Themes in TMI, and relations to the cover photo

[Ormir]

"The title is a play on words. We took the english saying "The mind's eye", and added a more introspective quality by changing the "eye" into an "I". To make this parallell a bit more obvious for people, we changed it back again for the title of the outro. It's not a concept album, but all the lyrics, imagery and even the music concentrate around self-searching, its concequence - self loathing, and the struggle for a motivated self destruction. This cover photo is a still life with a number of chaotically structured items that allude to different phrases in the lyrics. There are also a lot of lyrical riddles and hidden letter combinations in the text, giving a more schizoid nature to the whole CD. This is as far as we go explaining the album. Further exploration requires more efforts from the listener-reader."
-Niklas Sundin

exhibits:

a) jaw bone (bottom right)

b) candles (top left)

c) black velvet (right)

d) withered roses (left)

e) bundle of coiled metal/thorns (borrom left)

f) ring/bracelet (top left)

g) necklace thing (bottom)

e) canvas, with a shell of the DT logo, and blood (?) filling in the rest

h) red canvas, under the roses (left)


How do you think these relate to the lyrics? I'll take a stab at a few to start off.

a) It looks like a horses jaw. Riding/horses is a recurring theme.

"The bringer that on millions horses ride"

"And they ride, they ride"

"Fed with the hooves of apocalypse
that galloped down"

b) The candles are quite interesting as they're unlit. Poised just above the canvas. Constant?

c) I'm lost on this. Looks like something out of a funeral garb?

d) Roses are the most obvious lyrical theme portrayed, as per the 4the track, although I'm not commenting on the symblolic significance.

 

[Naku ist krig]

A) Still Moving Sinews

 

[rahvin]

uh, that's a very interesting topic...

the rose theme in my opinion is used as a symbol of duplicity. roses are frail but they can hurt because of their thorns. the colour is also a reminder of both passion and blood, love and pain. certainly roses are an immediate natural element, connected to states of mind close to insanity and mania. seeing as how dark tranquillity often choose duality as their lyrical model (no need to mention therein, i guess), the flowers seem to fit perfectly. they also - of course - fit the theme of song #4, where they are linked in some sort of insanity's crescendo to the elements mentioned before. scythe is cold and deadly, very rational and static, and yet as a weapon it can be used in rage, an irrational outburst of the human mind. still, i'm wondering if the fact that rage is, after all, a concept, makes it less of a totally irrational thing (since, after all, concepts are objects of our logical thinking) and more of a state of transition from one symbol (the scythe) to the other (the roses), that might also close the circle by being at the same time warm and passionate, but also devoid of any hints of reason both with their stinging thorns and their belonging to the realm of loving feelings.
well, that was for starters. i'll get back to this tomorrow while at work. it seems appropriate.

rahvin.

 

[Naku ist krig]

Everytime I die..I mean when listen to Scythe, Rage and Roses I get a vision of maniac with a cape and scythe.
Then I see him hacking someones legs off and after that he gives his victim a rose. As a reward to allow this maniac to create his kind of art.

Am I starting to lose IT?

 

[Naku ist krig]

@DeepInMisery:
Noone asked you my "I can use my left hand if right one gets tired".

 

[rahvin]

the jaw bone might also be a reference to language. language evolution seems to be one of the themes in the songs niklas wrote or co-wrote. i guess the connection to self-searching here focuses less on individuality and more on the whole community.
btw, are you sure the objects on the top left are candles? i thought they were pens, hence the quill now blunt, the scribe devoured, possibly an indication of the fallibility of the structures of communication (our architectural skeletons maybe?). in atom heart 243.5 primitive or corrupted feelings seem to prevail over structured progress: the things people imagine to see in the foul eye/i are way more compelling than the power of words and enterprises/wolvenlore. i see the latter as a symbol of what evolution creates: animals learn to live in packs and create their own organized language, thus giving birth to history.

i know my thoughts are a bit random, but there's a lot of material to work on here.

rahvin.

 

[wildfyr]

rahvin: i wonder if the jaw bone might be referring that passage in the GOod boOK about the jaw bone of an ass.

i'm sorry. i'm just being silly. i don't know. your idea sounds better.

