Song
Never Nothing
From the release: On the Immortality of the Soul
Lyrics
[Intro – fast guitar riff, pounding drums]
[Verse 1]
Battery fades, the signal’s low,
Pages tear and the rivers slow.
Closer to silence with every breath,
But never the end, never the death.
[Chorus]
Never nothing, the fire remains,
Through the shadows, through the chains.
We may falter, we may be undone,
But never nothing — the soul lives on.
[Verse 2]
Voices break and the lights grow dim,
Dust returns but it’s not the end.
Closer we drift to the edge of night,
But nothing comes, the flame still lights.
[Chorus]
Never nothing, the fire remains,
Through the shadows, through the chains.
We may falter, we may be undone,
But never nothing — the soul lives on.
[Bridge – sung]
Step by step the dark may call,
Half by half it takes it all.
Closer, closer, never done,
Never nothing — the soul lives on.
[Chorus]
Never nothing, the fire remains,
Through the shadows, through the chains.
We may falter, we may be undone,
But never nothing — the soul lives on.
[Outro – driving riff repeats “never nothing” with drum hits to close]
Song Meaning
“Never Nothing” draws from Augustine’s answer to the fear that the soul might gradually decline until it becomes nothing. He uses the example of repeatedly dividing a body or distance in half. Each division makes what remains smaller, and it continually approaches nothing, but no division actually produces absolute nothingness. Augustine argues that movement toward deficiency does not necessarily end in annihilation. If this is true even of bodily magnitude, he believes there is still less reason to think the soul, which is higher and more living than the body, can be reduced to nothing. The song turns this difficult argument into a defiant refrain: weakness, loss, and decline may bring life close to silence, but “closer” is not the same as gone. The soul may suffer change without crossing into nonbeing.
Song Inspiration
Saint Augustine’s On the Immortality of the Soul, especially its argument that something may continually approach nothing through division or deficiency without ever becoming absolute nothing.
From the Source
Supporting passages from the Augustinus Vox Standard Version (AVSV). Select a source to read it in context.
It can therefore be diminished without limit by being cut without limit and thus suffer deficiency and tend toward nothing, although it can never reach nothing.
So much less must this be feared concerning the soul. The soul is certainly better and more full of life than the body to which it imparts life.
Additional Details
Song Style: atmospheric synths, rock, slow, dynamic tempo shifts, 80s rock ballad, ballad, epic guitar riffs, male vocals
Suno Model: v4.5