybe the words “Helena Bon-ham Carter” are enough. But that is not all the Fincher we’ve got in our hands today, for his style is just too fitting for the song. The other side of Heaven’s a Lie, beyond the darker cults and rules, brings out a lost narrator with a dark, filled with lies, but good looking on the outside, relationship. What better to match it then the very recent Fincher adaptation of Gone Girl? Dolefully de-sired Amy and the very much lost Nick in the conflicts that destroy as much as build their relationship are the perfect pair to waltz through this song. The mov-ie starts with the disappearance of Amy Dunne, and soon all the cameras point towards her husband, that, in a campaign to try and find her, ends up as a suspect. His innocence is put on stake not only by the media within the picture, but by the viewer. Nevertheless, the true core of the movie is the screwed up nature of the couple’s relationship: what have they done to each other? It is also guaranteed that Rosamund Pike’s performance will give you chills as you discover more and more layers to the lie that was the appar-ent heaven of their family. So, after blasting some Lacuna Coil and reading through our articles, here’s some-thing else to do on your free time – and it goes well with popcorn!

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Story Time: Every day is more or less the same. Your wardens detach the cables from the base of your skull, then lift you from

the cot and pull a scratchy cotton smock onto your body. That at least you can feel--touch hasn’t fled you yet; cold and heat and discomfort are familiar friends.If you’re strong enough, you ask to watch your dreams, but days like that are few and far between.Most days they walk you down a concrete-grey hallway to a room with no doors, and sit you in a chair across a table from a blinding, impene-trable light. The questions and your answers are always the same.

How did you make it, this beast that is eating the world?I dreamed it, and it was.You’ve always been able to do this?Yes, since I was a child. I used to dream pets and playmates, but my parents were afraid and made me stop.What happened to your parents?They’re gone. At first they hid me away when people found out I could dream things real. But the people kept at them until they brought me out again.

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Story Time: Worst Dreams DoOn the worst days, just the knowledge that you’re dreaming is enough to set you shivering in the cot, neck stiff from the cables.Eventually one of your wardens will come, so you wait. They are little more than shadows, these days: features you can’t quite bring into focus; skin tone somewhere between ivory and midnight. You can’t remember any of the names you gave them when you first arrived.

They said they wanted to study me, to put me in a machine until they knew how the dreaming worked and could replicate it.And your parents?They were going to let it happen but they changed their minds and--They changed their minds, or you made them? With this power of making dreams real.Maybe. Anyway they’re gone.

And you dreamed the world-eating beast just after.Yes.Can you stop it? Will you?I don’t know.You don’t know if you can, or if you will?I don’t know. I’m sorry. I need more time.Then they take you down another hallway, bathe and feed you, and return you to your room, where you can rest until you’re ready to sleep again.

This goes on so long that time and memory lose all sense of meaning.At last there comes a day when your wardens don’t arrive.

Andrei Radu Turcu

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You lie there shiv-ering until you can’t any more, and then you make yourself sit up. You make your-self unlatch the ca-bles, gasping as the needles scrape against the inside of the holes. You lift yourself from the cot and pull the scratchy smock on one final time.There’s no real point, of course. It’s obvi-ous the world-eating beast has come to finish what you start-ed, but couldn’t carry through. If indeed it was you who start-ed this--when you try to think back to your childhood, little is clear. You’ve nev-er been too good at distinguishing dream from reality.You make yourself walk the hallway, but the room at the end is empty. No chair, no table, no blinding light. You go back to your room and your cot, and you ask your-self questions with no answers.How do you feel about your parents?What is it like to dream love?Can something be saved when it’s already gone? When it never was?There are so many things you don’t know. But you decide--at last--it’s worth a try.You close your eyes. You sleep. You dream.The End…?

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MusicReview

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Otep–Generation DoomMichela Sereni

Thanks to Teen Art Out, I was allowed to glimpse into Otep’s latest release, “Generation Doom”, weeks before it official release. First things first: the cover’s quite different from the usual manifesto-like works. It actually involves Shamaya’s face (looking great!) and a shiny font. So, here’s what I thought of it!

1ST LISTEN01.Zero A creepy panting fast escalates into the screaming of short sentences, quickly enough to surprise and (let’s admit it) almost scare even the most usual Otep listener. The lyrics are straight-out and cover the betrayal topic (developed in following tracks as well). “I don’t give a fuck” stands out, since the rythm slows down and guitars fade in the distance during those seconds.

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02. Feeding Frenzy This songs was born from heavy riffs, accompained by light drums. A few seconds are needed for Otep’s typical style to pump in. Some lyrics are well highlighted by the bass and guitar’s rhytm, almost as if each word was one with the music in the background, blending to-gether. The chorus does not stand out, but perfectly becomes one with the rest of the track, while speeding up the rhytm as well. Around 2:50 the songs seem to come to an end, but only a couple of seconds waiting give you a distorted voice over and crying babies (I think?) in the distance.