 

[Ormir]

@rahvin: I'm almost certain the things at the top are candles. They look far too big/long to be pens when compared to the jaw bone. The tips aren't straight, but slightly bent, like the thread at the end of a candle. The candles look unburned, but the threads are slightly blackened, particularly the bottom one. Looks like someone was trying to light them, but didn't succeed.

As for the jaw bone, there certainly are many references to beasts/prey in the lyrics (the teeth are clearly herbivorous). The language/tongues thing is a good point, although I would think they would have used a human jaw/replica if they were going for that message primarily.

 

[Hiljainen]

I think they're candles and about that thing in the bottom left, i have something like that in my room, but it's done with wood and painted, here it is:

 

[Ormir]

@hiljainen: Thanks, that helped a lot. Any idea what they are called or supposed to represent?

 

[rahvin]

their nests of red?
attach the nails and electrodes?

rahvin.

 

[Villain]

The most interesting thread in months! Great work Ormir!

I just spent almost 20 minutes just watching the cover of TMI and pondering your thoughts about it - my own are still rather confused, but I'll try to get them straight and return here tomorrow or so.

-Villain (excited like a child)

 

[Ormir]

@Villain: Thanks. Looking forward to your thoughts.


e) canvas, with a shell of the DT logo, and blood (?) filling in the rest

This one alludes towards the themes in Constant the most I think.

"The bleeding through barriers"

"The hatchet now redden with creation's blood"

"bleed out through a world gone blind"

Constant is a metaphor for the creative process, and the canvas with the DT logo (as the band themselves) is the result of the creation. There's a solid black outline of the logo on the (creators) canvas, but it's a kind of stratified shell. Then there's the wildly strewn blood, which completes the logo. The passion and chaos contrasts with the discipline, and they balance each other out.

Of course the theme of blood is in many other songs too. Wanderingblade has some very interesting thoughts on this, so I hope he contributes.

 

[Ormir]

To return to d, the withered roses, I find it interesting that they haven't bloomed. Roses open and their blades fall out when they wither from age. These roses died before blooming. Correlation with unlit candles?

 

[Hiljainen]

I don't know how that object is called..i always called it "that thing"
This thread is really interesting

 

[Wanderingblade]

a) The first time I saw it, I never connected it with jaw. I thought it looked like some demented bit of bone alright, with around ten protuberances...

ten fingers driven,
to the heart, to the core...

But now I agree it ties in better with the horses/prey (Dreamlore anyone?) ... that said, it still looks disshaped and slightly disturbing, fitting in with the general self-loathing and criticsm of bodies (Hedon, SMS come to mind)

e) Hands up everyone who looks at that and thinks back? Stained with blood...
"No-one survives such an attack
and we all stood like monuments
baring the nails in her back"

also:
skin deep, we carve our immeasurable sorrow, large chunks of Constant and DFR, now for the blood of heaven
Unlearn and the cleansing comes, and bits of Tongues...

Overall, bleeding and bodily damage feature a lot in the lyrics, and this seems to represent this...

 

[Syndrome]

Just got that cd, and I got kind of amazed about the cover photo

 

[Malis]

Hmm as an English degree student in London this post is most interesting... i really should be doing Uni work... but this is a far more useful test of my abilities.
Will get back when i've finished making notes.

 

[Wanderingblade]

b) My favourite.

I thought they were pens I admit when I first looked at them, but I agree with Ormir they're candles... or that its meant to be ambiguous and both...

The candles are above the parchment - like the heavens above the earth. They also appear to be dripping onto the parchment, above the blood.

Both Constant and Insanity's Crescendo make use of the idea of heaven bleeding. As either heaven, or as light/fire links can be made to Zodijackyl Light, Tidal Tantrum, Tongues (possibly) and thats just off hand...

btw - to the left of the ball (or core as I've taken to calling it) has anyone else seen that barbed wire bit? Anyone else think electrode?

 

[FatherVic]

ughhhh...all this time i have been thinking like rahvin...I always thought the large golden thingies were, if not pens, at lest long thin paintbrushes...
now that you have pointed out they were candles, I have checked thoroughly, and it's crystal clear that they're candles...the string on the down one is very clear...so what could it be?? I think they can refer to a metaphor of life....what is a candle but something that consumes until there's nothing else to burn???? May be it's stupid but I also find that is curious that there are two candles which are crossed and in between them there's a rose....may be the passion between two people???

ughh...i don't know....my philosophical rantin makes my keyboard ache

fv (the mind's u)