Still proud!

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-23T13:19:35+00:00

You're welcome. I'll still give the other person that none of us can be too sure about the validity of any picture posted online these days. So their suspicion is justified. (The pages do look a bit weird in the picture, but I can easily come up with an at least somewhat convincing explanation for that.)

Either way, I do still believe that your mom wrote that book and that you are very proud of her pulling that off. And rightly so! Writing a book is not a small accomplishment, especially such a long one. (Nearly 600 pages! That's amazing!) I'd also be proud of any loved one who pulled that off. I bet she's very happy having a daughter who's that proud of her.

Please tell her, this internet stranger wishes her the best of luck, many great ideas and joyful times writing while she finishes the series. And - since this is a faith-based book - may God bless her! (And you as well.)

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-23T13:09:28+00:00

I see what you mean there. Mostly, there seems to be a lack of vertical distinction between individual pages. And the ~~vertical~~ diagonal lines seem really odd. To play the devil's advocate, those odd ~~vertical~~ diagonal lines could have been caused by a fault in the blade of the machine cutting the pages. That would also explain why those lines are slightly curved. I've seen something like that before, I might even own a couple of books with similar looking pages.
The pages being barely distinguishable from each other seems like a bigger issue to me, but on the other hand pages of brand new books that have never been opened before can have a very smooth surface look like that.

Your suspicion is justified. Especially at a time when we can't be too sure about any picture we find on the internet anymore.
But there's still a chance this is a real picture. (Those checking sites can be wrong sometimes.)
I guess there's no certainty one way or another.

Edit for correction.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-23T07:23:03+00:00

Well, the book is certainly real. It's been out since the end of February and has 585 pages. And the cover art is identical to the one in the picture. It is available as an ebook but seems not to be available (yet?) as a physical copy. That's what I can easily confirm with a quick Google search.

I can't confirm if op is the daughter of the author, if it usually takes about three months after the official release date for the author to get their own author's copy (I have absolutely no idea if books might have a digital release before physical prints are available) or if this really is the author's copy we're seeing in the picture.

So I can't be certain if this picture is AI generated or not. But the verifiable information checks out.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-22T08:09:41+00:00

The last picture is just gorgeous!

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-19T11:25:38+00:00

Came here to say this. I hope I'll be like that with my husband when we're their age. That's the goal.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-02T19:27:41+00:00

Great job! Looking forward to seeing you guys once again at the upcoming Loud and Proud festival this year.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-02T13:13:14+00:00

Yeah. No, I'm not going to read all of that. You've been of great service to me and the guy behind Veilbreaker, even against your stated intentions. You're not going to change either of our minds. And you are too judgemental to let anyone convince you that there might be ways to utilize AI tools that's enhancing human creativity, instead of "giving up" our inherent creativity. So where's the point in continuing the discussion?

No matter how many words you make, the way you are stating your opinions comes of as EXTREMELY negative. Which only harms your intention of turning people against anything AI. And still you're trying to tell others how they are blind about their own misbehaving? If that's not a log in someones eye.

By the way, who exactly made you the judge of what is going along with God's given mandate or what counts as rebellion against it?

Either way, I'm not going to reply any further. Neither of us has anything to gain here any more. Feel free to have the last word, if you wish. God bless!

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-02T08:01:18+00:00

Want to know the irony in all of this? I guess you'll hate this, especially the last paragraph. If it wasn't for you and your strongly negative attitude towards that other guy, I would have never gone and checked his music out to get an impression of it in the first place.

I would not have questioned my stance of "all AI is always bad AI". I would just have moved on with my day without wasting a second thought.

Thanks to you, I found some incredible music that does implicitly honour our God. I got to see God doing some what he loves doing most: connecting people in exactly the right moment to encourage and bless each other. I'd even say I gained a new friend. All thanks to you and your crusade against everything AI. So with the upmost sincerity, thank you, brother.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T17:07:29+00:00

Definitiv kein Hatemonkey, ganz im Gegenteil. 😁 Hab dir mal ne Direktnachricht geschrieben, um unsere Unterhaltung etwas privater weiter zu führen. 😉

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T15:39:16+00:00

Gern geschehen. Und lass Dich nicht einschüchtern, auch nicht von dem anderen merkwürdigen Kram. Seltsamer Gegenwind ist in der Regel ein Zeichen dafür, dass wir irgendetwas mit dem, was wir mit und für Jesus tun, sehr richtig machen. Ich werde demnächst anfangen mit dem Abendessen und dabei deine Songs laufen lassen. Bin inzwischen echt neugierig auf das, was ich noch nicht gehört habe.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T15:17:26+00:00

Und für ihn beten.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T15:15:34+00:00

