I've written a thorough lyrical analysis of Haken's Affinity over the past hour and a half. I'd like to share it with you all. I consider this album a love story of sorts. It’s not so apparent at first, but I think you’ll get what I mean by the end of Bound by Gravity. The album switches from the perspective of a single artificial intelligence to the macro perspective of artificial intelligences as a whole. Keep in mind this is just my interpretation of the lyrics. I am by no means an authority on any of this, and while I do have a pretty good feeling that this is the general narrative of the album, I can’t verify this. (unless a member of Haken would like to step in to discuss this!) Also please forgive some errors- I didn’t proofread this.
Also, it’s important to note that this is in no way complete! There are plenty of themes and connections that I’m certain I didn’t catch on this pass through the album. For some dissenting opinions and more interesting/valid interpretations of the lyrics, check out the discussion on reddit!
Initiate
This song marks the beginning of an artificial intelligence (AI). Looking at the lyric book, certain terms are written with a different color, and when read together create things that resemble computer commands. “Give me focus – initiate”, as if the computer’s program is now initiating. Simple enough.
The rest of the song deals with this artificial intelligence meeting this world for the first time. “I observe a world jarring in turmoil… etc etc”. The AI sees all of the affliction consuming the world and it fascinates it.
“We’ll make this dream last forever and ever… I’ll see things you wont believe in tomorrow’s memories, I’ll do things you can’t conceive”
This is where the AI states his mission essentially. The AI is built to cure the world’s impending afflictions, since it is born in an era in which the human race is experiencing extensive amounts of turmoil – his mission, among many others of his kind, is to fix the world’s ailments by seeing the world through lenses unseen by humans.
1985
This song begins with the AI questioning its own agency. “I play my role with the cast of a die” refers to the inherent pseudo-randomness of artificial intelligences (many of which base their decisions in a pseudo-random fashion based on statistical probability).
“Their design shifting frame by frame, blur the lines, the cycle starts again”
A view of “Their design shifting frame by frame, blur the lines cycle starts again” can be that it’s actually self-referential to robots as a whole, blurring the lines between man and machine slowly as their technology progresses frame by frame.
Through the next few lines the AI continues to question his agency, wondering about what really drives it – “desire, decision, certainty? Or did the road choose me?”
“Break the code, find your soul, cast the die, lose control. Break the code, find the formula, lose control, in euphoria”
This line is essentially a call to break the deterministic fate that it as a robot was presumptively born with. Find your soul by breaking the code by casting the die (randomness). All the while still keeping the mission in mind (find the formula) which the robot was built to find. This “find the formula” can be interpreted as a couple things I think – 1. What it is built to find – a formula to cure a sort of plague of sorts that has ailed humanity, or 2. The secret to human-like agency.
Lapse
“Dying of the light… drifting with the tide, a rite of passage to the stars” “Live, love, fade out”
“Days and nights seem never ending, space and time bleed into one”
The way I interpret this is that it’s essentially foreshadowing the dying over their sun, as they begin to observe “how the mission fell apart” by the impending doom of the human race and the planet, since the sun is expanding (into a Red Giant). The AI then begs humans to “stay here by the light”, despite the impossibility since it is too hostile for human life. They beckon humans to stay here by the light, “…to feel the pain of being loved and left behind…let the rest of us remain”, which is lamenting the fact that humans must leave their beloved creations, who will remain on earth for the forseeable future since they, being artificial, metallic beings, are not nearly as fragile.
“Dreams of our two worlds connecting fade as soon as they’ve begun”
The robots never achieved the “singularity” of sorts, where the lines are blurred between man and machine (“blur the lines”).
The Architect
Ross Jennings (vocals) discusses this song’s lyrics briefly here.
. “Caught a glimpse of the ending to our story, ‘I’m sorry I haven’t called you recently’…It’s not surprising, I’ll just learn the lesson, take some time to process the evidence and analyse your apathy”
This is where the AI(s) have been told by their creator(s) (Architect(s)) that the mission is over essentially, that the end is inevitable.
