Hyperplasia Archive
A Vampire is essentially a mythical creature that feeds on the blood of others, but the blood is a symbolical representation of, the vital essence of man. Vampires like Ghosts are undead creatures, that is, they died at one point, yet they somehow persisted in a quasi-living condition. In Hamlet, it is easy to see that the ghost of Hamlet's father is nothing other than his own guilt personified, that is to say, the fact that Hamlet knew something was wrong with the death of his father, yet did not act immediately, and so his own guilt became alive in the form of a ghost. It is also interesting to note that if anyone does indeed report seeing a ghost, then it is in all probability, a psychological manifestation of his own troubled relationship with the deceased person. It is not coincidental that intellects as eminent as those of Von Humboldt and Schopenhauer who both saw apparitions of ghosts, the former of his mother (who he despised) and the latter of his father (who committed suicide). A vampire too, can be many things, it can be a woman for example, who "vampirizes" a man by consuming, not his blood, but his semen (in fellatio for instance), and this is an equivalent to literally sucking his soul, or vital energy. This belief in the magical powers of semen can also be observed in the Simbari people where the elders practice semen ingestion with pubescent boys. Ultimately, anyone who does not die, and is instead an "undead" creature has failed to continue something in life, and now is attempting to finish it in the other life which now intersects with this one. The connection between Bladee's music and Vampirism will be exposed in the following notes concerning his Album "EVERSINCE".
Bladee is a Swedish rapper, singer, and songwriter who is known for his unique and experimental approach to music. He was born on April 9, 1994, in Stockholm, Sweden, and his real name is Benjamin Reichwald. Bladee first gained recognition in 2014 as a member of the underground rap collective Drain Gang, which includes artists like Yung Lean, Thaiboy Digital, and ECCO2K. "Eversince" is Bladee's second studio album, released on May 28, 2016. The album features production from longtime collaborator Yung Sherman, as well as contributions from other members of the Drain Gang collective.
Essentially, in "Eversince"; we have an evolutionary-process taking place in the persona of Bladee himself, for he begins in a state of normality and will gradually grow into something that he himself hardly recognizes, or in other words, into a vampire. The story of vampirism here has to do with concept from which Bladee himself has based his music around, that is to say, that of "drain". In this world, everything can be interpreted as either "being drained" or "draining someone", it is binary, and there is nothing in between. We notice similar universal dichotomies when we speak of the individual as either a "producer" or a "consumer", or in other cases, as "winner" or "loser" and so on... The same applies here in Bladee's music. Ultimately, Bladee in this album is describing his evolution from someone who is being drained to that of a vampire who symbolically represents that entity which now does the opposite, that is, is draining someone else for profit. In the track "Who Goes There", we notice how Bladee says "Who goes there? It's the ghost of October" and proceeds to explain further by "Who goes there? It's just me and my soldiers I come from the snow, it's cold, cold, colder" which essentially means that Bladee is not alive nor dead. He is stuck in Limbo--a world between life and death--a distant land where it is cold, where there is only him and his comrades, and nothing else. This proven by the following "It's bad, it's bad You don't know what I am, I'm a sick man. And this world feels so distant But today I'm feelin' so indifferent... My week is a dream, I'm just walkin' in my sleep" In the second track "So What", it becomes obvious that Bladee is using drugs as means to cope with the feeling of isolation and meaninglessness, and this is revealed by him "Cocaine in my throat that my nose dripped down Going with the flow with the wind go out Coming from the dark with my Stockholm sound I be in the park off a pill, so what You did this a year, but for me for life" There is a problem with this though, for we fail to understand what exactly led Bladee to such a path, and it is here that we begin to discover the traces of some kind of "draining" taking place by someone else which you can picture as a "vampire". In "Love Note", Bladee says "My words, they didn't mean a thing I was just trying to get in You're looking for someone, but I'm not him What do you want from me? I'm just wondering" The "vampire" is naturally a girl, and it seems that Bladee is attempting to prolong his correspondence with her, only to realize that he is not the right person, but it is nonsensical for him to say all of this, if he himself did not capture some kind of signals sent by her which he then believed to be mistaken, and this is why, he says "What do you want from me? I'm just wondering" since he is confused, which also reflects the confusion of the girl itself who cannot settle for anything: whether she wants or does not want him. "I don't have anything to give to you I stay with the crew And we don't need anything from you" Bladee retains his old habit and once again joins his people, for it is with them, where he can find solace and understanding, since they too probably share his condition. He tells us how "we don't need anything from you" but this is of course just denial of something much deeper he is trying to get away from. We finally have the full story "She gave me a lovenote" yet "But I woke up with a cut throat" He proceeds to say "I will change for you, can I see you soon? I've stayed up so many moons I've been waiting for you, I don't know what to do I want the darkness to take over for me too" which again demonstrates his inability to live without her, since at this point, it is no longer a symbiotic relationship, but a parasitic one. He reveals that "But the pain be true, take it away from you" which is an equivalent to his delusion, since his soul is being drained away as of now, and is in a state of semi-consciousness, not making sense, as if, he is drunk, and just like that, he says "I'm with the Drain, it's true, thinkin' 'bout