Musical Composition
"Like Herod" is an 11 minute 39 second long instrumental in the key of E minor. The song begins with a bassline similar to that of the Manic Street Preachers' song "Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart":
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This is joined at (0:04) by a guitar, doubling the bassline, and at (0:16) by quiet drumming, and an additional guitar counter-melody. At (0:46), the song progresses into an alternate melody, based around the chord of C major seventh, which is repeated, then the song goes back to repeating the main melody until (1:30), where the alternate melody is repeated once more. The drums then begin to get quieter and quieter, coming to a halt at (2:15), leaving only the guitars and the bass to play the main and alternate melodies themselves, which they do until (2:57), when all the instruments explode in a barrage of deafening noise, featuring a heavy drumbeat and highly distorted, screeching guitars. This continues until (4:51), where the original bassline is introduced once more, and the original drumbeat begins playing. At (5:17), the drumbeat stops abruptly and all that is heard is the bassline, and a guitar, plucking a muted note. This continues, with the plucked note becoming gradually more erratic, until (6:15), when all of the instruments explode into another torrent of noise, almost identical to the last one, albeit with more guitar feedback in the background. This continues until (8:08), when the drumbeat becomes calmer, the guitar feedback becomes more subdued, and the bass can be heard quietly in the background, repeating a heavily distorted note at the start of each bar. At (10:11), the drumbeat ends and all that can be heard is the steady pulse of the ride cymbal, the distorted bass note, and a guitar feedbacking, until (10:20), when it seems to go gradually upwards in pitch, ending at (10:29). Snippets of feedback are heard momentarily as the bass note continues to be played, until (11:05), when the bass note plays one last time, and begins feedbacking, along with subdued guitar noise in the background, until (11:35), when all the instruments cease playing and the song ends.
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