On Soliloquium’s third full-length album, “Things We Leave Behind”, it felt like I finally started getting things together for real. Most of the previous amateurism was gone, and I attracted interesting guests and collaborators. Here is my deep-dive into the album’s second single, “The Discarded”, featuring Mikko Heikkilä (Kaunis Kuolematon, Dawn of Solace) on guest vocals.
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 “The Discarded”
Listen:
“The Discarded” lyrics and themes
As waste are the unworthy, the dregs of life
The defect, the defiant, the unwilling
A crumbling life equation
Consistently endorsed by fingers crossed
Frustration and contempt, a bitter pastime
Deemed unbecoming by pitiful design
Our search of peace is but a burden
Monetized, stigmatized, conformed
Succumb to the frustration
Of a material pursuit that was never ours
We are misplaced in life
Far from the favoured circles
Left to wander, no signs of relief
Meanwhile the shadows grew vast
We sing the song of the discarded
We sing the song of the discarded ones
Lacrimose sleep yields no resolutions
Dulled ambitions of the sufferer
Constructing thoughts in vain
The escapist’s maze of mind
Cannot defeat the shackles of reality
“The Discarded” is an important turning point in Soliloquium’s lyrics, as it’s the first time my lyrics look outward, away from myself and onto a broader perspective. Living life as an outsider, largely surrounded by other outsiders, trying to succeed in a material, performance-based world is taxing. You’re often forced to play games you never asked for, smiling your way through moments and situation you wouldn’t want to be a part of in the first place.
I wrote this song somewhere around my own wake up call where I decided to drastically change my life, no matter the cost. It’s clear that the frustration of fighting aimlessly in a “pitiful design” becomes “a bitter pastime“. But no matter how much we dream and subsequently morph, sometimes we have to submit. Sometimes the dreaming becomes no more than solving abstract riddles in your head, wasting sleep and precious energy.
The takeaway is still that this is an empathetic song, calling for understanding and change. It foreshadowed my own life to come, including the challenges and frustrations.
“The Discarded” musical ideas and influences
The intro riff in the song clearly looks to Finland, and as so often to my death/doom heroes in Rapture. Luckily, the shameless similarities end when the chugging verse enters. There’s definitely a slight The Cranberries – “Zombie” vibe to the clean guitar pattern that drives the chorus.
I wouldn’t say the instrumental parts and melodies in the song are all that special, but I like the structure. It has interesting, catchy tempo-changes, building and releasing tension at the right points to support the themes. Mikko’s guest appearance takes it away at just the right moment, providing a tender counterpart to the aggressive sections. It’s even more cathartic than I first expected and fueled my fire to have more guest spots on my albums.
Would I change anything about the song today?
Not really. I think “Things We Leave Behind” is where I really started finding the Soliloquium identity, along with the necessary musical and audio proficiency (this was the first album mixed and mastered by Jari Lindholm). Most importantly, it’s a song that relies on structure and atmosphere rather than riffs and flashy moves, aiming to transmit something to the listener. That’s where I want Soliloquium to go, so it was an important step in that direction.
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