‘Three Things’ is the sound of Cosmic Souls drawing a line and refusing to step across it.
Inspired by a Solzhenitsyn quote and written in response to the band’s perception of the political and social changes that followed 9/11, the song takes distrust, fear and submission as its central concerns. It’s not interested in compromise or reassurance, as Cosmic Souls turn unease into something tense, melancholic and deliberately severe.
It’s a mood that’s reinforced by the band’s refusal to follow obvious metal conventions. Their guitars are shaped by touch and dynamics, with passive, low-impedance pickups helping preserve a more responsive and less compressed tone.
The result is a song that feels weighty without relying on sheer force. Rhythmic complexity, shifting textures and a sense of restraint give the music its pressure, while the vocals carry the weariness and frustration of someone trying to make sense of a world that no longer feels stable.
Lyrically, ‘Three Things’ is full of stark imagery. Walls, confinement, distrust and disillusionment recur throughout, gradually narrowing towards the song’s final mantra.
The trio have described their work as music for outsiders, and ‘Three Things’ fits that identity particularly well. It exists in a space between alternative rock and progressive experimentation, but it never feels desperate to belong to any of them.
Dark, thoughtful and deliberately uncompromising, ‘Three Things’ finds Cosmic Souls turning political anxiety and personal alienation into something controlled and distinctive. It’s less a call to arms than a refusal to be absorbed.
