Song history written by TimelandIsWacky
The hero Gilgamesh comes from Mesopotamian mythology and is found in the aptly titled Epic of Gilgamesh — the oldest surviving piece of fiction. In the tale, the king of Uruk, Gilgamesh, searches for eternal life alongside the wild man Enkidu. After a number of trials and tribulations, Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh finds the plant of eternal youth, which is then stolen by a snake. This causes him to give up on his quest for immortality. In The Silver Cord, the epic is described in the song simply titled “Gilgamesh.” The largely Cook-penned track even spells out its own name acrostically through two sections sung by Stu, the start of each sentence featuring a letter of the title. “Gilgamesh” is a darker track with guttural vocals from Stu as well as some rapping from Ambrose. Notably, the song takes the phrase “cut the cord” from an alternate set of lyrics for “Han-Tyumi, the Confused Cyborg.”
The first mention of “Gilgamesh” was on September 17th, 2023 when the band uploaded photos of them recording The Silver Cord with the first set of lyrics that spell out the song’s title. Some fans noticed the clever lyrics and pointed it out in the comments.
It was released on October 27th, 2023. The song was later released as the b-side to the limited edition 7” of “Set” for the Gorge record fair on 2024-09-14.
As with every tracklisted song on The Silver Cord, “Gilgamesh” has two versions: a standard and an extended mix. The standard version comes in at three minutes and forty-four seconds while the extended version includes new lyrics (some of which spell out the title “Swan Song”) and runs eleven minutes and fourteen seconds long. “Gilgamesh” corresponds to “Gila Monster” from sister-album PetroDragonic Apocalypse, by reinterpreting a riff from Ambrose’s sections to make its bassline, while the “gila” chants can be heard in the extended version.
“Gilgamesh” made it’s live debut on 2024-08-27 at the Dell Music Center in Philadelphia, appearing with a transition into “Set.” This would remain the most common pairing for the song in 2024, though it did sometimes pair with tracks like “Swan Song.” 2024 performances were reminiscent of the extended studio version but sometimes went more atmospheric.
2025 was an eventful yet perplexing year for “Gilgamesh.” In terms of the music itself, the song would be jammed longer than ever before with some performances almost reaching twenty minutes in length. However, the most interesting change came on 2025-11-01 when the setlist listed “Gilgamesh” as “Frankenstein.” While one-off name changes aren’t particularly notable, this name would persist throughout the rave tour and would be referenced by the band multiple times. When they posted photos of their Berlin rave show to social media, it was captioned “Frankenstein goes to Berlin.” The presale code for the second year of Field of Vision and the band’s 2026 Forest Hills run was also “frankenstein.” Despite all of this, “Gilgamesh” was never listed as “Frankenstein” on any of the rave bootlegs for 2025. It’s unclear why the band has emphasized this title repeatedly.