Lyric Look - Dark Tanquillity - Therein

I am sure since this album has been out forever, that the real dissection of these lyrics has been done over and over. I am here looking at the song on Spotify that was released in 1999 with over 5 million plays; "Therein" - which in itself, is already confusing as is.

One of the things I've always appreciated about DT's lyrics is that they contain a very... poetic and puzzle like quality to them. There are many songs that just seems to be a collection of words, and the meaning is kind of buried deep within it.

Well, it is one of my favorite lyric sets for it's natural antithetical cadence, it's contradictive language, and intense confusion. Let's dig in.

Gentle storm, thundering silence
Inferior force, uncontrolled calm
Vital unlife, logic, chaos, logic

So we already start out here with opposites. Gentle is not what a storm is. Thunder is in itself not silence, as it is a sound. Force would indicate power, calm is control maybe. Vital is life. And then just a cry out of logic, chaos, and logic.

Here's the thing though - if you think deep enough, you could see where they make sense... and I think maybe that's intentional. "Uncontrolled calm" could be a word for peace. A gentle storm could be calming rain coming down outside while you're in the safety of your house. Silence can be the loudest opinion in a room. You could be alive physically but dead inside.

I tend to think that last line is more a statement - all these things are logical and chaotic, all depending on what way you're looking at it.

But where is this going?

The tone of which his birth ascend
The beat that of a heart descend
Repeating in the infinite
An insight made it clear
Order stormed the surface
Where chaos set the norm
Had there always been balance? Surely not
Therein lies the beauty

Those first two lines, almost seem to represent a song almost, a tone that brings you, and a heart that grounds you and makes you move. The next two lines seem to indicate that it's not a single occurrence, but something that happens infinitely, and all you have to do it look within to see the pattern.

The next quartet is really cool here. Order was brought to chaos, where chaos was the norm. Cool, something good happened. Then he asks... has it always been this way? No way. And we get the title of the song! So the beauty lies... with the fact that life is chaotic and crazy, but we command and bring order? It's unclear, but that seems to be what it's suggesting.

Anyway, let's see where this is going.

It was solid
Yet everchanging
It was different
Yet the same
So I starve myself for energy
I starve myself for energy

It's solid but changes, it's different, but always the same, so I prevent myself from using energy... or maybe I use my energy. Okay, so...

Solid but changing - life changes. It's always trucking forward, it never stops. You cannot remain at a standstill, because even if you don't everything else will.

Different yet same. I would assume that's indicative of the struggles we have. At their core, they are all the same, despite them changing forms in appearance.

Starving for energy is what throws me off. It's obviously the song's... solution to the problems stated in the whole song. But it almost seems purposely unclear, maybe as to let you interpret what it means. Maybe? I think about this line a lot. Sometimes I feel like that it's using all of your energy following the changes and woes of life that it constantly stays depleted. You have to use every ounce.

But then I think to myself "starve" is the "lack of" food. So in that light, you wouldn't starve yourself by eating until it's gone... no, you'd neglect giving yourself food. Which here would indicate that he's purposely keeping his energy low or gone. But why? The way it kind of feels as if maybe there's a struggle, something that's infinite, always changes, yet is exactly the same ever time, so he can't escape whatever it is, so he's trying to default himself out of it... he can't continue in a loop if he can't actually complete the circle.

So... is it about breaking the cycle? It's the way I am reading this.

The song around his soul will bend
The notes that in this hole will melt
Crawl out of science
A dreamland if you dare
Disorder clawed the boundaries
We're ordered to stand clear
Was it always different, never the same?
Therein lies the beauty

In the first two lines, we're talking about the song again... maybe the song of life. This song his soul will bend to, and the notes fall into a hole and melt away. Almost seems like the melody of life goes away.

Crawling out of science seems to get away from logic, and into an abstract dreamland, if you dare. Almost as if that's not what you're supposed to do. Oh no, don't dream, be grounded in reality.

Disorder, or chaos if we're keeping the theme is actively working to break down walls, and we're supposed to let it happen, stand clear of the chaos. But wait... what happened to the order we created before? Is this not the same balance?

Then we get the question, that uses the same language from the chorus, but completes the though of being different never the same. It's almost as if he's questioning his logic here. Something doesn't make sense... and there's somehow beauty in that. Every changing, always different where chaos claws at what we believe to be true.

As there was no witnesses
There was nothing to be told
As nothing could be grasped
The story could unfold
Superimposed on the elements of anger
Fear, anxiety
Hate, despair, remorse

Where are we now? This thought process changed. There was no one to see the things happen, so no story will be told. There's nothing physical, but the story could unfold... how? It's almost suggesting that we have no control over it, that once we're out of the picture, it tells itself.

The story sits on top of anger and it's elements. Is this the frustration of life? The human experience? Why does this story sit upon that struggle?

Could it be that there's beauty in the struggle?

So break from all that fear hold fast
Exposed, now turn to all you lack
Let echoes be the answers
Return from all the screams
Wordless now the last attack
So silent it hurts to listen
Was it always solid to never change?
Therein lies the beauty

We're not done yet. We go straight into the next verse that starts out from breaking away from fear, which I assume busts away the story that was on top of it. We're now vulnerable, and we turn to what we didn't do, what we think we should've done.

The answer is in the echoes of your screams... because it's empty. It never changed. After the echoes are gone, you realize that you are alone, in the emptiness, and it sucks being there. Was it worth it? Did it change anything?

"Was it always solid to never change?" - No, and it never will be, yet it will feel the same, each and every time. In that, you find beauty. That's where the song I think was headed.

Look, I am no wordsmith. I am a little crazy in the head to dig and research. I just like to think a lot. That's probably why you already know what's happening here, and I am just the last to know. I love it when songs like this make me think. It's one of the joys of life.

This song seems to question your entire existence. Your stability, your chaos, your command, your thoughts, and what you're even doing. I think the song tries to express that life will always change, chaos and everything will constantly happen, but in that midst, there is something unchanging. I think that's up to you to figure out what that is. What is that unchanging element of life? Is it the chaos? Is it something else?

Furthermore, how do you break the cycle? Do you just bail out of it? Do you exhaust yourself? Do you just accept that there's order in chaos, and chaos in order and everything changes? Do you simple step out of the loop, find your energy elsewhere? Do you shutdown until you need to act? I think the chorus, maybe if it has a meaning from the singer, is so poetic that it's wide open for interpretation.

Anyway, that whole breakdown put me in a mood. I'll leave it there. Enjoy! It's a great song if you're into metal.