“Garden of Truculence” is the first song I ever wrote for Soliloquium back in 2012 – a rather predictable, but still quite good Swedish-style melodic death/doom song, in my opinion. Here’s a closer, critical look at the lyric themes and musical ideas. It’s a post in a long run of song breakdowns I will be doing. In the end, I hope it will give you a deeper understanding of my music.
About me – deathdoom.com, music and more
- Stefan Nordström
- Musician, songwriter, content creator, digital freelancer
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Bands: Desolator, Soliloquium, Ending Quest, Ashes of Life, Trees of Daymare, The Ashen Tree
- Social: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Listen to “Garden of Truculence”
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“Garden of Truculence” lyrics and themes
Blistering cold
Human lepers scratching the door
The isolation warms
A welcome sense of cabin fever
A draconian sense of ecstasy
Reviewing this pale existence
An outsider’s perspective
Tainted and distorted
Drawn into threads of life
A pawn in wretched games
This collective breeze of steaming anguish
Corrupting my path
A garden of truculence awaits
The abhorrence of the world outside these doors
Elusive cures for wretched tears
The absence of all humanity
Driven to destruction
Becoming one in your mold
Lowering myself to pointless battles
Losing all sense of self
The transparency of devious words
The obscenity of human discourse
Enslavement in a torn creation
An arena for the futile
Aspirations beyond the mundane
Construction of thoughts anew
The collapse of illusory dreams
and the bitter disappointment
The sour taste of corrosion and defeat
A bleak outcry upon weathered ears
Relive the anguish
Paint the walls with spite
Allow the bitterness
To cripple the last will
The lyrics for “Garden of Truculence” are quite straight-forward, dealing with isolation, bitterness and failed aspirations. In my 20’s, I was obviously not too happy participating in a society where I really didn’t feel I had a place. Blame is mostly put elsewhere, on the antagonists, but the final clean vocal part opens up the possibility that I actually “cripple my own will”. You can tell that I was still heavy on Opeth, given the abundance of fancy and long-ish words.
Either way, the song reflects on protection through self-imposed isolation as a way to escape an unpleasant outside world. It’s a far cry from my more refined and specific writing later on, but considering it’s my first ever death/doom metal song, I’d say I did a decent job.
“Garden of Truculence” musical ideas and influences
Musically, the songs on the first Soliloquium EP draw heavily from its main influences: Katatonia‘s “Brave Murder Day” and October Tide‘s “Rain Without End”. There’s honestly very little originality to be found on here, but I’d say that’s OK for a first two-song EP. I especially dig the mournful clean guitar intro and the other light section that features the clean vocals. The chorus riff borrows heavily from October Tide, and creates a pretty cool hook together with the vocals.
Would I change anything about the song today?
As much as I like the parts I just mentioned, I’m not so sure about the more uptempo, driving riffs. First off, they’re simply not that interesting, and secondly, they’re played rather sloppily. Before this release, I had only recorded death metal, and it shows. Having programmed drums is also something that draws the song down a bit, of course, but that was fixed for the upcoming releases.
I guess I could try my hand at re-recording the song, but I think that would also remove most of its soul in process. I’m happy with it as a start, and it’s was a good springboard to creating more original music in the future. As I mention in my blog post about straying from classic melodic death/doom, that’s where I eventually wanted to do. However, that wasn’t on the map at this point.
I hope you found this “Garden of Truculence” analysis interesting. I’ll try to keep them coming, to offer deeper insight into my music. If you want to support my music and other creative endeavors, buy some music or merch over at the Soliloquium Bandcamp page. Helps a lot!
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