Amethyst (Phase song)

Amethyst is a song by the post punk band Phase . It was released as a single on August 1st 2013 forerunning their 2014 album the Wait where it featured under a different mix.

Music and Lyrics
The song is based on an acoustic theme that functions as intro while it accommodates the verses, and the melodies that leads back to the second verse. Amethyst features outburst-bridge-like choruses that have altered lyrics each time they appear in the song, and resolves in a long hypnotic instrumental that gets intensified until the end, a lot like “Ibidem”, out of their debut album In Consequence. The song's structure is A-B-A-B-C, and it's dark depressive mood bobs mostly on mixolydian scale in the key of F#.

The lyrics are likely referred to a turbulent interpersonal relationship, where the narrator is bewailing his dying connection to the other, while he's still holding on to some hope of reconnecting and making them see his standpoint. On a second look, it might serve as an allegory for someone that needs to reconnect to his own true self and renounce any addictive behavior that feeds and masks that disconnection, which apart from recreational drugs, might as well be a toxic relationship, hence the title and the symbolical act of handing an amethyst key, as read in the chorus' text, that can release one from such a predicament.

Title
Amethyst means sober but it's literal sense of the adjective describes someone that can't be intoxicated; from the greek αμέθυστος (amethystos). The word's conception stems from a greek myth in which the god of ebriety and excess, Dionysus, wanted to ravish a young virgin and  goddess Artemis in an attempt to save the innocent girl crystallized her, while the wine drops from Dionysus' cup mixed with his tears, gave the crystal it's purple-ish colour.

Reception
Amethyst has gathered rave reviews from press and it established Phase in the area that they decided to relocate to.

The song was hyping the first week it was released on last.fm charts Greece a short after they switched their home base to UK.

Artwork
The cover for Amethyst was designed by the Iranian artist Afsoon Shahriari responsible also for the song's lyric video, the upload of which coincided with the song's release.

It features a skeleton key decorated with an amethyst crystal, found on a shore's tidemark.

Track Listing
Amethyst