Introduction

The record the night god slept by Silent Planet is a record that explores the human
misunderstanding of How can God be God in light of all that is wrong with this world?.
Highlighting the separation of all living things, and how widespread this is, the record provides a
question to the initial question, asking, is God asleep, or is it us, mankind, that is asleep? IT
tear down the problem of separateing us from what we see to be wrong, and offers the answer
that maybe we are wrong. Within the music world, there is not much that asks these questions,
and also concludes that it is maybe us, humans, who are wrong and running from the concept of
an almighty being that is God, and we are trying to make ourselves God(s). While interpreting
this album and providing insight to its content and context, I will perform a musical rhetorical
analysis, based of Susanna Langers, The Ilusion of Life theory. This theory will serve as a
foundation as i analyze the musics composition, as well as the lyrical content.
Context
Silent Planet is metal-core band based out of Los Angeles, California. Coming to
fruition, Garrett Russel, Silent Planets frontman/vocalist, describes the bands formation of a
bunch of theology and literature students got together to explore the world and play music.
While playing local shows and growing a sort of veteran presence within the Los Angeles metal
scene, Silent Planet recorded and released their first studio album in 2012 named, Come Wind
and Come Weather. While performing shows on a tour cycle supporting the release of this EP,
Silent Planet went on to record their second EP release titled, lastsleep (1944-1946). Again,
Silent performed shows on a two year touring cycle in support of their latest release. Following
these released and tours, Silent Planet gained a following that they deemed as substantial.
Wanting full control over their own artistic endeavors and creativity, Silent Planet sought out
independent record companies that would support them, along with the recording and release of
their debut album, The Night God Slept on November 14, 2014.
The record, The Night God Slept is an album filled with bold statements and calls to
thought regarding both past, current, and ongoing issues that operate on a global scale, and
personal. Garrett Russell being the lyricist behind the lyrics featured on record, explains the
album to be an idea, a sort of, metaphor, trying to get at theodicy. The problem of how can a
God, whos supposedly powerful, all powerful, and completely loving and good, coexists with
nature. Which I think most people would agree, theres evil, and theres something very broken
about the world, and fragmented. Later he goes on to elaborate stating, We are separated from
another and The Night God Slept, deals with these problems of evil, and times when it seems,
like, maybe, God fell asleep at some pointor walked away at some point. Garrett explores
issues like misogyny, human suffering, vantage and viewpoints of God, the problem, origin and
externalization of evil.
Through referencing the Bible, numerous pieces of poetry and literature, pieces of music,
as well as current and past issues that effect the world on a global and personal level, The Night
God Slept, is truly a work representing the metaphorical connect and disconnect between people
to people, people to God, and people to the earth. The Night God Slept, invokes a sense of attack
or opposition, as it comes to invite God to break and offend the boundaries and walls set up in
the minds and hearts of us all that. Garrett explains the externalization of evil, to set upon the
prospect of harm or wrongdoing to come from a source not of ourselves, disallows of to truly

deal with our own wrong choices as well as our ability and desires to do wrong and do it intently
and willfully. The concept of this, to deal with everything identifying what is wrong in our wrong
actions, ill thoughts, and selfish intents, is a psychological trauma that many people have
probably not substantially invested themselves in. Garrett concludes his idea and plan for the
album to asks others as well as himself, that maybe it is the human race that has fallen asleep and
denied God, as well as denying ourselves to truly see things for what they are.
This analysis seeks to find where and how Silent Planet uses lyrical content and music
composition to enhance their interpretation of current and past, obvious and hidden conflicts in
this world. What rhetorical strategies are they using to explain their stance?
Method
The method for this musical analysis, will be conducted in light of Langers Illusion of
Life.(Sellinow 1991) The record, The Night God Slept is absolutely an example of the
aesthetic symbolism as it enables the analysis to function well for a rhetorical analysis.
The illusion of life model will also allow me to expand on the subjects of virtual time and virtual
experience, as they also have a great presence in the record.
I believe that applying the illusion of life means of analysis will be most interesting as the
record, The Night God Slept, is filled with metaphorical content that creates a story all on its own
in addition to the lyrics sung without any context. In addition to this, the great amount and
variety of tragic and comic lyrics, as well as intensity and release patterns all throughout the
record, allow this record to be truly be looked at as a spectacle. Applying context, and
researching the origin of Garrett Russells inspiration behind the lyrics, presents a case to delve
and know more about the world around me, as well as the world inside of me. Garrett Russell
invites the reader to know more of the metaphors used by providing a synopsis, track-by-track
analysis, and footnotes across all of his writings. These three reference points will enable me to
more easily circumvent and traverse the passages and ways in which Garrett speaks.
While being pointed back various statements on virtual time, music functions as virtual
time by spending actual time and substituting for it. Music represents time through patterns of
intensity and release communicated via rhythm, harmony, melody, phrasing, and
instrumentation. Viewing time through the framework of this concept, the lyrical content will be
held in light of this to find how in works in conjunction with the musical composition, and how
well it conveys meaning.
Langers points on congruency and incongruity will also be applied to the lyrics and
composition. Langer states that where the emotional meanings of music and lyrics reinforce
one another, making the argument abundantly clear and poignant. Incongruity transforms the
argument from what a listener would get by listener to the lyrics or music alone. With
incongruity the meaning of the music can be made unable to properly be interpreted. In light of
this danger, how well the lyrics and how it matches with the musical composition, specifically
highlighting intensity and release patterns will be applied to the analysis.
Analysis
This analysis will rely heavily on the reference points stated above, the synopsis, trackby-track analysis, and footnotes, all provided by Garrett himself. Beyond this, I will use the
illusion of life theory to perform a legitimate critique of the record. All this interpretation and
analysis will be provided in light of the Illusion of Life theory from Susanne Langer. In the