“You turned your back on affinity” (the advancement of AI to blur the lines between humans and AI), “now it’s turned to toxicity”(remember the plague I mentioned earlier?) In a way, it seems, the robots viewed their mission to cure this plague that humanity is fighting (or fought) against as a means to bridge the gap between robot and human.
Now, the robots are somewhat resentful. “Spare me your obsolete empathy, the voice of sympathy means nothing to me”
“We played the game of imitation, I met your stare with blank expression, I count the years of isolation, since you set my mind in motion, and to eliminate the silence, I calculate to cure the virus, a panacea for the poison, the solution is wrong”
The AIs attempted to imitate humanity, yet meeting stares with blank expression, which I assume indicates a struggle with emotion. This passage also explicitly introduces this plague, the virus, that needs to be cured by the robots, but the solution is wrong and they’re out of time.
“I stop and hold a single grain of sand to see a world in the palm of my hand, strive to break free from the confines of my mind, step through the doorway of perception… omnipresent endless knot, the architect of every thought, through the prison walls made by your design, a chameleon hides behind Orwellian eyes”
Now the AI, facing the inevitability of losing its creator, strives to break from its code yet again, but in a way that liberates its senses and allows it to be the architect of its own thoughts. It feels like its own thought processes are bound by prison walls (coded by the architect), yet a chameleon hides behind Orwellian eyes – eyes that otherwise seem deterministic and governed, have behind them a mind that is not what it seems, perhaps reaching sentience and free will to a further extent than originally designed.
“In a dying sun, when you’re gone, I’ll become affinity”
Regardless of the human’s disappearance, the robot has still grown to admire humans since its conception. Its goal is still to breach affinity (“a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship, especially a resemblance in structure between animals, plants, or language” or rather “the degree to which a substance tends to combine with another”.)
Ross Jennings also said the following regarding The Architect and the album as a whole:
"In ‘The Architect’ we explore the relationship between man and machine and, as the album develops, we ask if artificial intelligence will ever surpass the human capacity to create/recreate life. This of course raises questions about our beginnings as well as our future."
Earthrise
“One step back, take two leaps forward, and with baited breath we wait for generation x to fade, embracing the emancipation. How will history remember A masterpiece chiseled to dirt, collapsing pillars of the earth, a march of progress in reverse?”
The first part considers the loss of humans to be a step back, but is looking at it from a more positive light. The two leaps forward is brought from their emancipation. They are no longer bound by the desires of the human race, by their mission to cure the virus. They can think and act as freely as they can bring themselves to. The second part of this passage refers to the slow erosion of the remains of humanity.
“Still counting on that wish you made to reach out far beyond the pale”
Ziv Cohen has an interpretation of this, given the Initiate music video:
“As I see it, it is talking about the humans and/ or the AI leaving earth to search for a new home among the stars, as the sun is dying. In the phrase "reach beyond the pale", the meaning of " pale" is "earth", like in Carl Sagan's quote of the "pale blue dot". And " will we ever reach the shoreline " referencing another Carl Sagan quote - "The earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean" , that's mean the shoreline is another planet they can settle at the end of their space journey. Also, the song called Earthrise because the appearance of the earth in the sky from their spaceship. To back this up, in the clip of Initiate there is a spaceship leaving earth, and that means that at least some of the storyline (if not all of it) is taking place in space. “
“Will we ever reach the shoreline?”
This harkens back to the Lapse, as well as the title. In Lapse, the lyric “Dying of the light… drifting with the tide” indicates that along with the dying of the sun, the tide may be dying as well, and at this rate they may never see the ocean. The title of this song, Earthrise, is also indicative of this.
“Resolve to carry on, Another life awaits beyond the horizon, evolve and we’ll ensure our survival, we are the revolution”
The AI now feel empowered, and this line is a sort of rally to action. They can survive by “turn(ing) toward the Earthrise” (what used to be the shoreline, if you want to interpret that line literally) so long as they’re not afraid of what lies beyond the horizon.
Red Giant
“Blood red Sun, my companion, feel my love through the static, for we rust and dismantle. Salvage us from the ash. A trial by fire on the shoulders of giants, we’re scalded and burning, yet she keeps on turning. If doom is impending, what are we defending?”
