Hope Eternal (single)

genre: progressive rock

The original inspiration for Hope Eternal was a recording of people protesting the travel ban at an airport in january 2017 — “I hear the sound of thousands of voices…” and the feeling of being lost in the social and political upheaval of our time, the maelstrom. Then I recalled the words of George Orwell from 1984, “war is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength” and I realized this is unfortunately nothing new — a seeming reality of the human condition.

The piece was originally entitled “Maelstrom,” but that never sat quite right. About halfway through writing it i found a patch on one of my synthesizers called “hope eternal” and I thought, “that’s it! that’s the name of the piece.” So the song ends with a message of hope. Not wide-eyed idealism, but rather the hope that we can carry on come what may.

This song is also my first full-fledged foray into the progressive rock genre.

Guest vocals by Courtney Hanish.

I hear the sound of thousands of voices
I see the look in millions of eyes
how can we turn away from the future
how can we live in this world of lies

I don’t know where I stand in this maelstrom
I don’t know how my soul will survive
can you recall the hopes of a lifetime
a fading light through darkening skies

lost in time, flying blind
I want to do more than just survive

this war is peace, this freedom a slavery
this ignorance well it’s our new strength
who’s in control of the past and the present
who should we trust and what should we think

lost in time, flying blind
I want to do more than just survive

I hear the cry of millions of voices
I see the look in billions of eyes
shall we turn away from our future
or shall we dream the dream that won’t die