As the title track, “The Silver Cord” is an important part of the album, giving the first glance at its darker electronic influence, as well as the more spiritual side of the project. In an article for SPIN magazine Stu describes the band’s conceptual process for creating The Silver Cord: “We were thinking about the soul and the spirit and existentialism and why we’re here, birth and death, and rebirth and spirituality.” Perhaps no song encapsulates this more than its Joey-led title track. Its name refers to the metaphysical silver cord first mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, which serves as a tie or tether between one’s physical body and their astral body. The first verse of the song describes an apostle telling someone to remain unborn within bardo, a stage between life and death found in Buddhism, while the second is the narrator’s rebirth and subsequent freedom. Musically, “The Silver Cord” starts as an eerie passage with heavily modulated vocals from Joey, that leads to an even more discordant section before the tension is finally released, signifying its protagonist's rebirth by reducing the discordant overtone modulation. Here the song opens up into major chords with brighter instrumentation.
“The Silver Cord” was first released on October 3rd, 2023 as part of a triple single alongside “Theia”, and “Set”, as the standard mixes with music videos from Jason Galea. “The Silver Cord” section of the video opens with the band lingering at the Ancien Embarcadère de Sablanceaux, a pier in Rivedoux-Plage, France. This was most likely shot on 2023-08-30, the same day as their show at La Sirène in La Rochelle. The main part of the video has Joey miming the lyrics while dancing in the purple forest from “Theia” as well as at a staircase accompanied by Cavs (both wearing the Radio Eyewear ‘Gator Vision’ sunglasses).
As with every tracklisted song on The Silver Cord, “The Silver Cord” has two versions: a standard and an extended mix. The standard mix runs over four minutes in length, while the extended mix lasts nearly thirteen minutes and features a variety of new sections with drum and bass elements. “The Silver Cord” corresponds to “Supercell” from sister-album PetroDragonic Apocalypse, taking the opening riff and changing the key and rhythm to form the song’s bassline. That said, it’s the only song on the album to not feature lyrics originally from PetroDragonic Apocalypse. The lyrics of “The Silver Cord” are also used in the extended version of “Theia.” It was released as the second song on The Silver Cord on October 27th, 2023.
After appearing during a soundcheck earlier that day, “The Silver Cord” made its live debut on 2024-05-22 at Stadtpark Open Air in Hamburg. The band kept playing the song during their synth explorations that year with performances often focusing on sampling and harsh soundscapes. While these renditions are similar to the extended studio version they feature a number of differences, notably the inclusion of relaxed vocal harmonies between Joey and Stu during the chorus. Following an acoustic jam during “Theia” on 2024-08-23, an acoustic version of “The Silver Cord” debuted on 2024-11-02. This rendition is similar to the studio version structurally with the electronic jam being cut entirely.