Inspired by Opeth and Tool, Serag Baddar Delivers Atmospheric ‘Limerence’

Limerence began with a guitar riff written by Serag Baddar when he was 15 or 16. He loved the idea behind it, but at the time he felt he wasn’t yet good enough at songwriting or guitar to turn it into the song he imagined. He therefore put it aside until he could do it justice. More than a decade later, Baddar finally returned to the idea.

Originally called “Lotus,” the track has a small connection to Buckethead’s Padmasana, whose rhythm guitar influenced one section of the song. “Padmasana” means lotus pose, which inspired the original title. Over time, “Lotus” evolved into “Limerence.”

Musically, the song grew from Baddar’s love of the clean sections found in heavier bands, particularly groups such as Opeth and Tool. Rather than treating those sections as a break from the heavier material, he wanted to explore what would happen if that cleaner, atmospheric side became the foundation of an entire song.

One of Baddar’s favourite aspects of “Limerence” is that the instruments aren’t simply following one another. Each part is doing something different, yet together they form a cohesive piece.

At the end of the song, Baddar demonstrates this concept by playing the three riffs from the guitars and bass separately. Each riff works well on its own, but when all three are combined, they create the hook heard throughout the song. The idea was to demonstrate how three completely different parts can work independently before coming together to create something much bigger, while still maintaining the feeling of a complete song. This demonstration ultimately became the outro to “Limerence.”

It is a song Baddar wanted to hear when he was a teenager. It simply took him 15 years to become capable of writing it.

Serag Baddar is a music composer based in Malta. He considers himself a philosopher who also happens to be a musician, writing music as a hobby and often advocating for writing for dopamine as a way to achieve high-quality results.

Heavily influenced by Opeth and Tool, Baddar strives for originality within accessibility, firmly believing that artists don’t have to sound like everybody else to create accessible music. What began as a groove-heavy, metal-driven project eventually developed into a post-rock sound inspired by the clean sections performed by heavy metal and rock bands.

The main riff comes first, then the main riff stops and the bass comes in, then the second guitar riff comes in with the bass and then everything is played together once. That’s the demonstration and outro.

Spotify: Listen to Limerence on Spotify

YouTube: Watch Limerence on YouTube