Track By Tracks: Balistic - The Parson’s Tale (2026)

I needed a way to get to where I was going. “Angel of Light” was a takeoff of the movie “The Running Man”, believe it or not. I imagined Lou Beelz ( a mix of Lucifer and Beelzebub) as the character Killian played by Richard Dawson as my game show host. I thought, yeah, I need the modern-day Lucifer putting sin into the world. Nothing better than handing out the prize of sin in a game show! Plus, most people would be like hell yeah,

I’ll take some sin, haha.

I did NOT want to write 14 songs. So then I devised a way to use key changes and other prog stuff to put a vice and virtue together in one song. It made the tracks pretty complicated.

“Hate Loving You” was next. From my reading, envy is one of the most hurtful sins. This was the story that sold my guitar player, Brian, on the whole thing. Imagine a kind soul who helps people get scalped by a crackhead, crazy woman, just because she wanted to be beautiful like her! I guess that story came out of me watching old westerns and reading stories of what really went on out west. Plus, I’m a giant fan of “The Silence of the Lambs”. Then, the twist at the end…. This is the song where our singer Angie shines. Man, she got the concept of the characters right away. She killed it! I envisioned a Pink Floyd-type thing in this one. I love those guys, one of the original prog bands. The piano intro took me quite a bit of time as I’m no piano player.

“I Am Cain” was the next one written. The idea of anger is a powerful one. I’m a long-haul truck driver, so the road rage thing is very real to me. I see it constantly. I thought, this one is the one where I solidify the entire story. Where the very thought that the character Carl can come back from such a heinous act as murder was bringing “The Parson’s Tale” full circle. This one is by far the most complex musically. I enlisted Eric Wirsing of the Rush tribute Solar Federation for the guitar solo. He’s a musical giant, and he did not disappoint! Which leads to…

“Forgiven”. Balistic had a song called Forsaken a while back that never got recorded. It was a strong riff. We always liked it, but it just never made it. The lyric changes I made were just the thing to end the story. Yes, you CAN be forgiven. Carl begs his wife not to let their unborn son know what his dad did. At the beginning of the song, we hear again from Lucifer as Lou Beelz, chastising his show producers as Carl slips from his grasp…

“Trapped in Ice”. I struggled with this one. Sloth and diligence. I have an elderly mother who needs care. I imagined her living by herself. A young girl walking by at night stops in to help her. There are a ton of people who have no family, no help, and loads of despair. They just wait to die.

I had started teaching myself how to play piano as I heard a lot of keys in this tune. I was also studying music theory courses from the magnificent Rick Beato. This led to all the sus chords and poly chords, maj 7ths, etc. This is when my guitarist Brian suggested bringing in a female singer to do some parts. There are a lot of female characters. We talked to a few singers. Angie was one of Brian’s friends. She fell for the stories hook, line, and sinker. This song came out just like I heard it in my head. That’s rare!

“My Poison” came about after I heard a Joe Rogan podcast with a security expert, Gavin de Becker. He gave a tutorial on how women especially get themselves in trouble and spelled out some real-life stories. He told how to read the signs of trouble on his website, giftoffear.com. This is lust gone way wrong. I say almost all men have these thoughts towards women. You may look at a woman and think, " Wow, I’d love to, etc., etc., etc., then the thought goes into the ether. There are, sadly, a few that won’t let it go. They dwell on it. They may have been dumped a few times, laughed at, out of shape, feeling used, etc. But a few are mentally unwell. The woman in the story just doesn’t see it….

“Black Hole Heart” is the modern-day Dickens Christmas Carol. It’s about greed and mercy. Greed can be one of the most pernicious of the sins. It fuels everything! Mr. Coddington and The Ghost are the characters here. This one was like pulling teeth, haha. I’ll bet I rewrote it four times! There’s a piano part in the middle that occurred when we were playing the song live. I didn’t have a great part musically for the middle, where the Ghost appears. Who knows why, but I just started playing those m6 chords, and everything fell into place. Another save by Rick Beato there haha. The keyboards under the vocals and the whole thing is not the average chord changes.

My favorite to write was “Drowning In It”, about gluttony and abstinence. I had the Beastie Boys in my head, thinking about the character Mikey and his Grandma. I channeled my inner Adam Sandler to do the voice of Grandma…I kept thinking about No Sleep Till Brooklyn, haha. My friend Matt Creter from Creter Guitar Shop suggested that I use the Hammond organ to give it that Deep Purple feel. I’m so glad he talked me out of the horn section I was going to do, haha. He also did the guitar solo. This one is more of a seventies funk/rap type tune. The guys were like, " Are you sure? They weren’t 100% on board till I came up with a way better chorus. Now it’s a killer live song!

“I Am Your God”. Pride and humility. Pride is the worst. It drives everything in our interactions. We have all seen people who can’t wait to lord it over others, hiding in groupthink. This story is about someone who gets a poor waitress fired for non-compliance. Then the waitress finds out this person is seriously ill. She then gathers the last of her food and leaves it at this person's door.

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