So here's a very quick backstory on this song: It is sung by Vala Glarios, a Corpus captain who serves Parvos Granum and is embarking on a revenge mission against the Tempestarii Ghost Ship. Vala was the sole survivor of an attack from the Tempestarii, an Old War rescue Railjack, on the Lucretia space station. She drifted for days in her exosuit amongst the fragments of her dead crew, dreaming that her "sisters" were singing, leading her to seek revenge against the ship, now lost to the Void Storms. That's why the song has such a sea shanty vibe to it since technically the Railjacks are ships that sail the sea of stars and the Tempestari was kind of a ghost ship in a way since it was piloted by Sevagoth, a Warframe that can project and control it's own shadow. Basically the Tempestari was a rescue Railjack that was lost during a VOid Storm. Sevagoth commanded it's shadow to continue piloting the ship and continue it's rescue mission, effectively making it a ghost ship. After the quest, Vala is banished to the void, is rescued by Parvos and is put in charge of the Sisters Of Parvos who then become your news rivals much like the Grineer Liches 5:10 I believe this refers to how profit oriented the Corpus are. They WORSHIP profit itself so if you don't make a living, as in if you don't do deal and make money, there will be hell to pay, as in you're dead.

Ah the song from my favorite warframe. The edgiest guys in warframe are ironically the kindest and most supportive.

I love that Digital Extremes just made an entire separate section in the quest just so you can enjoy this song while fighting some corpus. You couldn't even properly die so it was entirely possible to just sit there and vibe to the shanty.

3:55 A Granum Crown is a form of Currency that the Corpus treasure, but it's also a vital component in plant photosynthesis (which looks like a stack of coins inside the chloroplast) and is an ancient latin term for grain (so like, a granum crown could be the golden tops of wheat) so it could be interpreted as a double entendre of bury me under stacks of money and also bury me beneath the fields...

“Cold Below” here would be a poetic reference to frozen ice in space. “Sleeping in the cold below” is a reference to frozen bodies floating through space outside the ship.

This song is deeply rooted in the tradition of Newfoundland folk music. The composers, Kieth Power and Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea) and the lead singer, Damhnait Doyle, are well known Newfoundland musicians. Even though the lyrical themes have been translated into a science fiction setting, it still carries a very strong tradition of Newfoundland work music with it. Sailing the fishing ships in the North Atlantic was an extremely dangerous occupation in pre-industrial times (and is still fairly risky even today). The waters off the coast of Newfoundland are extremely cold and unforgiving. Even in the height of summer, a sailor who went overboard could catch of hypothermia and drown within minutes of hitting the water. Many Newfoundland fishermen never learned how to swim because of this. The famed Newfoundland dog was bred as a salt-water retriever, partly to rescue sailors who fell into the cold North Atlantic, and as a result, those dogs have webbed feet and thick, waterproof coats to protect them from the frigid waters. Even though the phrase "Sleeping in the Cold Below" was coined for this song (as far as I can tell), it definitely resonates with Newfoundlanders. Historically, we have lost many a sailor to the black, frigid depths of the Atlantic.

