by Nick Towers

Created on: April 28, 2010

There are a couple moments of static, and then soft voices enter backed only by soft acoustic guitar.  The voices go on somberly, the lyrics they sing somber as well.  The lyrics deal with pain, sadness, and overall darkness.  Slowly they raise their pitch higher, higher and then back down.  They pause for a breath and bring their voices up high again, joined now by distinct electric guitar and drums.  The drums add energy to the song.  Emotion flickers on and off, failing to take control. Finally, with the song almost over, emotion breaks through. The song, at this point, takes on a regretful, frustrated tone, the singing shifts almost completely to keening.  At the end of the song, emotion dwindles down, somberness returning, the sound reverting back from electric to acoustic.    

Both the music and lyrics to this song are quite cryptic, and therefore there is much to be analyzed. From the beginning of the song its dark nature is quite obvious.  The title itself gives hint to the eerie tone.  It strikes a rather chilling chord in the beginning, where the image is created of the narrator greeting a personified darkness. The song’s beginning draws great similarities to its ending, as they are both quiet, somber, and with an acoustic guitar backing.  A major oddity in the song is the moment where the energetic drums come in, contrasting heavily with the tone of the lyrics and the simplistic musical opening.  Despite holding back for the majority of the song, the emotions of the singers finally break through towards its end. The emotion heard is regret and frustration. Their emotion is seen through their use of keening, singing which can be confused with crying.  This emotional keening is made effective by the vocal harmony between the singers. 

Most of the lyrics deal with the the narrator's struggle with his dark experiences, this darkness exemplified with the opening line, “Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again.”  The again makes it known that the narrator has had experiences with the darkness more than once.  As the song goes on, it is heavily implied that the narrator's sorrow is caused by the fact that he witnesses humanity blindly following someone, despite the fact that this unnamed person may in fact wish them harm.  This is seen with the line,

“And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening,”

The narrator is seemingly frustrated because he tries to warn the blind followers, as seen by the line  

“’Fools" said I, ‘You do not know

 Silence like a cancer grows. 

Hear my words that I might teach you, 

Take my arms that I might reach to you.’ 

But my words like silent raindrops fell, 
and echoed 
In the wells of silence”

            The failure to convince people to resist conformity is dangerous situations must be quite frustrating indeed. Through the dark, depressing nature of the song, the song bears in contradictory manner, a cryptic yet understandable message.

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