draining you Blood dripping on my Margiela shoes" which is just moments before he is completely drained, or in other words, the beginning of his metamorphosis, his transformation into a vampire, or a drainer. (Each vampire when he begins to consume the blood of the other, will inevitably also turn him into one, which basically translates into "Bladeenese" as whoever is drained will naturally become a drainer himself. To explain it differently: if you commit an evil to someone, that very same someone will himself be damaged enough to also begin inflicting pain on others...) The metamorphosis of Bladee is still new to him, and he is quite lost, since he understands the danger of his new power as a "drainer" as a person who has the capacity to "drain" other people’s souls and just like what happened to him, also create another hideous creature like him who lives off like a parasite by consuming the blood (i.e. the soul) of others. He explains in his "Missing Person" (which is a reference to himself, since he can no longer be found, for he no longer human per se, but something else...) "I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone, I'm gone" His fear is expressed in the form of "Missing person, I'm a missing person I'm gone, that's for certain If they love me I might hurt them", that is to say, the fear of as I said making others just like him. He is still adapting to his new form, and some of its violent features are beginning nonetheless to reveal themselves in him "If you cross me then you're cursed, man Cut your face off like a surgeon Off the grid, gone off detergents I can't be seen, it's disturbing". The next track "Romeo" is supposed to capture his new encounter, and how it is now only "Romeo" and not what we are usually used to seeing "Romeo and Juliette". Vampire/Drainer Bladee is still nevertheless getting used to his new form, and it is making him emotionless as we see in "I froze myself, now I'm freezing you Fuck life and your feelings too" and "No talking, I don't want to hear you talking I'm not sorry, I'm just honest I am in the heart of darkness" As he stands alone in top of some building in the deepest nights, he begins to reflect on his past memories, on what led him to what he is now, and what will happen to him in the future. The track "Xd Out" is supposed to express just that, since in the next one "Sick" we already notice how Vampire-Bladee has began his hunt "Blood on my lips", though he is still dizzy ("sick") and quite nauseated by what just happened, as if, his human-nature is still coming back from time to time, and fighting for its survival, to keep him a man, and not a full-on vampire. The struggle continues nonetheless, until we get to the track "RIP", where we expect the fight to finish. Bladee does indeed give us hints that his human-side is losing the battle, and sooner or later, he will adopt completely to his new form. We hear him say "You don't know me, you know of me Don't talk 'bout me, come close to me Come close to me, you're scared of me" which expresses how others are now scared of how he looks, and with time, he is beginning to accept that as much as they are accepting the fact that he is not one of them "I don't care about anything, you know I'm a Drainer". (The track "Bloodveil/stillborn" is a reference to the game "CodeVein" where weapons known as "Bloodveils" can be used as armor to resist attacks and also boost their "draining" attacks, and so on...) In this track, we notice how Bladee's human-side is finally dead, or at least, is undergoing some final moments, and this is known by the non-sentimental lyrics which mainly deals with new blood-lust, as he continues to say "Daytime creeping, I can't fuck with human beings I'm not sure what to believe in, I catch commas, not no feelings You know Drain Gang, I got vampires in my city..." Yet, the completion of his spiritual transformation is only encountered in the track "Sugar" where "blood" itself is now seen as some kind of "sweet substance" that resembles "sugar". Vampire-Bladee has finally become a drainer, or in other words, someone who drains the energy of others and leaves them dead like what happened to him back then. Essentially, Vampire-Bladee has committed some kind of murder, or it can be pictured like that, and the next track "Wrist cry" is supposed to capture just that: his reminiscences as he flies above the streets in the darkest nights ("Flying in the sky Going to a lonely star tonight, tonight I'm falling through the clouds") and as he is doing so, he once again remembers the scene of the murder ("Can't deny I got you on my mind, on my mind Blood is on my mind Blade is on my wrist, it makes it cry, make it cry"), he is both suffering from it, and yet he cannot return to back to what he was back then, since it is too late. The last track "Skin", we finally find Vampire-Bladee accepting his condition "I don't want to go back to that place again (again) Nothing will ever be the same again (be the same again)". When we hear "Clean, clean, clean, cut the rope let me in Wings, wings, wings, I grow wings I go in Scars, scars, scars I got scars on my arms" we have in mind three states: (1) the past, and this is expressed by "Clean, clean, clean" or in other words, the act of "cleaning" some sort of blood (?) which is an equivalent to a state of death taking place, and then (2) the future in the form of "Wings, Wings, Wings..." as if Bladee sees, or wishes? to be an angel, and then (3) the present (the reality) "Scars, Scars, Scars" which reflect what he really is. "Fall, fall, fall out of love and apart" corresponds to the fall from heaven, from angelhood, and then once again reality kicks in "Skin, Skin, Skin, ..." until we finally have "I'm sinking it goes up to my chin White, white, white, gray to black eversince". Eversince he was an angel and was thrown from heaven by God (?) and thus became a fallen angel, he was lost and could not see anything straight anymore, as if, this world is not really made for him, and gradually, his vision of the world, transformed from white (heaven) to black (hell), which goes hand in hand, with the evolution of satan, who was at one point an angel and then became what he is right now, and that mirrors Bladee's progress from angel supposedly to a Vampire, or a Drainer. In later albums, we see more of this "angelification" taking place, or some kind of redemption.
