THE CLAN DESTINED / ex-SKYCLAD frontman Martin Walkyier has issued the following New Year blog:

"Warmest greetings to you all! I hope as always that these few words find you in good health and high spirits, and that you're enjoying a most wonderful 2009 thus far? It is New Year's Eve as I write this to you, and I am sitting here alone at my computer. This is traditionally a time for reflection on the past; and when I look back upon the truly insane behaviour of humanity so far during this new millennium, I can sadly see no cause whatsoever to celebrate the dawning of yet another year filled with needless wars, crippling global poverty and untold human suffering. Apologies if my words seem rather pessimistic these days. I write about the things I see and hear around me, and there's very little that has happened in this world to make me smile for quite some time now. I'm actually starting to think that we humans have been cursed with a basic design fault, a flaw in our genetic make-up which now physically threatens our very survival as a species. Our primordial ancestors led an extreme life indeed, enduring harsher conditions than we could ever imagine. I doubt that there are many modern human beings who could survive even a single month in their primitive, brutal and unforgiving world. Personally I don't think I would last more than a couple of days at the very most.

The fact that you are reading this today is purely down to the tenacity and adaptability of your earliest forebears, all those who since the dawn of life have won the eternal battle to survive. I imagine that an existence as an early human wasn't far dissimilar to being a member of a pack of wild wolves. Their scant years spent in the 'Cradle of Life' must have been a challenging, brief and bloodied affair indeed. Territory undoubtedly meant everything to them, and there must have been endless confrontations between neighbouring tribes over the very limited resources available. Somewhere during this period of our early human evolution we learned an invaluable lesson; "Folks who either look, speak, smell or in any way behave differently from you are part of another tribe; therefore they are most probably your mortal enemies, or in some way possessed by an evil spirit…even at the very least they are here to steal away your females and/or your food supplies." A dire threat to which all our dearly departed ancestors undoubtedly responded with an angry chant something along the lines of "Kill them, burn their corpses and dance upon their smouldering remains!!!"

When at times I find myself looking back upon the history of the 20th Century it's often disheartening to realise just how little has actually changed during the last 3 million years of human evolution. This aggressive and competitive human genetic mutation was once our saviour as a species, and yet denied the thrill of the hunt for the last several thousand years we've turned this testosterone-fuelled anger inwards upon ourselves. Living as we do in tiny concrete boxes, often devoid of the most basic human contact, it's really no wonder that we've retreated deep into our race memory. Lacking the constant threat of starvation, rape, murder or probably being eaten alive by some ravening, sabre-toothed nightmare; though modern-day life can often be equally as stressful in exactly the wrong kind of way. Humanity faces a very uncertain future, and this time around the foes we fear are largely unseen. This frightens us all at a deep, subconscious level, and once again our tried-and-tested primitive biological responses stir into action. There are many among us who have already succumbed to this primeval urge; those who mistrust, vilify and persecute their fellow human beings merely due to the fact that they are of a different race or religion – or often simply because they like alternative music, wear some unusual clothing or even support a rival sports team. At a time when our species wields weaponry of truly diabolic power I believe this is an extremely worrying mindset to possess!

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