"The Battle Continues..."
We all know and love the intro to The Night Does Not Belong To God and by now I'm sure we all know that it gets used again at the end of Euclid but did you notice it at the beginning of Infinite Baths?
By now I'm sure you have heard the idea that everything from TNDNBTG to Euclid is the cycle we hear about, it has ended therefore we have Even in Arcadia. I disagree with this idea, instead I think the cycle is much more complicated than we realize. Each album is seemingly the cycle repeating, each time we have a slightly altered version because though this is a repeating cycle, it's nearly impossible for it to always stay exactly the same every single time. What does this have to do with the intro of TNDNBTG? Well each time we hear that intro we are straying from the cycle in some way. This isn't the restarting of the cycle, it's a realization that the cycle must end.
We can tell from quite a few of the songs within Even in Arcadia that the cycle is altered and he is starting to break from it. Plenty of songs have this split between seemingly loving then hating someone, Infinite Baths is one of these songs. Within this we hear that someone is both keeping him in motion while he also says he is never going back pushing this idea that though we seem to have broken from this cycle, we haven't. Infinite Baths is a push in the right direction, distancing oneself from the cycle and gaining independence while clearly still being stuck in this cycle to some extent. This is why we hear 'the cycle must end' instead of something more along the lines of 'the cycle has ended' or why we hear 'the house must endure' and not 'the house has endured.'
So if the cycle hasn't ended, this battle hasn't ended. If a battle doesn't end, it must continue. I don't think this post about the battle continuing is to tell us the double album theory is correct or we are getting 2 more songs to complete the album. This album is a step towards breaking the cycle, so why wouldn't something random such as the number of songs break the streak of 12 song albums we had before? We also have to realize how many fans thought the singles were the end of the band. Emergence has lines about being close to the end, Caramel is about struggling with fame, and Damocles is about a fear of being no one after all this work rising to fame, none of which seem to push for the continuation of this band. To further stir up some publicity and push all the fears of this being the last album we have to rest, we get the cryptic post about the battle continuing confirming, this is not the end.
This idea popped into my head and gnawed at my brain until I couldn't take it any longer and 20 minutes later we have this. Apologies for my absence, College killed me for a second. Despite that, I do have Even in Arcadia on loop and have since it released. Provider seems to have consumed my entire brain and is holding it hostage.