There's a few notes for context: 1: This is of course a sort of space maritime song and therefore it bears noting how interstellar travel works in Warframe. In essence, it works in a way simular to hyperspace from Star Wars or the Warp from Warhammer 40k. You enter a different dimension or plane of existence in which distances do not correspond to real space in order to take shortcuts. In Warframe, that dimension is called the Void and it's both a source of unimaginable power and dread. Navigation in the Void is extremely difficult, and most ships use so-called Solar Rails in order to traverse the void, a sort of established road inbetween stars that allows normal ships to enter the void and travel along the rail in order to not lose its path. This is also referenced in the last verse ("Today we sail on the solar rail for there's much we just don't know...") 2: The reason why this is important is that there's a special type of ship, called a Railjack. These were comparatively small warships that had their own void drive and were capable of independent interstellar travel, making them incredibly flexible and incredibly terrifying for all those who are faced off against them. Imagine being limited to following roads when someone who wants to kill you can just go literally anywhere, show up without a warning from the underbrush and blow up your car. 3: The character who sings this song, Vala Glarios, who is a member of the Corpus faction, has had a traumatizing experience against a Railjack type ship once. She was working on the outside of a space station in an exosuit when the station itself was destroyed by an enemy Railjack, leaving her to drift in empty space for days, surrounded only by the frozen remains of all her comrades (her "Sisters") who weren't fortunate enough to be wearing space-proof equipment when the station got blasted. This has left her mentally scarred, ridden with survivors guilt and and a burning desire to find and destroy the Railjack responsible. This is complicated by the fact that the ship in question, the Tempestarii has essentially gone rouge after the end of the war, trying to complete it's final task, and is now by all accounts a ghost ship. 4: The Man on High mentioned in one of the verses is Parvos Granum, the legendary founder of the Corpus faction. The golden hand is literal in this case, as he started off his entire enterprise through a theft for which he was punished by having his hand cut off, and which he later replaced with a golden prosthethis. After building the Corpus into a faction the power of influence of which could even compete with the Empire of the immortal Orokin, he was attacked by his rivals and disappeared, long presumed dead. It is later revealed that Granum managed to survive in a sort of temporal pocket in the Void. Shortly before the events of the quest in which this song plays, that temporal bubble is partially breached, and Granum starts trying to re-establish his influence within the Corpus. At the end of the quest, Vala Glarios is banished into the Void by a special weapon aboard the Tempestarii and ends up in the same pocket as Granum who, respecting her obsessive determination, makes her his second in command for his future operations.

I love when games use songs to build their world. With "Sleeping In The Cold Below" it establishes that in the world of Warframe, the Corpus and those with connections to them like the Solaris have a culture of work songs. Reminds me of the function similar to the in-universe Port Sulphur Band from *Hunt: Showdown* where their songs are written from having experienced the events of the game. Pretty effective at building atmosphere for an extraction shooter.

I love the lore meaning behind this song. The ending being a somber remembrance for the character this song represents remembering her sisters who all died at the hands of a warframe.

For context (not necessary, but I love WF's lore): The 'man on high' is Parvos Granum, the founder of their religion who lived long ago. So it's a religious space shanty of sorts, I guess.

The warframe music ranged from "functional" to "passable background noise" for a long time. Then The Second Dream came out and the music popped off.

Calling it a sea shanty is pretty dang accurate, as in the game, it’s being sung by a lone space pirate on her final voyage, hearing the chorus of her fallen sisters as she sings the song one last time, and near the end, she accepts her fate when she sings alone, before the final chorus.

Basically this song is a captain's mental delusion of her "sisters" singing as she's floating through a cloud of her shattered star ship and the corpses of her crew. She kinda turns into captain Ahab but like futuristic space Ahab.

This song's last verse, with the strings alone is some of the rawest emotion Warframe brings out sometimes. I love this piece to bits as it's the only time I felt bad for the bad guys. To be fair, pirate shanties are symbolic of...well...pirates. Their reputation is obvious, but it's also the everyman, the dock-worker that's brought out in the song. P.S. Please check out the 'Lies of P' soundtrack, especially the piece called "Why". It's a wonderful waltz piece that has a lot of storytelling behind it

