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hellgare-blog · 3 months ago

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My favorite song of all time

There as been many songs and artists that have made a tumultuous impression in me and stuck through the year, but nothing quite Linkin Park and Across The Line. It is part of Minutes to Midnight as an bonus track released a few years after the initial release

It may have first to do with the topics that are at play in the song. Indeed, it is mainly made of 2 verses and 3 chorus but each and every verse is slightly different from another because two stories are being told during the song.

The first one is supposedly about a soldier battling his thoughts after a traumatic event involving the death of one of his friend. It was speculated that it referred to a a man trapped in the neverending circle of gang violence, but the very first sentence makes me think that it is a reference to a war being fought in a arid landscape like it was the case in Iraq of Afghanistan at the time. The line "Pretending he's heartless" is especially strong because it highlights how he's trying his hardest to fight the trauma, but all is just a facade that is ready to collapse. And the very last line of the verse emphasizes the idea that while the event itself is traumatic, if the wounds are left unchecked then the aftermath might be even more brutal and this does not solely apply for physical wounds.

The second one sounds clearer and is about a woman suffering from her drug addiction. She's described as "Sweating and shaking" implying that she is facing the symptoms of withdrawal right after waking up. The verse follows the same structure as the first one as she's also pictured with her hands across her chest, fragile and frozen, and broken due to the death of her friend.

I love the parallel between the two stories because it highlights that we're all facing our own struggles based on our own circumstances, and whether it is a war thousands of kilometers away from home or in the streets of a populous city, it does not undermine the amount of distress that one individual can experience. That parallel is taken even further in the chorus, that picture both of the woman and the man grabbing their weapon to hold an enemy across the line. But while the first story might make us think that the enemy is a soldier, the second one confirms that it is in fact themselves, which is why they "loaded" the gun full of their goodbyes.

But despite all that nothing says that they went along with it, quite the opposite in my opinion because they keep repeating that their enemies aren't far behind, which means that they keep fighting. And all that regardless of how many times the man fought, and how many times the woman broke he promises (supposedly to her friends ?).

And when it comes to the musical aspect, I love the arpeggios made with synth. The notes are rather acute and it adds a certain tension throughout the whole song on top of being very Linkin Parkesque if I could say. The sorrow that is usually carried by Chester's voice coupled with the progression including the drums in second brakes and the different guitar makes it perfect for the theme because it displays a wide range of emotion going from despair to rage. It also ends with a chord that barely resolves itself, which fits the end that leaves us hanging about what happened to both of them.

#linkin park #grief #metal

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