What is Life’s True Purpose?
Song Review: Death by A Thousand Cuts by Imminence feat. Lucas Woodland
CONTIBUTING AUTHOR Lyana
Yet another narrative resonating with wounded souls all around as Swedish metalcore band, Imminence, explores themes of self-conflict and festering apathy. Their single "Death by A Thousand Cuts", featuring Holding Absence’s frontman Lucas Woodland, invites a conversation regarding the internal struggle with sense of self and life as we know it.
The title evokes fatality through slow, repeated mental acts of violence - in this case, self-inflicted. The song, meanwhile, dissects the complexities of how one feels about their own life - like a pendulum swinging back and forth between losing hope as the darkness dwells in constant, and yearning to do what it takes for such agony to end.
It truly cuts deep, with the bridge illustrating "One by one by one / Do you bleed for something / One by one by one / Or will you die for nothing" - a call to how each cut contributes to the accumulated despair, leading them to question if such endurance is ever worth it.
The music video for the feature employs a visualiser - an hourglass as its symbol of reaching death, with every grain of sand perhaps accounting for each cut endured.
Woodland’s vocals in the track blend seamlessly with Imminence’s vocalist, Eddie Berg. Following the message embedded in the song, having two vocalists aptly emulates the overlapping voices ringing in one’s head. While the original song holds great weight in the lyrics itself, this feature release amplifies the message through its portrayal of duality.
"Death by a Thousand Cuts" encapsulates the hauntingly beautiful message of thoughts as ghosts of the past, latching on with regrets, second-guesses and helplessness.