So from what i understand, the song basically details the life and society of the corpus from how Vala (female singer) sees it. “So it’s into the void now me girls and me boys” The void is a sort of second dimension in the world of warframe, and i believe its meant to be a parallel to starting life, she describes the initial audience as girls and boys, young children who are about to start their lives as adults “From mother’s hand we go” is the representation of growing up, your parents guide you mostly throughout your years until adulthood, where you have to decide things for yourself “We’ll be sailing to the sun till the voyage is done” Is Vala’s way of seeing life and death, i believe the sun is meant to represent another day, so in a way, Vala is saying that she’ll live everyday until she dies accepting her life is complete The reason why vala during the chorus says “sisters below below we’re going where the winds don’t blow” is because the audience is supposed to be the sisters of Parvos, her sisters, only they died, and vala didn’t, its her way of saying “ill meet you again in the afterlife” “Our sailing ship’s for the hard and quick, we roll our load and go, theres a living to be made or theres hell to pay” Is a way Vala describes corpus society, life is hard and difficult and for the corpus, its either you die for profit or die working to pay off debts “Yes we’re bound down to the deep, and soon we’ll all be sleeping in the cold cold below” is a metaphor to say we will all die one day and Vala knows that, the cold below is essentially just death “Theres a man on high with a devil in his eye with a golden hand im told” is describing Parvos before she met him, parvos was a leader of the corpus with a literal golden hand, and a heartless attitude towards fellow corpus, hence why he is a “man on high,” he is a higher power above Vala and her sisters “It can hurt you, it can hold you, he can kick you or console you” also describes Parvos’s view on his sisters, the player makes the sisters of parvos a thing, so when the player doesnt make a corpus member a “sister”, Parvos rejects and insults them, but if the player does make them a sister, he welcomes them with open arms and helps them “Oh sisters you, so wise and true, when its my time to go, wont you lay me down under granum crowns” Is Vala calling to her dead sisters, asking if they’d accept her when she dies, being buried with granum crowns are both a way to prove she died with a prosperous life (as money is absolute value to corpus) and a way to signify Vala is a sister of parvos “Today we sail on the solar rails, for theres much we just dont know, so farewell with a kiss, then it’s vast for the mist” Is Vala’s view of life itself, she explores her world but doesnt know everything about it, so she decides to accept that and live life when it approaches, hence the mist Yeah if you read this far, thank you, this song is really beautiful and honestly a vibe. Love the work Marco!

The a cappella group Voiceplay just dropped a cover of that song. They are amazing vocalists with a very theatrical side, and it's stunning.

"There's a living to be made or there will be hell to pay" as I understand it is kinda like a take on 'If I don't do this then things will be worse if I don't' which if you look at it is a play on your take on how 'sleeping in the cold below' is inevitable so sail as far as you can, and work as hard as you can just to make things a little better. After all we are all bound down to the deep and we all will be sleeping in the cold below. (WARFRAME LORE BELOW) The singer is lamenting on how everyone in her crew died and she was left in her space suit floating for who knows how long among the corpses of her sisters (fellow workers) after the Tenno destroyed the space station she was working on because her boss pissed off the Orokin/Tenno. She had nothing to do with the conflict but she had no choice but to work as hard as possible despite knowing that a Tenno could roll through and destroy everything. It's a common theme in Warframe that the Tenno were both bringers of death and well as freedom (see the Leverian in game for proof). Their boss Parvos Granum (the reason why there is a currency called Granum Crowns) was a major economic tyrant who rubbed certain high powered people the wrong way which is why the Corpus themselves hate the Tenno. It's literally a workers song of just some woman who got caught in the crossfire of a conflict she had no say in, she like many others just needed the work otherwise who could provide even with the threat of the Tenno (the walking WMD's that they are) could roll in at any moment. Also the corpus are above not extortion and slave labor to get what they need.

Deathly Shanty vibes, with that Pirates of the Carribean's devil-may-care attitude. Cheers Marco!

Ah. The song of a PTSD.

Haven't stopped thinking of this song since it came out it's just so good! Also coincidentally released around the time "sea shanties" were popular online iirc! There was a panel with the lyricist (again, iirc) during a past dev event or tennocon where he talked some more about the lyrics - for the "sleeping in the cold below" line, the lore of it was that it started out as being literal - because the crew members would go into cryo-sleep below deck as part of space travel. But over time in the world, the lyric evolved to take on a more metaphorical meaning - of death. It's really cool hearing about how these lyrics are written with this kind of "lore history" in mind too, on top of sounding so rad

Call of the Tempestarii was one of my favorite missions from the reworked railjack to sevagoth to this song. Sevagoth is still one of my favorite frames and this song holds a special place in my heart on warfame.

