Faith in Others

Album: Pale Communion (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • The closing track on Pale Communion, this was the first song that frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt wrote for the album. Speaking with Noisey, he explained: "Normally when I start writing for a record, I'm a bit nervous. You don't know whether or not you're going to be able to come up with something that you like or come up with something at all, to be honest. I was inspired because pretty early on, I wrote a song on the new album — the last song on there, which I ended up being really happy with. So I had some type of guidelines which was more melody, I think."

    "[2011's] Heritage was somewhat deliberately f--ked up all over the place because I love f--ked-up-all-over-the-place-type music, but I wanted to do something more melodic with this album, so there's stronger vocal melodies and more melodies overall for this album," Åkerfeldt continued. "I was pretty consistent with that frame of mind throughout the writing process, so at least I had a plan with this album, and I normally don't, to be honest."
  • When asked by Revolver in 2025 about the greatest song he's ever written, Mikael Åkerfeldt replied he doesn't consider any of the songs he's written to be particularly great, but "Faith in Others" is the one he's most proud of. "I think it's quite beautiful," he said. "It's not heavy in a metal sense, but it's heavy in a different way."

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