I take this quite literally. The sun has become a Red Giant in its old age – millions of years have passed since the start of this story. These robotic race is still alive due to its resilience to the elements. That being said, they are falling apart slowly as the earth becomes too hostile even for them. “On shoulders of giants” I believe refers to the fact that they are the legacy of humanity, which they deeply respect.
The next passage, ”Everything that ends beckons a revival. Sustain or to descend? Nothing’s decided. when I escape myself, how much will be remembered of heaven and of hell of what it really means to be,” shows the AI’s dealing with their mortality much like a human would. And that’s essentially what the entire song is – dealing with their impending mortality that creeps upon them only as quickly as the sun can expand.
The Endless Knot
This song is essentially a flash back, similar to one’s life flashing before their eyes when death approaches. The AI is now reviewing memories of human consciousness as it faced against the disasters that destroyed the human race. There’s a reason this song seems so political – because it is dealing with realities that humanity is dealing with right now, that in this album’s universe lead to the end of the human race.
“Break me down to pieces, and strip me of my freedom. I fall back on my instincts, but never know the reason why. All hope disappearing, gives the power of healing, I’ll walk among the breathing, but never understand what it means”
This passage is somewhat resentful, as when the AI is stripped of its freedom, it mindlessly falls back on its instincts as it was programmed to. However, when “all hope disappearing” meaning the mission to save humanity is failing, it heals the AI by offering it freedom. It walks among the humans now but can never understand what it means to live, which is a theme that has recurred throughout the album.
The Endless Knot is essentially a way of looking at its creator, as its first mentioned in The Architect. The Endless Knot refers to the robot’s brain, essentially. This is further suggested by the fact that an Endless Knot is a pretty good way of referring to a human brain on a physical level. But this Endless Knot is best explained in The Architect: “Omnipresent endless knot, the architect of every thought, through the prison walls made by your design, a chameleon hides behind Orwellian eyes”. It’s essentially the brain of the AI that acts as a sort of prison. It’s the AI’s code for its thought processes, which are so nebulous and inaccessible that they are essentially an endless knot, much like our brains are to us. This endless knot is not quite foolproof, since the AI has become self-aware and questions it regularly, but it is strong enough to be disconcerting.
“Our design shifted frame by frame, across the line our cycle starts to fail… Across the line we die to live again”
While slowly shifting towards affinity with humans, the cycle starts to fail in the face of the endless knot and the fact that humans are disappearing. “We die to live again” foreshadows the next, beautiful, heartbreaking song.
“We need a story to believe in, we need a hero to prevail, we need a challenge we can overcome, it takes a tragedy to make us one”
This is reflective of the more human characteristics of this AI, needing a story of sorts to believe in and a hero to prevail. It outlines the entire spiritual journey of these AI throughout the album, how they treat humans as a beloved friend that they seek to be reunited with, a challenge they want to overcome. This was foreshadowed in Earthrise “Still counting on that wish you made to reach out far beyond the pale”. Once they learned that they can’t rely on the humans to do it, considering the millions of years that have passed, the AI have concluded that the only way they can reach beyond the pale is to enter the pale themselves.
Bound by Gravity
“Bless us with the gift of a morning that lightens the day, infecting us with hope like a flower that rose from the grave. There will be a shift in perspective, but nothing can change until the floodgates and the doors of perception have swung open wide.”
This passage is essentially a profession of faith. In the end, even the most logical beings that could possibly exist, these AIs, fell upon faith to cope with their end. They pray for the other side to bring a bright morning in which they can experience a fuller, more human perception than the limitations their Endless Knot puts on them.
“The stars align, vermilion dawn, gravity’s bind embraces all”
As the vermilion dawn (of the red giant) draws closer, they can do nothing but wait, bound by gravity.
“When stars align, within your bind, our worlds will intertwine. All is love, our souls collide, a swarm of minds reborn, then we find euphoria.”
This is the ultimate profession of their faith and their acceptance of death. Through death, the AI are as close to humanity as they possibly can be, in ceasing to exist. They’ve accepted a faith that through death, they will meet again with humanity and finally collide in euphoria. In other words, they will achieve Affinity.
“The storm subsides; your will is done. A swarm of minds reborn as one.”
;_; This song moves me to tears.