The way I read it, the lyrics are very fatalistic. The cold below is a nautical metaphor applied to spaceships. It represents the ocean deep below your ship. Sleeping in the cold below is death. It's a burial at sea or drowning when your ship sinks. The core idea is that the job is very very dangerous, that you'll probably die. That if you do this job for long enough you will die. But you do it anyway, you leave the safety of home for the danger of a ship for a chance to maybe make a living. Or die trying. Vala Glarios herself a very fatalistic character, a sort of Ahab who watched her sisters die and is now driven by her grief and trauma to seek revenge against a foe she knows will destroy her. So this fatalistic shanty fits her state of mind.

It's always interesting watching somebody who doesn't know the warframe lore/has played the quests analyse the songs

Finally. This is easy my favourite song feom Warframe. I could listen to it in a loop and never get bored. Looking forward to the opera version!

ohoh yeah when we went from space ninjas to space pirates :D ahaha it is glorious

Always happy to see another upload from Marco!

I love the call and response nature of shanties. The shanty man in this case being the captain singing to her crew but also her dead sisters as they engage on their revenge quest is such a nice touch. It livens up a quest that would otherwise be almost forgettable.

This was so dope to watch. I love warframe & your take on this

I think it has context even beyond the in game context as others have pointed out regarding Vala Glarios. From the comfort and security of our homes we are all thrust into an adult world where we have to earn our living. In the context of Warframe the "man on high with with the devil in his eye and a golden hand" is Parvos Granum, but you can just as easily just say this is a stand in for cruel gilded capitalism. The system of capital can give you all manners of comforts, but it can also tax you into the streets. "It can kick you or console you." But either way at the end we'll all die because death or capital come after us all then we'll be "sleeping in the cold below." 6 feet underground, Davy Jones locker, or the empty void of space, whichever takes your fancy. Not only is she saying that the fight to survive goes on till we all die, but she's singing to and with her sisters who have already past. The one that is missing context is being buried under granum crowns, as the singer here is referring to a type of premium currency in the universe. She seems to suggest that the only comfort you can have in death is if you were wealthy, as wealth is the only thing society seems to care about. This is a song about the pain of living in a cruel capital system meant to help console those who feel grief over what the system takes from them. Their family and friends and their eventually their lives.

The general vibe of the song, especially the final solo verse, always struck me as having the same sort of tone as "Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant" ("Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you"). The spectre of death seems unavoidable given that the act of sailing is, in this context, so dangerous. There is a defiance in the singer's voice as she seems to address her crew. "Yes", she seems to say "we're going somewhere we're almost certainly not coming back from, so say goodbye to those you love ('with a kiss') and then it's into that danger we go." It is also relevant context to know that the captain is embarking on a voyage of revenge...at 'sea'... against an entity which they feel wronged them... which is a famous enough literary trope that we the audience know that such a task is nigh certainly going to result in the destruction of the ship and death of the captain at the very least, and the song suggests that the Captain is also at least a little aware that what they're doing is practically a suicide mission. Love this song, love this game. Fight well Tenno :)

This song really gets alot of meaning to it when you play the game and the story with the quest this song is from, and it gives me goosebumps everytime. Also when you jumped in a while in the song and sang with it it gave it another edge that made it even better in my opinion :)

Glad Marco is enjoying the Warframe music~ 🎶

I remember recommending this song a while back in a community post for a music livestream but it didn't get picked, so I'm very happy that it's being shown now!

This song makes you just sing along, it's catchy and motivating, not too hard to sing.

To fully understand the song one must know how Corpus function in their society and the knowledge Parvos Granum left, Sisters of Parvos are part of it and the wreck of Sevagoth

so "sleeping in the cold below" as lyrics themselves may refer to the void or the afterlife itself via the minds of the corpus faction. granum crowns is a unique currency to the cirous themselves and they have an eye for profit if you're a liability then you're as good as dead. while the song itself is more referencing the railjack system aka. "the solar rail"

I literally just finished this quest a few days ago, and I loved this song. Nice to see you looking at it too

Yay more Warframe, Glarios and the sisters are some of the coolest bunch alongside Parvos. Really hoping there'll be more story with him, they're really interesting characters.

