“Death Is Awake” is the newest single from Damokles, a Norwegian band that continues to lean deeper into thematic extremes. The track is taken from their upcoming concept album A Trophy Collection, built entirely around the psyche of a serial killer.
This particular song explores the killer’s voice—calm, calculated, and disturbingly tender—as he extends an invitation to his victims: surrender to death, because that’s the only exit left.
The band describes the piece as “a power ballad about power and control,” rooted in the narrative of a protagonist who has already made peace with mortality—and now wants to help others do the same. “His main point being: the only way out of this kill room is to exit through death’s door,” they explain. “No other escape exists.”
The track reads as a lullaby from a manipulator offering release. “He does his best to facilitate that more waking moments of the torment that is life is becoming unbearable,” they add, before stating the logic behind the seduction: “loneliness is reserved for the living.” In the afterlife, or at least the one he imagines, “there’s a feelgood social club party going on, crammed with lost souls, and you’re invited.”
Musically, “Death Is Awake” matches its dark theme with a palette that balances beauty and dread. “We keep bringing up the term ‘power ballads’ a lot, for good reasons,” the band notes. The song pays subtle homage to Berlin-era David Bowie and artists like Nick Cave, The Afghan Whigs, and The Cure. There’s also a knowingly twisted hint of Beach Boys—bittersweet and off-kilter enough to unsettle.
“Bleak subject matter must be balanced with a sense of beauty,” the band states. That tension is what defines the track. Layers of synth, melancholic melody, and spacious arrangement hold space for lyrics that blend the romantic and the horrific:
Lay your head down
And sleep soon now
My sweetest fear
My sweetest dear
You’ll never be alone again
My secret friend
The second half of the song pushes further into resignation and seduction, with lines like:
You won’t be living
You won’t be lost
All your mistakes
Have been forgot
I’ll take good care
I’ll contain your bones
I’ll make sure you’re never alone
There’s a calm assurance that the end has its own comforts. That’s where the strength of the song lies—its refusal to flinch, to disguise its message, or to add moral qualifiers. The voice in the song is sure of himself, and the band does not editorialize. They present the vision in full.
“Death Is Awake” was written and performed by Damokles—Jonatan Eikum, Ronny Flissundet, Gøran Karlsvik, Kristian Liljan, and Fredrik Ryberg. The track was mixed and mastered at Crystal Island Studio. Artwork and lyrics were handled by Gøran Karlsvik. It’s released via Sect Appeal Records, with booking through Relentless Booking.
