Soon to appear on my site, along with the lyrics and a bunch of other stuff not related to the song:
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Blending perfectly with the concept of the album it is from, this song contrasts a person's reality with a fiction their mind has created; contrary to The mundane and the magic (analysis coming soon), however, it shows the negative side of creating fictions to escape our realities rather than a wish or need for it. It speaks of the downfall of this person caused by their awakening into the real world. They have reached a point where their downfall is both inevitable (It begins today; It seems you've passed the mark / Of indescribable dark) and irreversible (It's slow but final), and they will be undone by it (Awakenings will leave you stranded / Where no-one is listening / Where no-one's around!).
Unlike in other Dark Tranquillity songs, the protagonist here is a second-person character (they are spoken to by the singer/narrator) rather than the narrator himself or humanity in general. The song plays with both with the contrast between dreams and a waking state (So light up these days against With the darkest of waking dreams; As in the death of dream against Awakenings will leave you stranded) and metaphors of a duality in which both can coexist in both the mind of the protagonist and their life (With the darkest of waking dreams). The theme of death of fiction makes it a good closer for Fiction by playing with the title of the album (compare "the death/end of fiction" to "the death/end of Fiction). As in the best of Dark Tranquillity's songs, the individual metaphors can be interpreted in many ways even within the same song interpretation and the imagery is beautiful in a very-twisted way.
As in a life of rain
You're only alive when you're falling
The coldest chill
In the emptiness of reason..
A strange start for a song with the theme described above, the first two lines refer to how we only feel truly alive when we're falling. 'Falling' here means both the downfall of the protagonist, consequence of having lived a fictional life for too-long and of said life finally giving in and crumbling under its own dead and false weight (against what the victim, safe within their fiction's warm and protective walls, imagined, therefore leaving an "emptiness of reason", a blank space in their mind, as confusion takes over), and the very "fall" from fiction into reality. "The coldest chill" hints again at only being alive when one is falling by taking to the extreme that which constitutes the very core of feeling/being alive, which is feeling things; surely the coldest of chills must be felt, whether one is numb to lesser ones or not. But the line also tells us that falling into reality is the coldest chill, or the greatest shock or pain, one can feel.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It begins today!
The fall was inevitable, as always is the case with fantasies designed to escape life: eventually some fault in them proves fatal and they shatter, leaving the creator with nothing, and so there's nothing to gain from being thrown in such a way into the real world. But "with nothing to gain" is also a sort of moral to the whole song: There is nothing to gain from making up an alternate world to cover up the horror of the real one.
So light up the days
With the darkest of waking dreams
This part of the song conjures the age-old metaphor of reason and knowledge "enlightening" or "illuminating" the existing darkness. The awakening into what is true and real sheds light on the protagonist's previous dark falsity because now the protagonist can see (and know) what is true. The second verse is simultaneously the continuation to the previous one, a beautiful metaphor about the nature of the aforementioned "lighting[-up] of the days", and another (equally-beautiful) metaphor that pitches the fictional "reality" of the protagonist against the actual reality to which they wake up and also reverses the positions of both "realities". That the "waking dreams" (the reality the protagonist has awoken to) are the darkest of all speaks of the bleakness of real life and reminds of "The coldest chill"; "the darkest of waking dreams" and "the coldest chill" are two ways of saying the same thing. And if what the victim of this shattering of fiction now inhabits is a "waking dream" it is because they were both "dreaming" in/about their forged world and oblivious to the existence of the real world (thus, what they lived was, to them, a waking state and not a dream).
For endless puzzles
To reflect our aim..
Let us remember the state of confusion and blankness-of-mind spoken-of in the verse "In the emptiness of reason". As our character is confused, at first, about this new world they have been pitched so-unexpectedly into, everything seems as a ceaseless conglomeration of puzzles. These "puzzles" reflect the protagonist's "aim" because they show how the protagonist was used to the fiction their brain had constructed and is now lost.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It starts today!
It seems you've passed the mark
Of indescribable dark
Like the line "It begins today", these two lines portend the imminence and inevitability of the downfall being described in the song. That the "dark" of said undoing is "indescribable" is not merely an exaggeration (that "dark" is described to some extent a few lines after this); it is a sign that this is perhaps one of the worst things, if not the worst thing, that can happen to somebody (remember "The coldest chill" and "The darkest of waking dreams"). The verse also both prepares us for the ensuing description of the "dark" and suggests, in a sort-of-mocking way, that whatever words follow aren't nearly-enough to describe it.
I fear you drown
In hope of what you think will come
Extracted from the sharpest of moments
Built to greet you when the time will come
Empty spaces on foundations of denial
Your structure is dust...
"Hope is the last thing to die." How many times have we all heard this? The protagonist's hope, being the last thing to die (and so refusing to do so), still battles on: our hero hopes for everything to turn out alright, for everything to return to "normal" (their normal; their fiction, which to them is reality), for this to be only a dream (remember all the plays with the antithesis between dreams and awareness). But such hope, such "dust structures" "built to greet [the hero] when the time will come", is nothing more than "empty spaces on foundations of denial": the nothingness of a fiction built on denial of truth. And "Your structure is dust", aside from reinforcing the "foundations of denial", also emphasizes the aforementioned fact that all fictions are fragile and doomed to fracture and collapse.
As in the death of dream
Awakenings will leave you stranded
Where no-one is listening
Where no-one's around!
This short description of one aspect of our character's undoing again flirts with the concept of dreaming and with both words being at once dreams and waking realities. "The death of dream" here is the death of the fiction the song speaks about and also literally the waking-up from a dream. In both cases, one is stranded, lost, unknowing of whether one is still in the dream or not anymore, unaware of what is happening, could happen and will happen, and completely-alone.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It begins today!