I have a suggestion. Would you like to react to a cover of Sleeping in the Cold Below from Warframe by Voiceplay? It is a capella. On their channel you can find covers of quite a variety of music, including music from popular games such as Portal ( Still Alive), Imagine Dragons ( Warriors ), Halo (Main Theme), Genshin Impact ( Main Theme) - Genshin Impact Concert 2021, Enemy - Imagine Dragons (Arcane League Of Legends). Voiceplay is an incredible rabbit hole.

I have more hours then i care to admit at times in games and i love impactful music that make you feel something in games... there are good osts and then there is warframes ost. No other games come close imo to how deep these osts make a player feel.

I actually prefer Warframe over Destiny. Mainly because you don't have to watch 3 hours of cut scenes and fish out $300 to play the game.

for myself, i like to imagine each verse to have been written at different points in her life. verse one is about escaping a colony to enter the corpus fleet, they're sleeping in the cargo hold as stowaways. verse two is the transition from stowaway to press ganged crew member, sleeping in the crewman racks until called upon. verse three is being inducted into the corpus, learning about the mythical parvos granum, founder of the corpus religion. verse four is an older and wiser woman understanding the end is coming, but still following the corpus doctrine of profit. desiring to take their money with them to the afterlife. and finally the last verse was written when she was rescued from the wreckage of lucrecia station, leaving behind who she was and the sisters who died there filled with grief and a desire for vengence.

oh boy! i been waiting for this one ever sense i found your page back with the chain gang song of we all lift and the monster hunter songs early on!!!

Voiceplay released an acapella cover of Sleeping in the Cold Below about a month ago. I really like it. I would recommend it to you for reaction and analysis. It might be interesting to compare and contrast it to the original.

Love the sing and clap along, trying to follow the song 😌

Been waiting for this one!

Obligatory link to the fantastic mash up with We All Lift Together... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l7WIZNdlv9OUeHk.html

eh?? Opera cover version of "Sleeping in the Cold Below." I heard so many version of this song. Can't wait for Marco version.

If I remember the breakdown of this song by DE, the "Cold Below" was basically a hibernation chamber meant for long trips, it was literally a "Cold Below" that they were subjected to before the void was found, as the only way to travel between planets was to be frozen until the end of the trip, then you'd unfreeze and start working. There was no returning home either, because you'd basically be displaced from your family and friends. However there is a fact that they haven't used such a system, so the song has lost parts of it's meaning.

yes they are working for someone, the man with the devil in his eye and the golden hand. that is parvos granum, from the corpus faction. the corpus have an inhuman greed for money

The music in Warframe is just on another level, Keith Power is an amazing composer(btw in danish it's komponist, which just sounds so much better).

On the meaning of Folk Songs, it's worth noting - This is a very corperatized folk song. It's sung by a high-ranking corporate drone lamenting the loss of her coworkers to a tragedy, so it feels less like a work song, it's more akin to a ballad born of anger and sorrow than anything else, celebrating the titular Sisters.

It is a great song, strong vocals really suit it. Alina Gingertail did a fantastic cover which you should also check-out.

One of my favourit Song got into this franchise thanks to you marco

VoicePlay just released their version of this song. I would love to hear your reaction on it 😊

The cold below is the cargo area in the craft, much as the sleeping arrangements were on pirate ships in the 1700's to the 1800's

When you play the game it is more impactful. You feel sorry for the enemy for the very first time (because you know your powers are anomalous and virtually indestructible) Its like man versus worms but they still come for the anomaly anyway.

This song is a recurring joke in my friend group. Anytime we hear the word "below," our minds instantly go to this song and sometimes one of my friends just start singing the line "SISTEEEEERRRRSSS BELOW BELOW."

The more I think about it, since Marco plays Warframe, if he doesn't use Grendel on the regular, I'm going to be intensely disappointed. You CANNOT play Warframe and have "Meatball" in your name without playing THE mighty meatball frame!