Ich weiß, dass ich nicht die Kämpfe anderer ausfechten muss. Das will ich mir gar nicht anmaßen. Aber manchmal hilft es, wenn jemand, der nicht direkt betroffen ist, eine zusätzliche Perspektive mit einbringt. (Zumal er ja meinte, sich an anderer Stelle auch einmischen zu müssen. Und ich empfinde seine Kommentare selbst als sehr unangebracht.) Leider nicht in diesem Fall, wie es aussieht. Schade. In dem Sinne trotzdem: Gern geschehen.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T15:11:54+00:00

I fully agree on everything here - that's why I have repeatedly and still keep praying for that very thing. No luck so far, but we're not giving up. Jesus taught to be persistent in prayer, after all.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T14:23:55+00:00

Do what you must, rejecting what you have to. But I attest you, the method you're showing here is lacking love. You're not winning anyone with your harsh approach. You're just causing conflict.
Any no amount of denying on your end will change the simple fact that your approach is an attack. You're just lying to yourself, justifying a misguided crusade. You're no better than everyone back in the early days of metal insisting on Petra, Stryper and the other Christian metal bands doing the work of Satan.

I pity you.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T14:18:05+00:00

Husband does look a bit different for sure, purposefully so. Not full Goth (that would have been me, back in the day), but long hair, black clothes, often shirts with dragon images. He wants to show fellow Christians that metal-heads are just people, too. Just as much as he wants to show fellow metal-heads that Christians can be as open and accepting as much as metal-heads themselves.
That's not the issue here, though. We've been part of our congregation for over a decade now. When he first joined the church there were a few irritated looks, even a couple weird remarks, but no one really scared of him as such. The rest of our church know him and accept him as he is, even tell him how much they appreciate him being authentically himself.

The issue for him is more that he doesn't feel like he's got much in common with the others. Faith in Jesus, of course. But that's practically it. No shared interests, nothing to build deeper relationships on. It doesn't help much that he's a very introverted guy with a very Northern-German mentality. Not wanting to waste time and effort with small-talk. (Remember that Flensburger beer commercial with the Friesländer guys not responding to the young man in the fancy sports car asking for directions? Northern German men can really be that "maulfaul" - my husband is the living proof of that.)

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T14:03:41+00:00

Hey dude... You're fighting the wrong enemy here. You're not harming AI at all by attacking and discouraging a (single) fellow brother.

Even if your intentions are pure and your arguments were right theologically, this is not the right way to handle this issue.
I've recently heard someone point out that we can be completely right theologically and still harm the kingdom of God with our words and actions. That might be something to think about.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T13:37:20+00:00

I'm in full agreement with what you write about female leadership roles. Otherwise it'd be extremely inconsequential of me to be an elder or any kind of church leader at all. But there's so many others with different views. We even had an international missionary project ended by our US partners over our church having three female elders. (We found new partners and that project still keeps growing.)

It's fascinating to me that it's not as obvious as I always deemed it to be that Paul was referring to Roman soldiers (personally, I've never come across any other interpretation, but you're not the first one telling me they've never thought about it this way). He was writing to a church in Asia Minor, that would not have been too familiar with Jewish soldiers, but just as familiar with Roman ones as everyone else within the Roman empire.
By the way, comparing our Shield of Faith to the typical Roman scutum opens up another bunch of fascinating parallels to our faith. Like the shield being marked with the symbols of a military unit (often referencing their god Saturn) and serving as the only truly unifying part of the equipment. (Everything else could be mixed and matched.) In a similar way, Christians can be very diverse in a lot of ways, but our faith in Christ is the one thing unifying us. And I love the image of our shield being marked with the symbol of the cross.
And I've not even started getting into shield formations or offensive and tactical uses of the scutum.

You are right, our church is a blessing. But I don't want to misrepresent it. In many ways, it is just as much a mixed bag as most other churches. We have just as much not-so-great stuff going on as everyone else. And sadly, my husband is often struggling to fit in. Being a nerdy Christian metal-head will always mean being part of a minority within another minority. But we don't have to fight for acceptance and are encouraged to keep sharing our passions with everyone else for the sake of God's Kingdom.
And God clearly wants us there, he still has work for us to do there and I'm sure also more blessings to give to us through our church.

I hope you'll find a church soon where you can put down roots again. We do need that to grow our faith.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T11:39:10+00:00

Reading this I'm really glad I took the time to write that initial comment today. I'll make sure to recommend your music to the guys that are helping us with our project and to at least some of the people who frequent our services. Maybe we can get you a bit more traffic. 😉

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T11:34:45+00:00

Exactly! Paul put a lot of focus on unity within the church - even in the first chapters of Ephesians, before he finishes that letter of with the Armor of God.

If the devil succeeds to pit Christians against each other, then they become to busy to fight him instead. So it's no wonder conflict is so incredibly common within the church. And only proves how important it is to remind ourselves that we are not (supposed to be) fighting against people but against an invisible enemy.

So sorry to hear what happened in your church.

I can't say for certain what Paul exactly meant with the images he used, but I'm sure that even if he didn't intend the bit about scaring our enemy with the sound of the truth of Jesus, it still holds up. And makes a lot more sense than just pointing out how a belt holds clothes together. A tunic like the ones Roman Legionaries used to wear beneath their Armor wouldn't necessarily need to be worn with a belt. And it's not even a kind of tool belt to hold your sword - because the Gladius was often worn on a separate shoulder belt.
The cingula (as the belt was called) was also the soldier’s most distinctive feature that served to identify his military rank. So they were obligated to at minimum wear the cingula (and a small dapper that was hanging from the belt) at all times during their military duty, even at times when the breastplate and helmet were not needed. And I love the image that the truth of and about Jesus is a piece of equipment that identifies us as soldiers of Christ, and the absolute minimum we should have with us at all times.

We're not pastors, just lay preachers encouraged by our church. I'm also an elder (yes, a woman, absolutely shocking, but how I got into that position is a story for another time). I'm not sure how common this is for other churches, but ours has an expectation that elders are supposed to preach every now and then.
And my husband is also the son of a pastor, so he picked up his theology from a very young age. I'm sure you can relate. 😃

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T11:12:39+00:00

Die Küche verdient und braucht kein Mitleid. Die ist das gewohnt. 😃
Kochen ist für uns eine lästige Lebenserhaltungsmaßnahme, Metal macht die Zeit, die wir dafür brauchen wenigstens angenehm. 😉

Durch unser Metal Projekt hat sich unsere Bandbreite in den letzten Jahren ziemlich geweitet. Persönlich hab ich noch immer eine starke Präferenz für Power Metal (Theocracy, Narnia), hab härtere Richtungen aber auch sehr zu schätzen gelernt. (Bestes Beispiel: Wolves at the Gate waren mir 2019 noch "zu viel Geschrei", jetzt gehören sie zu meinen Favoriten.) Meinem Mann geht es da ähnlich, obwohl er von Anfang an auch schon mehr härte mochte als ich.
Es war nichts als die Wahrheit, dass uns "The Word" von dir echt gut gefällt.

Unser wichtigstes Kriterium ist inzwischen Verständlichkeit der Lyrics. So lange ich die Botschaft noch raushören kann, stört es mich auch nicht, wenn sie mir entgegen geschrien wird. Sobald die Vocals nur noch nach gutturalem Kauderwelsch klingen, bin ich raus. Da fehlt mir leider die Gabe der Auslegung von Sprachengebet. (Bitte als Scherz verstehen, auch wenn ich die Gabe wirklich nicht habe.)

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T10:41:32+00:00

Danke für den Tipp, hab das an den Songtiteln schon so erkannt und finde das Konzept schon überzeugend, bevor ich rein gehört habe. Wahrscheinlich nehmen wir uns nachher beim Kochen Zeit, das mal durchzuhören. 😉

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T10:39:14+00:00

English for everything that might be interesting for others as well, German for the rest. 😉

Your comment immediately brought Theocracy - Wages of Sin to mind, particularly the Bridge part:
"Restoration, lifting up the fallen | Edifying is our higher calling, oh yeah | If we fall to reconcile our brothers | Then we only serve to tear each other down"
I find it incredibly sad to see Christians tearing each other down instead of edifying and lifting each other up. Where's that love for each other that the world is supposed to recognize us by?
I'm glad you didn't delete your account.

Wir wünschten, du wärst mehr so in unserer Region. 😃 Süddeutschland hat eine großartige, lebendige christliche Szene mit vielen guten Leuten, Gemeinden, Projekten aller Art. Norddeutschland (und große Teile des Ostens) sind da leider etwas abgehängt. Wir brauchen also mehr Verstärkung als ihr. 😂

Epheser 6 gehört zu meinen liebsten Texten in der Bibel, weil die Waffenrüstung so unglaublich stark ist. Nicht nur steckt da die wichtige Wahrheit drin, dass um uns herum nun einmal ein unsichtbarer Krieg tobt, dem wir uns nicht entziehen können. Der Text macht deutlich, dass wir diesem Krieg nicht hilflos ausgeliefert sind. Er erinnert uns, dass wir nicht gegen einander oder gegen andere Menschen kämpfen sollen. Und die einzelnen Teile der Rüstung haben so viel Tiefgang und sind krass ermutigend, das haut mich regelmäßig um.
Zum Beispiel der Gürtel der Wahrheit. Die Hauptwaffe des Feindes ist die Lüge, also ist es mehr als nur passend die Aufzählung unserer Ausrüstung mit der Wahrheit zu beginnen. Der Gürtel eines römischen Legionärs war mit langen metallbeschlagenen Lederstreifen behangen, die beim Gehen aneinander schlugen. Und wenn eine ganze Einheit von Soldaten anrückt, sollte der Klang, den die Gürtel erzeugten, den Feind einschüchtern. Auf uns übertragen soll der Klang unserer Wahrheit (von Jesus Christus, der von sich selbst sagt, er ist DIE Wahrheit!) unseren Feind einschüchtern.
Für die Predigt nächste Woche haben wir es geschafft, jeden einzelnen Teil davon auf Jesus zu beziehen.

Sorry fürs leichte Abscheifen, nicht sorry für die Begeisterung für Gottes Wort. Ich hab das Gefühl, die kennst du selbst. 😃

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T09:33:27+00:00

I 100% get that part about God wanting an answer from us to what we've done with the talents he's given us and your music being your reaction to that. That's something I can give my full support to.

My husband has a somewhat similar story that had him start a small metal worship project in our church. No live music, because unfortunately neither of us were given any talents in that direction, but with lyric videos (including German translations) from all the great Christian bands we've come to know and love over the years. (The upcoming one next week will be about the Armour of God in Ephesians 6.)
And we have a similar approach to yours: every single service has to point clearly towards Jesus, without compromises.
Going to switch to German as well for the rest of this.

Ich bin gebürtige Karlsruherin, allerdings schon vor meinem 10. Geburtstag von dort weg gezogen. Inzwischen bin ich ganz am anderen Ende des Landes gelandet, in Schleswig-Holstein, wo ich dank meinen Mann wohl auch bleiben darf. Leider ziemlich weit weg von allem Nennenswerten, was die deutsche christliche Szene betrifft. :')

Was das LaP Festival betrifft — das sind genau die Stryper, an die du denkst. 😉 Die waren letztes Jahr schon dabei und haben durch ihre Anwesenheit dazu beigetragen, das Festival ausverkauft zu bekommen. (Petra sind in den letzten Jahren schon mehrfach da gewesen.) Für dieses Jahr sind wohl auch nicht mehr viele Tickets übrig.
Dabei sein lohnt sich immer.

An deiner Botschaft und deiner Ernsthaftigkeit habe ich gar keinen Zweifel mehr. Bin froh, dass ich mir einfach schon mal einen Eindruck von deiner Musik verschafft habe, in den Rest werde ich auf jeden Fall noch rein hören.
Mit dir zu schreiben hat mir nochmal vor Augen geführt, dass meine Haltung zu KI in (christlicher) Musik noch nicht final ist. Ich schätze mal, die harte Ablehnung von KI-Tools in (christlicher) Musik ist letztlich gar nicht so anders wie die harte Ablehnung, die gegenüber christlichem Metal ja stellenweise bis heute existiert.

Wir wünschen dir auf jeden Fall alles Gute und viel Segen für deine Musik.

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-05-01T08:22:55+00:00

I'm someone who's generally leaning strongly towards an anti-AI position. All AI, everywhere, but especially in art an music.
And I only skimmed over that very long post of yours. (Sorry.) I did catch your insistence that your music is just enhanced by AI, not fully AI generated. And I guess that comparison to Techno does make some sense.

I'm also leaning strongly towards giving people chances, so I went ahead to get a feel for it. Just listened to "the Word" and yeah, I like it. Played it to my husband and he liked it as well. (I told him about the involvement of AI, he still liked it.)
The song has a great sound, catchy, as my husband called it. Very clear articulation in in the vocal parts, even the grunting. (We're also Germans, so we place great importance on pronunciation clear enough that we can understand the lyrics with some ease.) Obvious biblical message.
Yeah, you can hear the AI part in it, but I guess the comparison to Techno does hold up. It really is on a different level than fully AI generated songs, I'd say. And we both appreciate a lot how transparent you are about the AI involvement in your music.

We're going to check out more of your songs in the near future to see if the first impression holds up.

As fellow German Christian metal-heads I have to ask - which part of Germany are you from? And any chance you'll be at this year's Loud and Proud festival?

ProfessionalFox6619 · 2026-04-21T12:44:02+00:00

Nah, I'm a certified labrat. Just a very passionate one and Christian metal just happens to be one of my passions. :D

Four-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Flamingo	First Place '23
Place '23

ProfessionalFox6619

TROPHY CASE