“Awake” by SAVARRE and the cost of being conscious
- The Night Temple
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Awake by SAVARRE is a challenge slipped inside a rock song, asking what it really means to open your eyes and stay that way. From the opening question, “Do you believe in a better place?,” the track positions itself as a confrontation with easy fantasies and the habits that keep us numb. It walks you through a series of images and choices that gradually tighten the emotional screws.
The narrative unfolds in clear stages. The first verse sketches a world of “streets of gold and noble kings,” then undercuts that image with “trails of bent and broken wings,” setting up a tension between what we’re promised and what we actually live with. That early contrast gives the song its backbone. Awake is tracking the moment when someone stops buying into a story that no longer fits. The pacing in these lines is deliberate, each phrase feeling like another step toward admitting something uncomfortable.
The second verse digs deeper into that discomfort. Lines “Will we find a way back to ourselves?” and “One foot outside this measured hell..” show a character who feels caught between staying inside a controlled, predictable life and stepping out into something unknown. The phrase measured hell is especially effective. It suggests a suffering that has been normalized, quantified, even accepted as the cost of belonging. You can feel the song circling this tension, returning to it from different angles rather than resolving it too quickly.
The recurring section built around “Our hunger will take us down / This void marred with pride..” acts as a thematic hinge. Hunger here feels more about the compulsions and ego that keep us looping through the same patterns. The wording “void marred with pride” hints that the emptiness is shaped by our refusal to admit we’re lost. Structurally, this part is a moment of recognition before the song pushes into its more direct refrains.
The central hook, “You’re a dead man walking / Surrender what you can’t take..” is the heart of the track’s philosophy. Instead of offering a gentle invitation to “wake up,” it frames awakening as a kind of death, or at least the end of a former self. The idea of entering the fire and surrendering what you can’t take suggests that transformation isn’t about tinkering at the edges. It’s about losing the version of yourself that needed all those lies to feel safe. It’s bleak, but not hopeless. The fire is painful, yet it’s the only way through.
Midway through, the song turns that gaze inward with brutal clarity. “Buried by the secrets that you keep / The terror in the mirror / That’s you..” These lines pull no punches, making it clear that the enemy isn’t just the outside world or some vague “system,” but the choices we make to stay sedated.
The bridge shifts the frame from solitary reckoning to a broader question of courage. “Tell me are you awake? / While all the world is sleeping / Are you brave enough to shake / A dreamer while they’re dreaming?” moves the focus outward. Once you see clearly, what do you do with that clarity? It’s about whether you’re willing to disturb the comfortable illusions of others. This section is the emotional peak of the track, widening the scope from individual struggle to communal tension.
What’s notable, on a structural level, is how Awake uses repetition without feeling static. Key phrases, “You’re a dead man walking, our hunger will take us down, tell me are you awake, “ are recurring questions rather than simple hooks, each time arriving with slightly different context. That repetition reinforces the sense of being stuck in a loop while also suggesting the possibility of breaking it. The song’s length gives it enough space to build this cycle and then gently tilt it toward a more honest state of being.
Within SAVARRE™’s world, Awake fits the spectra rock label well. It lives in a shadowy, introspective space, grounded in narrative and psychological stakes instead of surface drama. You can easily imagine it sitting alongside tracks like Scars and Haven, part of an ongoing conversation about wounds, resilience, and the price of seeing things as they are. Even without leaning on flashy tricks, the writing here carries a steady, insistent energy that suits the project’s cinematic, story-driven identity.
Awake is worth a close listen. Lyrics in front of you, distractions off. Spend some time too with the other songs from the Blood EP and beyond to hear how Shannon Denise Evans keeps expanding this world of restless, reflective rock. Taken together, these tracks are chapters in a longer, ongoing story about what it costs to truly live awake.
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