midst of her research, Langer states that, music is given meaning through the intensity and
release patterns contained in what is instrumentally audible. Intensity patterns is when the rate is
faster than a resting heart, by speeding up the rate and increasing the volume. This is opposed in
the case of a release pattern being described as when the rate is slower than a resting heartbeat
by slowing the rate down, or decreasing the volume.
Virtual Time
Before the release of the night god slept, Silent Planet four songs from the upcoming
album, XX (City Grave), Native Blood, firstwake", and Depths II. These songs were
composed all in light of different experiences, encounters, and concepts, that were further
enhanced through their composition.
XX (City Grave) is typically played at 135 bpm during verses, with three breakdowns
played at 125 bpm. The twisting and writing violence in the song pushes its busy and constant
guitar and percussion work. The song Native Blood is specifically a song played all throughout
in a release pattern. The song contains multiple sequences of background ambience with only
unclean vocals coming through, while being followed by slow and simple, thick rhythmic
patterns overpowering the high octave leads being played by one guitar. firstwake contains a bit
of the same with a light solo being played, barely breaking the foundation being set by the thick
rhythm guitar being played while being enhanced by the percussion. The odd time signature
paired with a 145 bpm gives the song a jazz like feel instrumentally. Often times, there are only
vocals coming through, with a background ambience provided by the guitars, that is like one
chord being struck and left to ring out. The dissonance given by the guitars simultaneously, is a
major part of the song. Depths II is actually the last song on the record, and wraps up the
entirety of the album. Staying in 120 bpm all throughout, there is very little change or variation
in any part of the song by its instruments. Very little percussion and very little guitar & bass,
allows for the vocals alone to take a center stage, as the song focuses on a vision/dream had by
the vocalist.
There are two strictly instrumental tracks featured on the record entitled, I Drowned In
The Desert and To Thirst For The Sea. Both of these songs are slow, containing now
percussion, vocals, or bass, with strictly delayed and phased clean guitars. Of the five other
songs, they all range in release and intensity patterns. Songs like Wasteland, The Well, and
Darkstrand (Hibakusha) all are songs in a predominately intensity pattern, containing a great
amount resonance, fast paced instrumentation, with an aggressive nature in both instrumentation
and vocals. While songs like Tiny Hands (Au Revoir) and First Mother (Lilith) are songs like
predominately played in a release pattern, with its slow paced and dissonant instrumentation.
Virtual Experience
As highlighted above, the night god slept is a record that really shows the vocal and
lyrical prowess of Garrett Russell, citing numerous works of poetry, music, religious writings, as
well as his own experiences and encounters throughout life. Garrett offers a peek into his own
mind and what seriously affects him within the current world we all live in, as well as what goes
on in his personal life, offering a possibility to be caught in a realm of likeness with others.
Though the record explores different contents and contexts, it all points back to the main
question of Has God fallen asleep, or have we(mankind)? The meta-axis is something the

