submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Neverender Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Neverender " “Neverender” is essentially a revision of “Junesong Provision” by Claudio after he resolves himself at the end of “Junesong” to be strong and live long enough to come home and cease Newo’s waiting. As a mental rewrite of “Junesong Provision”, Claudio reveals in this song some very important parts of himself and aspects of his personality to us, such as his acceptance that he is leaving and may never return, along with the fact that as much as he loves Newo, she is not the center of his world. The song is primarily a way to not only setting his own mind as ease as far as thinking of what the future holds, but is also an attempt to set Newo’s heart at ease by telling her his absence is not her fault and that he’ll be back again someday, a better and bigger man than before. -------------------------------------------- ”When you've gone about things all wrong, bury them here, with the lifetime you would never regret.” - (Claudio is speaking to himself, but addressing his words to Newo, as he sits in the garbage transport, the ‘Guile Griever.’ He assumes she’s read the letter and tells her to take her doubts and suspicions about his leaving being her fault and to leave them behind her, as he leaves their world behind, and to move on with a life without him and without regret. He only wishes to see her happy and does not want her living with regrets about what could have been.) ”In savoring sleep, what do you mean I toss and turn everywhere?” - (Claudio thinks about his and Newo’s time together, specifically an incident in which he woke up beside her and she told him he sleeps roughly. Much like many of us don’t remember our dreams, when Newo tells Claudio that he tosses and turns in his sleep, he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He never remembers his dreams, so as far as he knows, his sleep is peaceful and deep.) ”I'll miss you when you're gone,” - (Even though he’s the one who’s left, Claudio doesn’t have the greatest faith that Newo will stay and wait for him. In fact, he even expects her to leave him and he already misses her as he anticipates never seeing her again.) ”in pretending that you meant the world to me.” - (As much as he loves her and will miss her, Claudio can no longer deny that Newo had to take a backseat to his own frustration and suffering due to the fantasies and dreams that will not cease to leave this feeling of potential within him. It could even be inferred that along with being a buffer between Claudio and the rest of the world, he also inadvertently used her companionship as a way to distract himself from these yearnings within himself. That he fell in love with her came as a lucky side effect. But now that he is away from her and has been effectively immersed in that very fantasy that haunted him earlier has given him the change in perspective to realize that as much as he loves her love for him, he never loved her enough to replace his own frustrations with life.) ”With that you'd call me a liar, and in the making mistakes you'll rest incomplete.” - (Claudio expects that Newo won’t understand what he means in his letter and will grow angry and call him a liar for all the times he said he loved her and that she was the center of his world. She’ll reject him briefly and say many things about him and possibly ruin reminders of their relationship such as pictures of them together or gifts given to her by him. Afterwards, when she’s calmed down and shifted anger for concern and worry, she’ll begin to regret the mistakes she’s made [or felt she’s made], both during their relationship and after reading his letter. In this regret and confusion, she’ll find herself unable to sleep peacefully like she did when he was still there to complete her.) ”(I'll be home)” - (Claudio doesn’t literally mean he’ll be at his house. Instead, what he means is that where he’s at now, lost and involved in something much larger than himself, is what he accepts as his new home. He and his own survival is his new home.) ”In graver mistakes; dear mom and dad, I write you in this letter (I'll be moving on) that states: when the new day’s begun (new day’s begun) forget your son when he's out on his own.” - (In a small show of human hypocrisy, despite telling Newo not to regret the mistakes she’s made, Claudio can help but regret the mistakes that he’s committed against his mother and father, whether they be of the usual teenager variety or of having to leave home without being able to wish them goodbye like he did to Newo. He considers this mental letter a poor comparison to a real goodbye letter like the one he left Newo. But, no matter what mistakes he’s made or that they’ve made he just wants them to forget about him and save themselves now that he’s gone, just as he’s trying to save himself and move on past the deaths of his siblings. He knows that they’ll be ok if only they can move on. As for Newo, he worries about her still blaming herself.) ”When the hand reads 7:30 and your night begins to sink in the short but faster fall, Anxious but calm retort to a mirror that frames your face baring the finest swell.” - (Newo wakes up and the night begins to sink away from the quickly rising dawn of the day. She finds Claudio’s letter, but can’t bring herself to read it. As she tries to get ready for the day, she looks in the mirror and tries to tell herself that nothing’s wrong and that the letter probably isn’t about anything bad, but even as she tries to calm herself down, she still feels the anxiety emanating from the letter and can’t stop the tears from welling up and running down the swell of her cheeks as she cries in front of the mirror. While Claudio doesn’t know she hasn’t read the letter yet, he still imagines a similar scene following her reading the letter.) ”When the day begins to break like the tears that run across your cheek, stand straight and imagine you then in the things and the way they could have been, when the thoughts, they race across your chin, here in the Neverend.” - (As the sun begins to come up, Claudio encourages Newo to wipe away her tears and to stand up straight and move on. She does her best to continue getting ready for the day, but despite her best efforts, she can’t stop crying as she thinks about the life she had imagined for herself and Claudio in which their relationship would never end and they’d be together forever.) [chorus] ”Point your gun in another direction, now that you've cried yourself to sleep.” - (Claudio compares blame to a gun and knows that Newo, upon reading the letter, is going to blame herself for causing him to leave. He hopes that after she’s had time to be angry and upset and cries herself to sleep, when she wakes up she’ll be able to see things more clearly and understand that she’s not to blame for him leaving. Claudio knows she’s going to be upset for a long time and is going to have many mornings waking up to a wet pillow, but he doesn’t want her blaming herself over this.) ”Here in there after the fire.” - (Fire, when mentioned in the Coheed and Cambria albums, alludes to many things, both literal and metaphorical. In this instance, Claudio and Sanchez both are referring to fire’s ability to destroy the old in order to make room for the new. Fire is both of destroyer of life and the birth-giver of new life; just like Claudio has had his old life destroyed and is now forced to leave it for a new life out on his own. As for the ‘here in there’ part, what Claudio is referring to in these words is actually the Neverender, or space. In the song, Neverender is actually two separate-but-parallel things: space and the realm of dreams, both of which never end and go on forever. While Newo is there down on Earth, dreaming of a different way of things, Claudio is in space aboard the Guile Griever, heading deeper into his own Neverender now that Ryan’s ‘fire’ has burned away Claudio’s old life.) [end chorus] [Note: this next verse actually takes place in both Newo’s and Claudio’s own never-ending realms: dreams (both waking and sleeping) and space, respectively. This section of the song is particularly hard to decipher due to some extremely metaphorical language and complex point-of-view shifts.] ”(Before you walk home) