The Full Story
About Abominable Preachers
ABOMINABLE PREACHERS (2018)
Abominable Preachers marks the true beginning of the Madadkin project. Recorded during a period when Paul Adkin was developing both as a songwriter and as a producer, the album combines folk, blues, country and rock influences with themes that would later become central to the wider Madadkin universe.
At first glance the album appears to be a collection of songs about politics, religion, technology, war and social change. Beneath the surface, however, a common thread runs through the work: a questioning of authority and a search for authentic human purpose.
The album is populated by strange figures and modern myths. An Orange Goblin emerges from a civilisation driven by greed. A Robot challenges the value of human creativity. Hamlet sings the blues from the halls of Elsinore. Hidden powers operate behind a veil of secrecy. Preachers promise salvation while leading people away from truth. Throughout the album, reality itself becomes a contested territory.
Again and again the songs ask the same questions. Who gets to define reality? Why are some voices treated as authoritative while others are ignored? What happens when institutions, ideologies or economic systems prevent people from becoming the best version of themselves?
Alongside these questions runs another, more hopeful current. Songs such as In the Golden Age and Art is a Human Instinct imagine a world in which creativity, imagination and human fulfilment take precedence over fear, greed and conformity. The album's final message is not one of despair but of possibility: human beings are creators, and through creation they can reshape both themselves and the world around them.
Though later Madadkin albums would explore these themes with greater technical sophistication, many of the philosophical concerns that define the project first appear here. Abominable Preachers stands as an early declaration of independence from received wisdom and an invitation to imagine a different future.
MODERN MYTHS
Tracks: The Orange Goblin, Me and the Robot, Elsinore Blues, The Secrecy
The oldest stories never really disappear. They simply change their clothes and return in new forms. The dragons become politicians, the monsters become machines, the ghosts become conspiracies, and the tragic heroes find themselves singing the blues.
The songs in this section explore the modern world through myth, satire and storytelling. The Orange Goblin transforms political anxiety into a fairy-tale monster. Me and the Robot imagines a future in which technology challenges what it means to be human. Elsinore Blues drags Shakespeare's Hamlet into a smoky blues bar, while The Secrecy draws on folk traditions and hidden histories to explore the uneasy relationship between truth and power.
Beneath their humour and imagination lies a serious concern. Each song asks what happens when human beings create forces that begin to shape their lives in unexpected ways. Political systems, technological change, cultural myths and secret narratives all become characters in a larger story about the modern condition.
These songs do not offer simple answers. Instead, they invite the listener to look beyond appearances and to question the stories we tell ourselves about the world. For sometimes the best way to speak about reality is not through facts and arguments, but through myths.
THE ABOMINABLE PREACHERS
Tracks: Dancing with Preacher Don, From Abominable Preachers, End of Days
Not all preachers stand behind pulpits. Some wear suits, some appear on television, some sell ideologies, and some hide behind institutions that demand obedience while discouraging thought. The songs in this section explore the figures who claim authority over truth while leading society away from its deeper possibilities.
Dancing with Preacher Don examines corruption concealed beneath respectability. Inspired by scandals involving trusted authority figures, the song explores the abuse of power and the ways in which manipulation often disguises itself as care, morality or spiritual guidance.
From Abominable Preachers broadens the attack. Here the preacher becomes a symbol for all systems that suppress human creativity, independence and authenticity. The song questions why societies organised around abundance continue to produce alienation, fear and conformity instead of encouraging people to become the best version of themselves.
The section reaches its climax with End of Days, a passionate warning about ecological destruction, social decay and the loss of meaningful purpose. Yet beneath its anger lies a call to action. The answer is not despair but transformation. If humanity wishes to avoid its own self-inflicted apocalypse, it must reject the false prophets of greed, power and cynicism and rediscover a purpose worthy of its creative potential.
Together these songs present a world in crisis, but also suggest that the crisis is not inevitable. The real struggle is not between good and evil, but between systems that diminish human possibility and those that allow it to flourish.