Garrett references, as being constantly in between wanting of something that we feel might be
pleasurable, but is also destructive. The desire and drive towards our own fatalities, or as Freud
would call The Death Instinct is something Russell finds to be something common and
constant in all of men and women. He cites Francis Buechner and his statement of lust being the
craving of salt for a man who is dying of thirst. The record also highlights Garrett sifting
through the questioning of recent and past crimes against groups of people such as Jews during
the Holocaust, Human trafficking, and the mass homicide against Native Americans during
American colonization. Garrett also seeks to destroy concepts and vast _______ of misogyny,
hate, ignorance, and cultural genocide.
Lyrical Content - Comic vs. Tragic
Much of the night god slept contains tragic lyrics, as it explores concepts of identifying
and ridding ourselves of the consistent life stealing and negative features of ourselves,
physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Each song on the record is specific in its
content and context, offering no ambiguity, as it contains reference points in the title, and each
stanza.
The song, XX (City Grave) is inspired by the Samaritan womens interaction with Jesus
near The Well. The women has been scorned, abused, and mistreated by those in her culture.
Jesus shows his divine identity, and his ability to address those who are different, as he
transcends culture and time, and interact on an equal level in the context of a man and woman.
He references the lack of respect in from men in their interactions with women all throughout
time, and how its never quite been something that has been handled properly and has only gotten
worse. Jesus was one who never saw her as different, but only as equal. XX (City Grave) is a
more current day song referencing, human trafficking, and enslavement of within America, The
Home of The Free. The song deals with women to be not be seen as objects, or something to
be gazed at. These perspectives are enhanced by pornography, the current culture of evil, and the
male gaze placing women as instruments or objects made to be used, abused, and neglected. The
religious failings within Christianity is also referenced by Garrett, as misogyny has become a
cancer in the hearts of specifically Christian men, and how it has been almost inherent as many
has been apathetic towards its growth. This song deals with for women to be seen not as objects
and to not be merely something to be gazed at, but to understand women as actual human beings,
which sounds basic, but I think is actually lacking in this culture(Russell). I Drowned In the
Desert is the first of two interludes, that deals with the above stated meta-axis. The song title
enhances this idea, of being between wanting we want which is destructive, and what we need
which is life giving. Native Blood is a song that deals with the serial mistreatment of Native
Americans in what we know to be America(Russell). With the relocation of Native Americans
from their native lands, to the forged lands of white european immigrants, while they were
shipped to schools, to cut their hair, forbidden to speak their native languages. The
whitewashing of these peoples, has been an overlooked piece of American history. The idea,
political lie of manifest destiny.
Tiny Hands (Au Revoir) deals with an event in June 1944, in which a large group of Jews were
looked in a church, where Jewish men were taken outside and killed by German troops, while the
women and children were locked inside. Following the murder of these men, bullets were shot

through the church, before being set on fire. Madame Marguerite Rouffanche, whom the song is
written in light of, her story of being shot, yet jumping through stained glass window, and lying
in a garden for a few days before seeking out medical help and refuge. With the holocaust being
headed by a false a misogynistic viewpoint of God, that He would equip and encourage of group
of individuals to annihilate lifeless and defenseless people, Garrett again attacks the idea of God
being a selfish, evil, domination and blood hungry monster. He cites this victory of good, to not
be a domination over evil but instead a humble and thriving example of grace and mercy.
firstwake is a song that contains an imagined dialogue between Mary and Christ on the cross,
as a mother and son, and believer and her God, an woman watching the violent and brutal
murder of an innocent man. Jesus expresses a great love for his mother, as he tells ___ to watch
over His mother in his disappearance. Garrett explains this to be a feature of Gods femininity.
He explains God to offend our political imaginations, and is really moving us from one place
where we think is comfortable and we think we have things figured. Darkstrand (Hibakusha,
explores another WWII event of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Contrary to the
stories often told and set in place by government based education based, this song takes the
perspective of a small girl directly set in place of these historic events. The song, deals with the
tragedy, in that it calls for the listener to give up their identity of anything except being a
follower of Christ. All through the gospels, Christ is encouraging us to only regard ourselves as
that. The concept of liberation theology is citing by Russell as it calls for believers to be led to
associate themselves with those who have no rights, those who are marginalized. In this case,
Garrett separates himself from the argument of who was right? in this case, and instead stands
with those who were negatively affected the most; those who did not win this war. First Mother
(Lilith), is not a song that is played live very often, nor promoted, yet draws the most attention.
Lilith comes from the Jewish Talmud, who is said to come before Eve. Lilith, refused to be less
than Adam, or to be put below Adam in any context. For this reason, she was cast out of the
garden, and soon enough, mythologyy made her into this sort of demonic succubus. The song
deals less with theology as much as it again attacks misogyny, in the case of rejection. Often
times, when a man asks for a womans accompaniment, or her body, or to her agreement in
general, and is rejected, men will attack and hurl insults and obscenities towards her as they
voice their displeasure in them expressing their freedom as a human being. Russell finds it
interesting that mythology places this women in this foil of never having the opportunity to
engage in their freedom, and that this wrong attitude has remained strong and manifested even
today. Russell writes this song as an imagined dialouge between Lilith, Eve, and Adam. The
second interlude, To Thirst For The Sea, which is an extension of the song prior to it. It
provides the haunting, yet hopeful melody as it continues to assess the after thought regarding
the story of Lilith. It enables the listener to find that there is no future for Lilith due to her casting
out and demonization, for simply looking to be equal. Wasteland (Vichnost) deals with another
WWII event. It provides insight to, Iulia de Beausobre, the wife of a politician in the Soviet
Union, and after the war, she was suspected of and found to be aiding the underground church, in
which the U.S.S.R was looking to rid the country of god or religion. Upon these allegations, she
was taken to a detention center in Siberia. She wrote an autobiography titled, The Woman Who
Could Not Die, as she was shot several times and abused, and expected to die. Yet, as her
captors kept coming back, they found her alive. After this happening consistently, she was
released, and subsequently went continue to aid the underground church and rebel against the

