How Do You Say "XONE"

A number of people have asked me, how do you pronounce the name of your band? Well, it’s pronounced like the word “ZONE”, but spelled with an “X” instead of a “Z”. It’s an “X” because we like to think that our music takes you to far away from your daily toil and into our own musical XONE of stories and textures, that almost feels like another universe of sound altogether.

Listen to our last CD The 4^th Dimension

and Download it for FREE!

Let us know what you think!

Also, visit our FaceBook Page!

You can email us at: prog_metal_xone@hotmail.com

The Long Distance XONE Part 2

Well, it has been 1.5 years since our Bassist, Ted, moved away from Southern California. In that time, we have kept our songs tight, thru our use of Click Track Maps in Pro Tools and Sonar. Ted’s been coming down for rehearsal every 2 months since he left, and we have used the method I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog to keep the band intact. We released our CD The 4th Dimension, and we are recording our next. Logistically, we’re doing all of this in two different places, but it is working GREAT!! XONE is alive and well!

Since the separated recording is going excellently, we decided to play a Live Show in San Pedro, Ca this Summer 2009. We’ve been rehearsing separately to Click Track Maps, with Ted’s Bass track accompanying Will and Jason, and Will’s Guitar & Vocals and Jason’s drums accompanying Ted. We’re getting together again in June to rehearse for this show.

We’re really excited to play live again and we’re featuring songs from both The 4th Dimension and our upcoming CD ELEMENTS!
Here’s a video of us rehearsing in January!

The Fourth Dimension

XONE is proud to release our new album:
The 4th Dimension.
It has taken almost 2 years to release this CD,
but the end result is an album that we are very excited for you to hear!
Our intention is to tell stories and be storytellers.
The 4th Dimension is our first real step in this direction.
We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and our gear along the way, we’ve had to re-record all of the Bass ourselves, but we’ve allowed the Vocals to lead the way with this new album.
We hope you will engage yourself into the unique stories told by each of the songs from the album,
and process their subject matter internally in a positive way.
Fall into The 4th Dimension…


XONE
The 4th Dimension (2008)
1. The 4th Dimension
2. Ironheart
3. Beautiful One Day
4. TKO
5. Young Man’s Destiny

6. The Mastermind
(15min epic-almost completed-to be released in Dec 2008)


Lyrics - Click Here

*The 4th Dimension is being released directly on the Internet
and is available now for FREE DOWNLOAD!!

Click the FREE DOWNLOAD link for each song
and get/hear the new album from XONE

Watch our video for: Beautiful One Day
(click "watch in high quality, in blue, bottom right of video window)

and let us know what you think by leaving a comment at any of our sites.

Ironheart

The second track on our new XONE CD “The 4th Dimension”,
is the epic story Ironheart. This is the true story of the first time that a people oppressed by Rome, fought back and won! In 9 AD, Germanic Goths under the command of a former Roman Auxiliary Arminius (Hermann the German) routed 3 Roman Legions under the Command of Quinctilius Varus at Teutoburger Wald near modern day Detmold, Germany.

In 9 AD, the Roman Empire had pushed its northern border to the Rhine River, and Rome was attempting to push it North to the Elbe River. Standing right in the way of this were a bunch of loose knit tribes
Inhabiting the Teutoburger Forest. The Romans would conquer an area and immediately tax the people living there to subjugate the inhabitants to Roman rule. It was a model that worked.

To subjugate The Teutoburger Forest tribes, Publius Quinctilius Varus was assigned Governor of the area. Varus had earned his reputation governing Syria, where he bled the land and people dry with heavy taxes,
filling his own pockets along the way from the revenues. He came to Germania with the same idea in mind and instituted his will harshly.

Working as a auxiliary Commander and Aide to Varus was Arminius, a young native german who had served in Rome’s Auxiliary fighting insurrection in Illyria (Bosnia). He had returned home to work with the Roman government. What he witnessed was his people completely subjugated to Varus’ taxes and Rome’s will.

