Frozen Machinist
an ice themed poetry collection from Torkel - inspired by some of his favourite metal music lyrics.
Bionic Blizzard
Electronic snowstorm
Neurons materialise
Decomposing deafening
Force-fed consumption
Corrupt and coloured
Delivered to your door
Odourless hue
Digital dreams
When sleep is defeat
Paranoia
Simulations simulated
Deafening howl
In a desperate attempt
To drown it all out
An experience of an alternate reality
Far superior than of life itself
An existence of depravity
Still less damning than enslavement
To the machine
When did my eyes
Go from black and white?
To virtuality pixelated
Revealing my thoughts
Slithers of ice
Will tame my throat
Spill those lies
I need to choke
Melting snow!
Traditions convictions
Hard wired into my head
Cast it out of sight
Get it out of mind
To serve the masses
Is to remain blind
I’d rather die
I’d rather die
I’d rather die
I’d rather die
I’d rather die
Paranoia
Simulations simulated
Deafening howl
In a desperate attempt
To drown it all out
An experience of an alternate reality
Far superior than of reality itself
Brain Freeze
Self satisfied
By the
Materialistic mind
Brain freeze
Let them see
The curvature
The symmetry
Individual duality
Smooth moon
Blind mind
Out of sight
Out of time
Close your eyes
Open up your mouth
Ego away
Get them out
Cut off their ears
To let them shout
Seek no truth
Retaliate
No need to authenticate
Mind over matter
Minority or murderer
Insidious is
This sickness
Snowing, the unknowing
Ploughing through the powder
Endeavour and empower
Desperate to devour
We need suffering
To realise reality
Privilege leads us
To placidity
Not clarity
Shimmering, shivering
Silently succumbing
Death of the author
A snowed in cabin
An avalanche
Of ignorance
Caved in
Indignance
A mechanism
Of autonomy
Chaos castrated me
Burn your books
Hide from the frost
Conserve your strength
For all hope is lost
Meanderthal
Rep-tilian skin
This human thing
Burnt by the cold
From stories of old
An elder being
Born of the frozen sea
Conspiring spires
And sunken liars
My former entity
Still reflecting me
A mirror of ice
Lost in a valley of lies
As my vision does falter
The diagnosis alters
Neanderthal
Meandering
Neanderthal!
Meandering!
Anti-Arctic
Slinging your ice pick
Its cathartic
Lament the time spent
To achieve the omnipotent
Turn on the turning sun
Put that power into your gun
Shoot it at a wall of ice
Watch as the sea does rise
Now millions are drowning
For the arctic apocalypse
A melting misery
Still a mystery
Traded ice for fire
A mineral desire
They dream of sand and sun
Now the time has finally come
Swallowing beaches of ash
Shrubbery that will not last
Oceans of sinking sands
Cities will reach the sky
The impoverished must die
Frozen Machinist
Mechanical fluid
Dripping down its head
Eyes closed as it stains
A thin tetanus red
Glacial augmented skin
The colour of bruises
Baby blue frost
Sticks to the yellow ice drill
The tundra’s gift
Was it’s storage space
Now the ice shelf reeks
Of human waste
Here I am
Evolving
Gasping for air
Cables
Fill my lungs
Awaken
Tinnitus scream
Static
-
My time has come
Early
A chance at redemption?
Father
Hear my thoughts
Creation
I am Loki
Civilisation was manifested
through my hands
Bleeding my dreams into history
Monuments, monasteries
of the monolithic kind
Retrace the steps
of the human race
Tis I
Here I am
Evolving
Gasping for air
Cables
Fill my lungs
Awaken
Tinnitus scream
Static
-
My time has come
Early
A chance at redemption?
Father
Hear my thoughts
Creation
I am Loki
Shatterer of existence
So they must reverse engineer
Opener of portals to new dimensions
Knowledge of the old
Orchestrate the new
Violence is key
Speak no truth
Thaw
Ash woven into steel
Extremities twisting
Manufactured by deceit
Witness of the wild horde
An intent to inflict absolution
Upon the seething ground
Saturated, self inflicted pain
Contorted into that which I maimed
Suffering lay claim
As distant as distorted
Internal puncture wounds
To seal my fate
Bloodied by the benign
Belittled and self-benefiting
Beast of barbarism
Come to take my vote
Dare I stray from the line
My religion cannot be defined
Doomed to deteriorate
The forging of destruction
Fractured during descent
Imploding upon existence
The will of mass extinction
Saturated, self inflicted pain
Contorted into that which I maimed
Suffering lay claim
As distant as distorted
Internal puncture wounds
To seal my fate
Faaaaaaaate!
Faaaaaaiiiiith!
Faaaaaaace!
Faaaaaaake!
Fresh Powder
Lashings, languid, lurid, lamentations
Cold, uncoloured, colonial crew of cretins
Bargaining before the bloodshed
Barren and bountiful
Believe and it will all be true
Led by the book
No murder, just a fisherman’s hook
All lessons learned and left to be taught
Taken without reason nor a trial by court
Leather bound and labelled with the cross
Plague of sin
Forgiveness is with him
A wave of wooden ice
Leaving rotten land for ripe
Then I steal each and every child straight from their cot
Led by the book
No murder, just a fisherman’s hook
All lessons learned and left to be taught
Taken without reason nor a trial by court
Leather bound and labelled with the cross
Faith is fear when death is dealt
I feed on fortune while teaching to give
The guilt and greed of a growing need
War and peace all still burn for me
Led by the book
No murder, just a fisherman’s hook
All lessons learned and left to be taught
Taken without reason nor a trial by court
Leather bound and labelled with the cross
Cold War
Forged in frost
Forgotten and lost
Forever they follow
Through the deep snow
Under a silver moon
Awaiting their doom
Finally the hailstorm strikes
With a most furious spite
Men scattered in the snow
Trampled by the cold
Swirling around in the violent valley
A thousand shards of flying ice
This is the blizzard’s knife
Fresh powder splatter
Fragments of matter
Bodies are buried
Memories dismembered
Misguided and divided
Forgotten and unforgiven
Misguided and divided
Forgotten and unforgiven
Misguided and divided
Forgotten and unforgiven
Misguided and divided
Forgotten and unforgiven
This ancient war
Stays rotten to the core
The river is a blade
Their footprints always fade
Here there is no shade
Don’t try
Don’t go to the light
Exploration
Devastation
Expansionist
Masochist
Virtuous
Violent
The vertebrates
Simplistic
Approach to life
Having held hands
In the sunrise
While thermonuclear ashes
Kiss the sky
The light bleaches my eyes
A trillion lives lie under the ice
Thank you so much for reading this entire “Frozen Machinist” collection. Song lyrics are what initially piqued my interest in poetry, and I’ve been a fan of metal music’s anti-authoritarian and anti-corporation themes ever since I was a teenager. I like to be clear with my messaging, which is at times difficult to do with art, so this shall serve as a footnote for the poems that you have just read.
I would also like to add that every image used was an original photograph or piece of digital art created/taken by me (Torkel Tennberg). No AI was, or ever will be used to generate my writing or my visual art.
Frozen Machinist warns of global warming, environmental destruction, war, and propaganda. The poems do this by referencing the problematic and misinformed language of conservative and right wing politicians, creators, and groups. I also make references to the harmful intent of foreign disinformation campaigns. My main inspiration for this collection was Meshuggah’s album: “Immutable”, which itself speaks on the devastating rise of far-right groups across Europe.