Music

Note: All of these songs are available on Spotify and YouTube.

Music has been just sound to me until recently—it now holds history, emotion, and meaning all at once. It doesn’t need to explain itself to hit you. For a long time, I didn’t really listen to songs. Not properly. But recently, something shifted. Now I’m mostly into songs about wars, epic moments, and real history with weight behind it.

Since I know Latin and I’m into Roman history, I’m especially into songs that pull from that world—songs like “Belisarius,” “Sons of Mars,” “Legio XIV Gemina,” “S.P.Q.R.,” “Renovatio Imperii,” “Song of Hadrian’s Wall,” and “Hymn of the Legion.” There’s no fluff in them. They hit hard. They carry the weight of Rome’s legacy—the discipline, the blood, the ambition, the fall. You can feel the power and the cost.

Then there’s “Happy Nation.” On the surface, it sounds upbeat and hopeful. But if you really listen, there’s something deeper underneath. It critiques the very idea of utopia while still holding space for hope.The world is messy, unfair, and unpredictable, but we move forward anyway.

And “Rasputin”? That song’s insane in the best way. It turns this controversial historical figure into a disco icon. It’s catchy, dramatic, and kind of ridiculous—but in a way that works. It tells me how history isn’t just facts—it’s the stories we tell over and over again, sometimes stretched, sometimes rewritten. And somehow, it still sticks.