BASH CO. give “Dungeon” an identity built on contradiction, using the concept of incarceration to look at an emotion which can be both a comfort and a form of imprisonment. Love isn’t looked at in the usual terms of affection and safety. The piece considers the possibility of being imprisoned by a love that should have been a means of escape. That’s the oddity of it really, it turns the song on its head and looks at the less desirable side of being emotionally attached.
Its imagery is what gives the piece its character really. Iron is of course a reference to physical strength but in this context it’s more an image of an immovable barrier which is keeping someone in an emotionally unsatisfactory state. The broken discourse and the fractured sense of self are all images of an experience which simply cannot be contained in coherent thought. There’s a very interesting interplay between these images and the concept of silence which in this instance is another form of suffering rather than an escape from it. All of it contributes to the sense of entrapment without any need for a conventional narrative at all.
One of the more interesting things about the piece is how its compositional evolution ultimately served to create the intended atmosphere. It was originally envisaged around an acoustic octave guitar but the direction of the recording changed quite dramatically when it proved impossible to get a decent version of the original. That shift in direction was in fact what ended up creating the very oppressive atmosphere that the piece is intended to have. The melody is so simple it provides a perfect base on which to hang the various images, without the need for anything overly complex.
“Dungeon” leaves the interpretation completely open which gives the subject of the song plenty of scope to go beyond the specific situation described in the lyrics. Emotional imprisonment can manifest in all sorts of ways and the song’s central metaphor provides a very accessible way of looking at that. Its real achievement is the contrast between a fairly simple melodic identity and a subject of considerable psychological complexity. BASH CO. have produced a piece which invites you to go beyond the literal meaning of love and to consider what it is like when love starts to feel like a door that’s shut.
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