WHO DEFINES REALITY?
Tracks: Words are Words, I Told the Truth, The Secrecy
Reality is often presented as something fixed, obvious and unquestionable. Yet every society is built upon stories, assumptions and accepted truths that shape the way people understand the world. The songs in this section explore what happens when those narratives are challenged.
Words are Words examines the uneasy relationship between language, freedom and offence. Ideas have the power to disturb, inspire and transform, yet attempts to control speech often reveal a deeper fear of change itself. The song asks whether people are truly threatened by words, or by the possibilities those words create.
I Told the Truth continues the theme through the lens of honesty and dissent. Drawing on the traditions of Delta Blues, it explores the uncomfortable reality that truth is not always welcomed. The song reflects on a world in which sincerity is often punished and facts are dismissed whenever they become inconvenient.
The Secrecy approaches the question from another angle. Through Appalachian folk influences, hidden histories and whispered conspiracies, the song explores the tension between official narratives and the suspicion that something remains concealed beneath the surface. Whether the secret is real or imagined becomes less important than the atmosphere of uncertainty itself.
Together these songs ask a deceptively simple question: Who gets to define reality? Governments, institutions, authorities and media all claim the power to shape public understanding, yet individuals also possess the capacity to question, interpret and imagine. In the struggle between competing narratives, truth remains both essential and elusive.
CREATION & POSSIBILITY
Tracks: The Deed is Done, In the Golden Age, Art is a Human Instinct
After confronting mythology, authority and contested truths, Abominable Preachers turns toward a more hopeful question: what kind of future might human beings create for themselves?
The Deed is Done acknowledges the environmental damage caused by modern civilisation but refuses to surrender to despair. The song accepts responsibility for the mistakes of the past while insisting that change remains possible. The future has not yet been written.
In the Golden Age expands this idea into a vision of social transformation. Against a backdrop of pessimism and uncertainty, the song imagines a world in which technology, creativity and human cooperation are directed toward fulfilment rather than profit. It offers an alternative to the assumption that progress must always come at the expense of human well-being.
The album closes with Art is a Human Instinct, a celebration of creation itself. Beneath its simplicity lies one of the central ideas running throughout the Madadkin project: human beings are naturally creative creatures. Art is not merely entertainment or decoration but an expression of a deeper impulse to shape, imagine and bring new possibilities into existence.
Together these songs form the philosophical heart of the album. They suggest that the answer to fear, conformity and social decline is not withdrawal but participation. Human fulfilment emerges through creativity, cooperation and the freedom to become what we are capable of being.
If the earlier songs diagnose the illness, these songs begin to imagine the cure.
THE END OF DAYS
Tracks: End of Days, Gernika, The Deed is Done
Several songs on Abominable Preachers confront the possibility that modern civilisation may be moving towards a crisis of its own making. Environmental destruction, war and social fragmentation appear throughout the album not as isolated problems but as symptoms of a deeper failure of purpose.
End of Days captures this anxiety most directly. Driven by urgent guitars and relentless rhythm, the song portrays a world trapped by destructive habits while searching for a reason to change. Beneath its anger lies a simple conviction: if humanity wishes to survive, it must discover a purpose beyond consumption and short-term gain.
Gernika places these concerns within a longer historical perspective. Beginning with the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, the song traces a line through many of the defining atrocities of the modern age. The result is not simply an anti-war song but an examination of how violence becomes normalised when power justifies itself through fear.
The Deed is Done turns its attention to the environment. Reflecting on deforestation, pollution and climate change, it argues that human beings have become increasingly disconnected from the consequences of their actions. Yet unlike many apocalyptic narratives, the song ultimately insists that change remains possible.
Together these songs ask whether civilisation is capable of correcting its course before the damage becomes irreversible. Their message is bleak at times, but never entirely hopeless. The possibility of renewal remains open, provided humanity chooses a different path.