motions of the government to kill God. Depths II, is a song that was written during a hopeless
and unwanted scene of life by Garrett. The song begins with the lyrics, All the world, was a
dream I couldnt shake. He explains the song to be dream or vision in which he was in a house
and alone, possibly a spell of psychosis, while describing what it is to be depressed or anxious,
isolated, and he continues to leave this home, and go past a clearing outside, and finds a group of
seven women circling a fire. As the scene continues, the seven women lose their autonomy and
come together, while the fire they circle around turns blue. He soon hears who he describes to be
the voice of God, saying Garrett, I am the fire that is never quenched. I am the river that will not
run dry. Upon this, Garrett catches fire in the dream, displaying that he was, is, and will be
property of God, as he will continue to be burned being watch by Him.
Discussion
The record, the night god slept is a record that, as previously stated, attacks the political
perspectives of this current culture, set in place by generations of willful ignorance. With the
always assumed gender of God being male, Garrett places the femininity of God and the lack
of proof that he is only masculine, and shapes the story of life in the eyes of both man and
woman. With the gospel being more than accounted for in the entire record, the sense of
liberation theology is especially apparent, as the many painted pictures by the record, contain
the association of someone better off with they who are less than. the night god slept
incorporates sentiments of disgust and shame in the face of current and past world problems.Yet
the way Garrett identifies these conflicts in mankind, offers a sense of hope that there is time,
and space to work and fix these things. He aims to look past blaming God, and to turn blame on
ourselves. This in itself, is an incredibly difficult thing to do, as human beings hope and lie to
ourselves in the hope that we are always correct, and upright. This cancerous perspective
alienates us from others, from God, and from ever knowing what truth can be.
One thing especially apparent is the allied nature of himself to woman. Often times in this
genre of music, which is a direct association with the world we live in, woman are portrayed as
being prude, rude, whores, sluts, and bitches. Instead of looking past these things to paint a
different aesthetic through lyric and sound, it faces these problems head on, while exposing them
for what they are specifically. As he identifies these conflicts and masculine based errors, Garrett
provides what we see to be an outspoken opposition to what is typical in this world. He does not
quite give, as much as he simply identifies already in place details of, God being feminine. This
in itself is an attack to those who simply regard God as only being male, and even those who
assign gender to God. God more so, transcends these politically incorrect opinions of what sex
and gender is.
The musical composition of the record is one that involves thick rhythmic patterns
drenched in low end, along with alternating fast and slow paced melodic features played by
guitar, bass, and drums. It enables the music to be congruent through the entirety of the record.
This congruency enables the record to be properly interpreted in the realm of seperation and
connection of the musically lyrically and instrumentally.
Conclusion
The record the night god slept is a serious cry of help and attention from its lyricist, in aiding
the world today to run away from its errant viewpoint on others, and instead find ourselves in
what we find to be wrong. As more of us do this, we will giant a better perspective of reality, and
find ourselves chasing after what is truth. The musical composition and lyrical content enable

this record to stand in opposition to the conflicts that are abundant in todays and yesterdays
world. The Illusion of Life theory proposed by Susanne Langer, enables the record to fire on all
cylinders and provide a full account of the points it is trying to get across. With the intensity and
release patterns, an account of its virtual time and virtual experiences, a track by track account,
and album synopsis, the night god slept is a record that seeks to overthrow and attack the
barriers set in place by the misogynistic, ableist, and racist perspectives of those who have have
found themselves in positions to live by such terms.