03.Lords of War It starts with a slow crescendo of the base, giving in to a voice-over. It then turns into Otep’s own voice, supported by heavy chest-pounding drums and bass. The signer’s clean vocals spiral down into lament-like screams when near-ing the chorus, according to a well-proven tecnique that we’ve heard in the previous projects, giving it the very taste we’re used to. The repetition of certain lines coincides with musical silence, creating a cliffhang-er that takes your breath away. The outro consists in a voice-over and (!) more crying babies.

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04. Royals I am gonna have to admit, it took me the lyrics to realize (about 30 sec-onds in, honestly) that this was a cover of Lorde’s worldwide famous single! I usually am not a fan of covers on albums, but this never-heard-before-and-didn’t-even-really-think-it’d-happen and surprising take on a pop song is refreshing. It feels like a brand new track, except it isn’t: the riffs give it a new vibe that ends up changing the perspec-tive on the lyrics.

Something one wouldn’t expect, and this hugely reflects on the song itself, giving it a ‘somehow shocking’ peel. This version does not give up the original catchy mood, even though, needless to say, the “you can call me queen bee” everybody knows about is screamed.

05. In Cold Blood As the front woman said herself, this song is hugely personal: the lyrics can easily show that (“Some-thing’s wrong with me, for thinking something’s right with you”), and the spine-chilling start sets the line. The vo-cals are clean, and it almost feels like a ballad for some time (as far as Otep goes ballad, of course). The mesmerizing

guitar follows the developing of the confes-sion-like song, catching up with other in-struments (Ie: drums) when approaching the chorus: the result is a product that feels like coming from outer space, where every-thing’s slowed down and you’re high among the stars.

06. Down Drums and guitar coming from very far away spell each of the vocalist’s words.

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They get heavier for a few seconds during the chorus, which is introduced by “nev-er enough, never enough”. This overall catchy song owns its vibe to the repating of “round and round and round”, which ends up sounding like a chant, especially when nearn-ing the end, when Otep’s singing hushes down to a shiver-in-ducing whisper.

07.God Is a Gun Piano and super strong bass/drums have a battle at the be-

ginning, the rythm swinging back and forth from slow tear-provok-ing ballad to mosh-soundtrack. The singer is singing clean oince again (which gives us a lot of this kind of vocals, on the present record! A very likeable choice): just like the instru-mental itself, however, it changes from low prayers to super fast (and awfully disturbing) to screams. As the ending is approached, we’re tak-en back to nude-sounding piano, allowing the track to finish with an eerie feeling.

08.Equal Right, Equal Lefts The witty lyrics arrive a few sec-onds in, and they are a mix of well-known chants and wholly new one-line catches (“He called me a dyke, I called him an ambulance”), proudly presented as an unapologetic story about queerness, with a taste of re-venge. This sassy anthem is out to get homophobes in a full-rage-on mode, “so I’m playin’ rough”. It has an heavy beat and it feels like something you could sort of rap to. The background involves what you’d call, scientifical-ly, a ‘sick beat’.

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09.No Colour The intro perfectly fits Otep’s mark style, and soon the clean vocals kick in. A simple bass/drum back-ground ends up in a all-around arrange-ment during the chorus. Otep’s narrating is spelled bluntly and is easy to follow, almost like a very dark fairy tale.

10.Lie This is the album’s most catch-ing track. The chours gets stuck into one’s head and just never goes away – a very re-freshing thing for a metal re-cord. The dissonant chords that go all the way through the length of the whole song create a about-to-break-down atmosphere, but the peak’s easily reached with the constant “You lie, lie, lie”, sup-ported by a background and softer voice. This is another story about betryal, and the most relatable one on the al-bum, dare I say.

11.Generation Doom The title track lives up to expec tations and is as angry, fast, heavy as you’re used to. In-between breathing, paint-ing, and a corpus of male voices shoting “hate, hate” do the trick.

An unbelievabily low and sor-ta-grunts-sounding speaker says the magic words: “generation doom”, with emphasis on the latter on. During these 4:27 minutes you’re going to get a lot of “hate” in your ears, culminating in a final short laugh.

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12.On The Shore This 11 minutes long force blasts off with a powerful bass that grows into a constant crescendo, but never explodes. Otep ugly-crying-causing lyrics create a cold, thick atmosphere.

Despite the length, the actual sung piece is much shorter: around the 7th minute, how-ever, the singer gets back for a spoken out-ro that, once more, narrates an ugly story. It’s the closure you didn’t except, but deep down wanted

“And I thought about how many people have loved those songs. And how many people got

through a lot of bad times because of those songs. And how many people enjoyed good times with those songs. And how much those songs real-ly mean. I think it would be great to have written one of those songs. I bet if I wrote one of them, I would be very proud. I hope the people who wrote those songs are happy. I hope they feel it’s enough. I really do because they’ve made me happy. And I’m only one person.”’

Stephen Chbosk

“If music be the food of love, play on,Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.”

William Shakespeare

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Nr 42

Journeyman