-------
Blending perfectly with the concept of the album it is from, this song contrasts a person's reality with a fiction their mind has created; contrary to The mundane and the magic (analysis coming soon), however, it shows the negative side of creating fictions to escape our realities rather than a wish or need for it. It speaks of the downfall of this person caused by their awakening into the real world. They have reached a point where their downfall is both inevitable (It begins today; It seems you've passed the mark / Of indescribable dark) and irreversible (It's slow but final), and they will be undone by it (Awakenings will leave you stranded / Where no-one is listening / Where no-one's around!).
Unlike in other Dark Tranquillity songs, the protagonist here is a second-person character (they are spoken to by the singer/narrator) rather than the narrator himself or humanity in general. The song plays with both with the contrast between dreams and a waking state (So light up these days against With the darkest of waking dreams; As in the death of dream against Awakenings will leave you stranded) and metaphors of a duality in which both can coexist in both the mind of the protagonist and their life (With the darkest of waking dreams). The theme of death of fiction makes it a good closer for Fiction by playing with the title of the album (compare "the death/end of fiction" to "the death/end of Fiction). As in the best of Dark Tranquillity's songs, the individual metaphors can be interpreted in many ways even within the same song interpretation and the imagery is beautiful in a very-twisted way.
As in a life of rain
You're only alive when you're falling
The coldest chill
In the emptiness of reason..
A strange start for a song with the theme described above, the first two lines refer to how we only feel truly alive when we're falling. 'Falling' here means both the downfall of the protagonist, consequence of having lived a fictional life for too-long and of said life finally giving in and crumbling under its own dead and false weight (against what the victim, safe within their fiction's warm and protective walls, imagined, therefore leaving an "emptiness of reason", a blank space in their mind, as confusion takes over), and the very "fall" from fiction into reality. "The coldest chill" hints again at only being alive when one is falling by taking to the extreme that which constitutes the very core of feeling/being alive, which is feeling things; surely the coldest of chills must be felt, whether one is numb to lesser ones or not. But the line also tells us that falling into reality is the coldest chill, or the greatest shock or pain, one can feel.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It begins today!
The fall was inevitable, as always is the case with fantasies designed to escape life: eventually some fault in them proves fatal and they shatter, leaving the creator with nothing, and so there's nothing to gain from being thrown in such a way into the real world. But "with nothing to gain" is also a sort of moral to the whole song: There is nothing to gain from making up an alternate world to cover up the horror of the real one.
So light up the days
With the darkest of waking dreams
This part of the song conjures the age-old metaphor of reason and knowledge "enlightening" or "illuminating" the existing darkness. The awakening into what is true and real sheds light on the protagonist's previous dark falsity because now the protagonist can see (and know) what is true. The second verse is simultaneously the continuation to the previous one, a beautiful metaphor about the nature of the aforementioned "lighting[-up] of the days", and another (equally-beautiful) metaphor that pitches the fictional "reality" of the protagonist against the actual reality to which they wake up and also reverses the positions of both "realities". That the "waking dreams" (the reality the protagonist has awoken to) are the darkest of all speaks of the bleakness of real life and reminds of "The coldest chill"; "the darkest of waking dreams" and "the coldest chill" are two ways of saying the same thing. And if what the victim of this shattering of fiction now inhabits is a "waking dream" it is because they were both "dreaming" in/about their forged world and oblivious to the existence of the real world (thus, what they lived was, to them, a waking state and not a dream).
For endless puzzles
To reflect our aim..
Let us remember the state of confusion and blankness-of-mind spoken-of in the verse "In the emptiness of reason". As our character is confused, at first, about this new world they have been pitched so-unexpectedly into, everything seems as a ceaseless conglomeration of puzzles. These "puzzles" reflect the protagonist's "aim" because they show how the protagonist was used to the fiction their brain had constructed and is now lost.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It starts today!
It seems you've passed the mark
Of indescribable dark
Like the line "It begins today", these two lines portend the imminence and inevitability of the downfall being described in the song. That the "dark" of said undoing is "indescribable" is not merely an exaggeration (that "dark" is described to some extent a few lines after this); it is a sign that this is perhaps one of the worst things, if not the worst thing, that can happen to somebody (remember "The coldest chill" and "The darkest of waking dreams"). The verse also both prepares us for the ensuing description of the "dark" and suggests, in a sort-of-mocking way, that whatever words follow aren't nearly-enough to describe it.
I fear you drown
In hope of what you think will come
Extracted from the sharpest of moments
Built to greet you when the time will come
Empty spaces on foundations of denial
Your structure is dust...
"Hope is the last thing to die." How many times have we all heard this? The protagonist's hope, being the last thing to die (and so refusing to do so), still battles on: our hero hopes for everything to turn out alright, for everything to return to "normal" (their normal; their fiction, which to them is reality), for this to be only a dream (remember all the plays with the antithesis between dreams and awareness). But such hope, such "dust structures" "built to greet [the hero] when the time will come", is nothing more than "empty spaces on foundations of denial": the nothingness of a fiction built on denial of truth. And "Your structure is dust", aside from reinforcing the "foundations of denial", also emphasizes the aforementioned fact that all fictions are fragile and doomed to fracture and collapse.
As in the death of dream
Awakenings will leave you stranded
Where no-one is listening
Where no-one's around!
This short description of one aspect of our character's undoing again flirts with the concept of dreaming and with both words being at once dreams and waking realities. "The death of dream" here is the death of the fiction the song speaks about and also literally the waking-up from a dream. In both cases, one is stranded, lost, unknowing of whether one is still in the dream or not anymore, unaware of what is happening, could happen and will happen, and completely-alone.
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final, with nothing to gain..
You brought it upon yourself
It's slow but final
It begins today!
