If “Fight Through Fire” was a statement, then “Unyielding Light” is the question of where to find strength when the fight drags on.
It is the second track on “From Dust to Defiance” and the one that comes closest to an anthem in the classic sense of the word.
A Will Made of Iron
The pre-chorus says: “My will’s made of iron, I’ll never be beat.”
While writing those words I spent a long time wondering whether they sounded too certain. In the end I decided that this is exactly the point. Sentences like that are not said when they are true. They are said when you want them to become true.
A declaration of strength spoken out loud is not bragging. It is the way a person straightens their own spine for another day.
Hope Is Not Optimism
The chorus ends with “I’m the dust, I’m the fight, I’m the unyielding light.” Those three things stand side by side for a reason.
Optimism says it will turn out fine. Hope says something entirely different: that it is worth going on even without knowing how it ends. The first is a prediction. The second is a decision.
This song is about hope in that second sense. That is why the character does not stop being dust at the moment he becomes light. He is both at once, and that is not a contradiction.
Wide, High, Choral
Sonically this is the most stadium-sized track on the record. The chorus is doubled, the vocal has support in the second plane, and the space opens up exactly where the title line lands.
I wanted that part to be singable. Not because I am thinking about concerts, but because lines you sing stay with a person longer than lines you merely hear.
The verses are deliberately plainer than in the opening track. If the whole song were as wide as the chorus, there would be no difference between doubt and declaration — and that difference is the subject here.
When You Will Need This
I wrote this song for the days when nothing in particular has happened and it is still hard to get up. Those days are the hardest, because there is no story and no explanation behind them.
Real misfortune at least tells you what is going on. With that ordinary, nameless weight you also end up resenting yourself for feeling it at all — after all, nothing happened.
If you hit a day like that, play this one loud. It will not solve anything. But sometimes it is enough to hear that someone else has been there too.
You can find the track on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.
The next post goes much lower. “Shattered Heart” is the most personal moment on this record.
Thank you for reading.
Adam Smentoch Creator of the Dust Anthem project