You got to check out the rendition of this by Colm McGinnis

I drifted for days among the frozen fragments of my crew. My Sisters. I dreamt their dead, gaping mouths were singing with me yet.

this was the hardest hitting song i have heard from warframe

I'd highly recommend listening to the fan medley of this song

For some context, the update tied to this song was released in early 2022, when sea shanties got popular out of nowhere. Just might explain why it sounds the way it does

never heard her sing it, wow, this is my new fav ver.

Dude, gingertail did the BEST cover of this song!

Love me a reaction where the reacting person can sing along :P No, I loved this! More Warframe is always great

Onstly the song is part of a cutseen that happens in the song you wold have better understanding after see the caption story she tells prior to the song

This is Warframe's version of "Row Row Row Your Boat"

Sleeping in the Cold Below at last, hell yes. Its such a good shanty.

Anyone who’s done this mission ever notice how well Savegoths movements fit with the song?

not sure if youve been recommended this yet, but Another Rain from the Halo 3 ODST ost is an incredible piece of video game music.

With this song we went from Spane Ninjas to Space Pirates

"a man on high with the devil in his eye" is clearly a business owner - avarice being the root of all evil, a business owner has 'the devil in his eye'.

Living to be made, or it's a Hell to pay When you sleeping in the cold below - it's about where are you going after Death - To Paradise, or to Hell. In Paradise you living your best moments all the time, perfect live to be made. Or - you pay to hell his price with suffering all bad what happens to you. About "Man on hight" It's about CORPUS founder - Parvos Granum. For CORPUS he is a messiah, suprime leader and onreacheble person. And all personal of CORPUS truing to turn his attention on them personaly to be blessed by him. And this verb about him - is a thout about make her self value to him and have a little portion of respect from him as a sign of his good will. That is best she can imagine from person like him.

New vr dropped with sevigoth deluxe skin

Warframe's secret weapon: working songs. Who woulda guessed?

I think the Cold Below refers to the sleeping quarters in old ships.

Definitely one of my top 3 Warframe OSTs.

The cold is the sea and the below is under

I've not played it, but my understanding is that when you're on a spaceship, the cold below would refer to the vacuum of space, it could be somthing else though

Finally! Cold Below! Stellar breakdown

Note that I don't play Warframe so the cold below could be a literal place, but imo it's the literal void of space, hence the "where the winds don't blow" part. So basically she's saying she's going to eventually die in space or something similar, I think.

As Scotland I approve

I rather love the way DE is progressively humanizing all the factions in Warframe.

From all the "sung" music from Warframe, this is the most catchy after "We All Lift Together". Banger song! Still love the game-customized track "Wings of War (LIGHT)" and "Rapid Adaptation" from the same game

And then Sevagoth lullaby kicks in

Warframe lore is underrated as f*. I said, needed to be said, I did. People said before, I said now and will be said again... I hope.

!!!!! Thanks Marco. :D well, that certainly explains why you put it off. But seems it's been itchin on you too if you came and did the react now. ;) All the other comments got you plenty covered. so I'll just chill.

Im about to sail to the cold below

I think the cold below is the void or space. Maybe both even.

lets get a bunch of guys meeting to sing this at the same time

When the music is made with criteria

Hello @MarcoMeatball, there’s an old game that has a very few Melodie’s that I think you may like, they’re somewhat short, the name of the game is “Total Annihilation” and I would like to recommend you the | -07- Ambush in the Passage |

YEEEES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

Sleeping in the cold below and For Narmar are pretty much the same concept just sung different styles. Warframe has a surprising amount of dictator style songs where one big guy on high is just oppressive to all those small little guys beneath him. Still really good music.

some people talk abaut this song and say many good thinks but you my think what is a solar rail. is a system of stations around planets they use somting call solar rail to trwo ships into nexst planets in range and is most popular and fast way to travle except void who is dangerus and need a relics drive who is rare.

You really should listen to some of the hunt showdown soundtrack, some of the main themes make my soul shout. I think rise up dead man and marked for death are really good.

One of the greatest masterpieces in video game history

my thoughts are that the cold below refers to davey jones locker