Arminius, also known as Hermann the German, decided to lead a rebellion against Varus and his Legions. He united the Forest tribes with his own Cherusci Tribe, and planned the destruction of Rome in his land.
Since Arminius was trusted by Varus, Arminius was able to lead Varus into a trap. Arminius reported to Varus that tax collectors in some of the villages had been killed. Varus ordered his 3 Legions to follow him into the Teutoburger Wald. Once inside the forest, and cut off from his base and supplies, Varus was in a bad situation.

Arminius’ Germans attacked Varus in a bog, and terrorized the Romans using hit and run tactics. The Roman Legions were a hard bunch of soldiers, but they were outnumbered. Arminius sent his cavalry to Varus rearguard to completely cut off all Roman communication and supply.
After three days, of continued, sporadic attacks by the Germans, the Romans realized how grim their situation was. 3 Roman Standards had been lost, two captured by the Germans and one that fell into the bog, and was never seen again. The Roman Standard was a holy symbol to Roman soldiers, and the loss of three had a definite morale effect on the dwindling number of remaining troops holding out. Varus and his commanders accepted their hopeless position, and each fell on their swords rather than be taken alive.

Some had tried to rebel against Rome and failed. The Jews at Masada, the Egyptians had both lost. Even Arminus had helped defeat rebellion in Illyria. But in his homeland, Arminius had dealt the first blow in a long line of changing fortunes for Rome. His destruction of three Legions was felt in Rome, and its echo was felt over the next 300+ years, culminating in the Visigoth defeat of Rome at the Battle of Adrianople in 379 A.D.

Our story begins, as an old, battle-weary Arminus tells his tale to a young Cherusci boy, so that the story may live on…

Ironheart
(Lyrics)

Intro:
Old man, will you tell me the story,
Of how our people became free
If I can see it through your eyes
Then I know I can believe,
that what I've heard is true,
it really was you...

Verse A:
My village was strong and we lived off the land
and from these surroundings I grew into a man.
I sought my own fortune, so I took up the sword
and served under Rome against Illyria.

But then Rome sought to tame a leash on our land
They came here to rule us with an iron hand.
Quintilius Varus came to govern my home
and where did this leave me, now that I served Rome.

Transition

Verse B:
(Now) Varus' methods had been tested before,
I've heard it said that Syria can breathe no more.
Economic enslavement was Varus' plan,
Collecting taxes, he became a rich man.

So he levied his tributes among my own kin,
even though I now served under him.
I played along to make him feel that he had my side,
and all the while I was plotting Rome's demise.

I brought him news of Romans killed by the tribes,
refusing to pay any part of his bribes.
So Varus took his Army marching North to the call,
He marched them right into Teutoburger Wald.

Transition:

Chorus A:
We shall drive out the invader
I lead my men into victory's halls
with these blades we shall defend the righteous
we strike to war by the clarion's call.

Chorus B:
For so long my sword's been forsaken
Now it causes Roman blood to flow
Enticing Varus into a nightmare
so that we can strike the final blow.

Verse C:
I will catch them deep in the mountains
where a phalanx can't be deployed
They will soon become overextended
3 Roman Legions will be destroyed.

Ironhearted I burn with vengeance
I cannot let despair take hold
We must strike while we're still able
and Varus must be forced to fall on his sword

Verse D:
I broke with our tactics to give us a chance,
No other peoples' faced Legions and lived to dance
Auxiliary tribesmen led them into the trap
and we sprung it on them with a resounding snap.

We waited until they had come into the bog
and snuck up on them in the midst of the fog
I then sent my cavalry far to their rear,
raiding their supply lines, I stranded them here.

Transition:

Chorus A:
Now we destroy the invader,
piece by piece he is devoured whole.
(Our) war cries echo throughout the night air
No Roman soldier shall know sleep at all.

Chorus B:
By the hour they grow weaker and weaker,
Their retreat is confused and slow
We have captured 2 Roman Standards,
while the third lies in the swamp below.

