“Shatter the Void” is out in full today. Nine tracks and one road: down through four of them, and then back.
The fifth stands exactly where the record turns around. Its title is a single word, and that word is an action.
One Word, Three Times
The chorus goes: “Shatter! Shatter! Shatter! I’ll break through the night.”
Only two tracks on this record repeat a single word three times in a row. This one, and track eight with its “Rise! Rise! Rise!” Two tracks apart, two orders: break it first, get up after. In that order, because the other way round does not work.
The record is called “Shatter the Void.” Track five is the only one with a one-word title, and the only one that does what the sleeve says.
Every Word From the Earlier Tracks, Inverted
The first verse introduces no new vocabulary. It gathers the vocabulary of tracks two, three and four and turns each word around.
The silence from “Silent Rift Within”: “The silence inside me, it’s breaking apart.” The doubts from “Fading Inner Spark”: “My doubts turn to fire.” And the void from “Echoes of Emptiness” comes back in the third verse: “The void tried to cage me, but I’m tearing it down.”
Then the same spark that was dying in the rain one track ago: “This spark in my soul will burn through the gray.” Nothing new has arrived. Only the direction of the verbs has changed.
Bridge and Chorus Finally Agree
For three tracks it worked like this: the bridge promised a change, and the chorus right after it went back, word for word, to the defeat. Three times running.
Here the bridge says “From the ashes I rise, with my fire unchained.” And the chorus that follows is “Shatter! Shatter! Shatter!” For the first time on this record, one does not contradict the other.
That is the change I have been describing since the first post. It is not in any single line. You can only see it in the order of the sections.
Why This Goes Out on Release Day
The posts in this series have gone out one a day since 28 September, and the record is out today. Track five landed on this date by arithmetic, but it worked out better than if I had arranged it.
Because “Shatter” is the axis of the whole thing. The four tracks before it go steadily lower: a request, emptiness, a rift, a fading spark. The four after it climb back: light in the cracks, rage, resolve and peace.
If you are going to hear one track to know what this record is about, make it this one. Though in fairness: what makes track five mean anything is that four came before it.
You can hear the whole record on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music.
In the next post I will write about “Broken Mind’s Glow” — about light getting in through the cracks.
Thank you for being here.
Adam Smentoch Creator of the Dust Anthem project
