I don't want to pretend I know that much about Glenn or project anything onto him but I think this song is about Bi-Polar disorder.
@hihohohum I think the verse you mentioned made it click for me. Basically when he is "up" the world is glittering brightness and colours and he has so much energy that he feels like he has an army at his disposal. These references are darkened when you look through to the next level: The Aegean sea was also the name of a Greek oil tanker that spilled 67,000 tonnes of oil ("most" of its cargo) off the coast of Spain. The bones thrown up from Gallipoli are obviously a dark and tragic army. He might be feeling good but it comes from a very dark and destructive mental illness and ultimately this time of being “high” only has bad consequences It will also eventually transition into a low and the cycle repeats.
The song seems to start as he comes out of a low -
“Out of the mouth of a black dog,
Out of the terrors of 3 am,”
and progresses through the first phases of a high, through to its disintegration and back to depression -
“Into the mouth of a black dog - I go
Into the terrors of 3 am - I go
Into the dark and whispering fen - I go
I was blind then blind again”
And my favorite line:
“That beast has my name on its snaggle tooth,
And eternal slobber for my finishing youth”
I don't want to pretend I know that much about Glenn or project anything onto him but I think this song is about Bi-Polar disorder.
@hihohohum I think the verse you mentioned made it click for me. Basically when he is "up" the world is glittering brightness and colours and he has so much energy that he feels like he has an army at his disposal. These references are darkened when you look through to the next level: The Aegean sea was also the name of a Greek oil tanker that spilled 67,000 tonnes of oil ("most" of its cargo) off the coast of Spain. The bones thrown up from Gallipoli are obviously a dark and tragic army. He might be feeling good but it comes from a very dark and destructive mental illness and ultimately this time of being “high” only has bad consequences It will also eventually transition into a low and the cycle repeats.
The song seems to start as he comes out of a low -
“Out of the mouth of a black dog, Out of the terrors of 3 am,”
and progresses through the first phases of a high, through to its disintegration and back to depression -
“Into the mouth of a black dog - I go Into the terrors of 3 am - I go Into the dark and whispering fen - I go I was blind then blind again”
And my favorite line:
“That beast has my name on its snaggle tooth, And eternal slobber for my finishing youth”