88.9 Hey Radio, Tetelestai, and Me

jeffreymartin (63)in #music • 6 years ago

88.9 Hey Radio is a Christian rock station that broadcasts from North Muskegon, Michigan. I often listen to them. They are a volunteer organization. Last month I reached out to them to see if there is something I can help with. Bill and I worked something out, I am going to work on writing articles about new bands and songs, and such.

I've been pondering how to approach this for the last few days. I'm still not sure how I am coming at this, but nevertheless it is getting approached today.

The band this week is Tetelestai, so let's dive in and see how it goes.

What is Tetelestai? One, it's a five person metal band from Buffalo, NY. Two, it's the last word spoken by Jesus on the cross meaning, "it is finished." There can be so much contained in a name.

Tetelestai, the band, describes its mission like this, "With so much hate and despair in the world today, Tetelestai aims to bring the message of hope and love through their music." They released a 6 track EP in 2017 called "Out of This Alive". You can see the videos on their website https://www.tetelestaiband.com/.

Let's take a look at the lyrics of the title track, "Out of This Alive".

Run Away Run Away

Try To Stay Alive

Run Away Run Away

Just To Survive

This Isn't A Game

This Is Your Life

Stop Living A Lie

You're Running Out Of Time

Chorus:

You Can Fight

But How Will You Survive

You're Still Blind

It's Killing Killing Killing You Inside

You Can Hide

Salvation Waiting On The Other Side

Hear His Voice

It's The Only Way Out Of This Alive

Run Away Run Away

Get Out Of Sight

Run Away Run Away

Head Towards The Light.

You've Heard The Truth.

Take That Advice

If You Want This To Change

It's Time To Make A Choice

Chorus:

You can see that despair, like they say in their mission statement, definitely plays a role. I would probably call it desperation. A being pushed to your only choice, rather than a being drawn towards something. If you are desperate you can move away from that which is making you desperate, you can move away from that which is causing your despair, and there is only one direction to go. That's what I'm pulling from these lyrics. That's not all that it contains, but I think that's the most obvious message.

Let's take a look at the other music video that they have on their website, "Never Alone".

Go!

Another Day Goes By

I Try To Make It On My Own

Seems Nothing Will Go Right

I Get Back Up To Fall

The Walls Are Closing In

The World Is Crumbling Beneath

The Air Is Growing Thin

With You Were Strong Enough To Stand

The Armor

Defenders

Your Power

To Save Us

We Fight This War

Never Alone

You're By Our Side

We Fight This War

Never Alone

The Darkness Taking Over (Covers Me)

Struggling For The Answer (One Last Breath)

My Hands Out To Your Light (Reaching Up)

I'm Forgiven In The End

We Fight This War

Never Alone

You're By Our Side

We Fight This War

Never Alone

The Armor

Defenders

Your Power

To Save Us (Soft)

Soft:

We Fight This War

Never Alone

You're By Our Side

We Fight This War

Never Alone

We Fight This War

Never Alone

You're By Our Side

We Fight This War

Never Alone

You can hear how the song starts in that same despair and desperation, in this case I would call it frustration, but then pretty quickly the song starts to focus more on that message of hope.

Telestai's bassist Marci tore her achilles tendon in November 2018, so I would guess that they are going to be taking it easy for a couple of months while that heals. It's a perfect time to listen to them, see what you think, and let me know.

Jeff Martin

We'll see what Bill thinks of that. It doesn't go into depth, but it isn't a short blurb either. I gave it a more personal feel, without making it just about my opinions. Since I'm not a musician I didn't delve into the style of the music other than mentioning that they are a metal band, and I think that's reasonable because many people like talking about riffs, but just as many, and maybe more, like talking about lyrics. The lyrics give a nice intro to the band, and the little personal note about Marci lets people connect with an individual a little more deeply. I'm not sure how Bill is going to want to end it. I ended it by encouraging comments and putting my name like a letter, but it might be better to do that differently depending on where this is going.

I'm not sure if this will end up being a longterm engagement with 88.9 Hey Radio or not, but it certainly is an interesting experience either way.

I've written two fictional pieces that I like so far.

"The City of Peace" - A future history science fiction utopia/dystopia action adventure in a framed story of a father telling his son a story about the child's grandfather.

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/08/the-xprize-writing-contest-part-5-of-5.html

"The Birth of Hanniba'al" - A dark, somewhat alternative, historical origin story for the Carthage General Hannibal.

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/write-michigan-short-story-contest-part_30.html

Here are three of my most popular posts.

"The Making of a Great First Line in Fiction"

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/the-making-of-great-first-line-in.html

"A Letter to My Niece in 2034"

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/12/a-letter-to-my-niece-in-2034.html

"The Most Important Question in Philosophy - Part 4 of 4"

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2017/11/the-most-important-question-in.html

You can find more of what I'm doing here: http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

You can support this page at https://www.patreon.com/JeffreyAlexanderMartin