This
song
is
one
from
the
album
with
a
less
convoluted
history.
In
one
of
his
uni
breaks
from
his
degree
in
medicine,
Nabhan
sent
us
a
completely
formed
song
(without
vocals).
The
working
title
was
‘Dreaming
Of
The
Opera’.
About
a
year
previously,
he
had
sent
an
earlier
version
of
the
song,
but
it
was
a
lot
more
dissonant
and
heavy
with
the
combination
of
low
guitar
tritones
and
blast
beats.
It
was
called
‘Demon
Of
The
Opera’.
This
version
didn’t
end
up
getting
used,
but
the
drop
A
tuning,
tempo
and
some
drum
patterns
were
retained
and
are
very
much
a
part
of
Silent
Dreams’
musical
DNA.
This
is
one
song
that
we
actually
stripped
back
parts,
which
is
unusual
for
us,
as
normally
we
have
lots
of
different
parts
happening
at
once.
For
example,
in
the
intro
and
verses,
there
was
initially
a
clean
guitar
with
a
chorus
effect
arpeggiating
the
harmony,
but
we
left
it
out
as
it
took
away
some
of
the
heavy
impact
of
the
intro.
In
the
chorus,
my
initial
ideas
for
the
strings/pad
chords
were
to
extend
the
harmonies
as
I
often
do,
in
this
case
with
sixths,
sevenths
and
ninths,
but
we
ended
up
preferring
the
more
vanilla
sounding
chords
(Am
C
D).
When
James
demoed
the
vocal
parts
on
this
song,
the
chorus
melody
he
came
up
with
was
quite
catchy.
We
also
noticed
that
the
song
got
to
the
chorus
relatively
quickly
(less
than
40
seconds
in).
Due
to
the
catchy
vocal
melodies,
and
the
fact
that
the
song
was
a
little
more
straightforward
musically
and
structurally,
it
was
almost
immediately
shortlisted
as
one
of
the
potential
singles
from
the
album.
Interesting
to
note,
in
the
opening
guitar
riff
of
the
song
Nabhan
referenced
the
rhythm
of
the
heavy
riff
in
‘Amaterasu’,
albeit
at
a
faster
tempo
(and
it’s
in
a
different
key).
There
are
several
ideas
in
the
album
that
were
recycled
in
different
ways.
I
feel
like
this
is
becoming
quite
a
common
thing
to
do
these
days
as
it
helps
an
album
seem
more
cohesive.
Perhaps
because
the
rest
of
the
song
was
relatively
simple,
Nabhan
included
a
proggy
bridge
section
with
some
interesting
time
signature
changes.
The
bridge
changes
time
signatures
every
bar
(5/4,
9/8,
5/4,
4/4),
cycled
4
times.
It’s
kind
of
like
a
section
from
‘The
Dance
Of
Eternity’,
or
perhaps
‘Synaptic
Plasticity’
by
Blotted
Science,
which
changes
time
signature
nearly
every
bar
for
the
entire
song.
The
part
at
2:32
contains
what
we
call
‘Dan
arpeggios’
because
it’s
a
technique
I
would
do
fairly
often,
especially
in
Ex
Curia
(the
band
Sky
Signals
formed
from).
For
example
it
can
be
heard
in
the
solo
section
of
the
song
‘Awake
For
A
Moment’,
the
first
track
on
Ex
Curia’s
album
‘Reasoned
Insanity’.
The
technique
itself
sounds
impressive
to
the
ears,
but
is
actually
very
easy
to
perform,
because
as
you
go
up
or
down
each
octave,
the
hands
cross
over
(the
hands
alternate
each
octave
in
register)
meaning
there
is
plenty
of
time
to
get
the
hands
in
position
and
to
make
it
sound
smooth
in
general.
The
technique
is
directly
taken
from
Matt
Bellamy’s
piano
solo
on
the
Muse
song
‘Butterflies
And
Hurricanes’.
This
part
in
Silent
Dreams
also
contains
the
only
wah
guitar
effect
on
the
album
I
believe.
It’s
hard
to
hear
in
the
mix,
but
in
the
chorus
the
piano
part
is
cycling
a
three
note
pattern
over
and
over
again,
creating
a
5:4
polyrhythmic
pattern,
as
the
three
notes
add
up
to
5
sixteenth
notes
and
is
played
over
a
4/4
pulse.
It
takes
5
bars
to
cycle.
This
is
because
3
repetitions
of
the
pattern
equals
15
sixteenth
notes,
and
a
bar
of
4/4
equals
16
sixteenth
notes,
so
in
each
bar
the
pattern
gets
shifted
back
a
sixteenth
relative
to
the
4/4
pulse
until
it
gets
back
to
its
original
position
after
5
bars
(i.e.
one
bar
for
every
sixteenth
of
the
5
sixteenth
note
pattern).
Another
way
of
thinking
about
it
is
that
the
lowest
common
denominator
of
5
and
16
is
80,
and
since
80
sixteenth
notes
is
equal
to
5
bars
of
4/4,
this
is
how
long
it
takes
to
cycle.
If
you
listen
closely
to
the
piano,
it
starts
on
the
second
beat
of
the
first
bar
of
the
chorus
(the
notes
of
the
pattern
being
A,
G
and
C).
Groups
of
5
over
a
4/4
pulse
are
very
common
in
prog
music,
and
is
a
favourite
of
the
guitarist
Plini
(the
asymmetric
2+3
‘heartbeat’
opening
the
song
‘Heart’,
for
example).
Repeating
odd
numbered
patterns
over
4/4
is
something
that
Meshuggah
likes
to
do
often
eg.
in
the
song
‘Electric
Red’,
the
riff
at
1:45
is
31
sixteenth
notes
long,
so
it
also
shifts
back
a
sixteenth
note
relative
to
the
4/4
pulse
every
time
it
repeats.
It
can
be
disorientating
to
play
(and
listen
to)
these
types
of
patterns,
as
you
essentially
have
to
learn
how
to
play
the
same
riff
in
four
different
ways.
In
a
given
pattern,
if
a
note
is
played
on
the
‘&’
(using
1
e
&
a
etc.),
the
next
time
the
pattern
is
played,
the
note
will
fall
on
the
‘e’,
so
there
are
four
groove
permutations
that
have
to
be
learnt
as
there
are
four
places
that
a
sixteenth
note
can
land
relative
to
the
pulse.
You
can
get
a
lot
of
mileage
out
of
one
riff
this
way,
as
shifting
a
pattern
by
a
sixteenth
relative
to
the
pulse
switches
the
notes
that
were
on
the
beat
to
off
beats
and
vice
versa
the
next
time
the
pattern
is
played,
which
can
drastically
affect
the
feel
of
a
riff.
Overall
Silent
Dreams
is
a
high
energy
and
catchy
song
with
a
simple
pop
structure
that
should
be
fun
to
play
live
–
Daniel