Verse E:
In the howling wind and hammering rain
we strike the Roman Lines again and again
This continues for three days and then
the Roman Leadership now sees the end

Ironhearted I burn with vengeance
I have let all contempt take hold
One last strike while they're disabled
and Varus is forced to fall on his sword

Outro:
Well Rome wasn't built in one day,
and it won't be destroyed in one either.
but it's presence will slowly decay,
as I ring the death knell of an empire.

so Goths we shall remain,
a people united in name...
all for one in the same.

And this Ironheart once believed
That if Rome could be forced to flee
to the banks of the Rhine on her knees.

That Legion after Legion would fall
Romans and conscripts, et al...
onward to Adrianople...
And this Ironheart still believes…

4th Dimension (Title Track)

The title track of the new XONE CD is “The 4th Dimension”.
It is the story of a man losing his mind in Outer Space,
and going over the Edge of Insanity…

This is a story set in the future, where a young man dreams of seeing the Universe. So, he takes a job running the Tractor Beam at a large Space Station in the Outer Rim, far from Earth. Day in and day out, he clocks his shift on the tractor beam, loading the ships into the Cargo Bays of the Space Station.

Forty years pass, and the old man now realizes that he never saw the Universe. He stayed in one place, on that Space Station, watching everyone else come and go for all those lost years. He grows despondent over his misfortune. Slowly, his mind drifts into insanity. He is lost.

Later, while on shift on the Tractor Beam, the man stares out into space as the hours of his shift creep by like quicksand, taking him down, into the recesses of his mind. Momentarily his hand comes off the Tractor Beam Controls, sending the ships crashing into the Base, and causing a chain reaction explosion that destroys the entire Space Station…

Planetary Terrafarmer children, at play on the Planet below, watch in awe as the Station explodes into infinity in the Sky above…

The 4th Dimension
XONE
(Lyrics)

Verse 1:
Waking up from a bad dream,
stare out the porthole into the darkness of space.
Spend my shift on the tractor beam,
I'm starting to feel that my life's been a waste.
Every day, it's the same thing,
guiding the ships into each docking bay.
Though my task requires mastery,
ship after ship, my hope's slowly decayed.

Chorus 1:
Where are you from?
Where are you now?
Caught in my own stagnation...

Where will you be?
Where are you bound?
Death is my destination...

Verse 2:
Gone,
Into the dreaming.
Gone,
Into my mind.
Gone,
Into the silence, creeping
and I'm,
Gone,
Into the night.

Chorus 2:
Where are you from?
Where are you now?
Death is my destination...

Where will you be?
Where are you bound?
The stars are my destination...

Verse 3:
The deep space of infinity,
or lost space of my mind.
A sine wave to eternity,
a quantum disturbance in time.

The cold space of insanity,
invading the depths of my mind.
A patchwork of reality,
responding to nothing in kind.

Chorus 3:
Where are you from?
Where are you bound?
The stars are my destination...

Where will you be?
So far from home,
Fell into the 4th Dimension...

Verse 4:
Can't wake up from a bad dream,
staring out into the coldness of space.
Took my hand off the tractor beam,
sending the ships crashing into the Base...

Outro:
Death is my destination...

Fell into the 4th Dimension...

The stars are my destination...

Fell into the 4th Dimension...

The 4th Dimension

XONE is proud to release our new album:
The 4th Dimension.
The process was long, but the end result is an album that we are all very excited for you to hear! We hope you will engage yourself into the unique stories told by each of the songs from the album,
and process their subject matter internally in a positive way.
Fall into The 4th Dimension…


XONE
The 4th Dimension (2008)
1. The 4th Dimension
2. Ironheart
3. Beautiful One Day
4. TKO
5. Young Man’s Destiny

6. The Mastermind
(15min epic-almost completed-to be released in Dec 2008)


How can you fall into The 4th Dimension,
and what does this mean to release this album?

Well, in today’s internet-connected world,
where music is streamed and downloaded
right into one’s home, the hard copy CD is less important
than music available directly on the internet.
Because of this new standard:

The 4th Dimension is being released directly on the Internet
and is available now for FREE DOWNLOAD!!

Click the FREE DOWNLOAD link
and get/hear the new album from XONE

and let us know what you think by leaving a comment at our
YouTube Video Channel or MySpace…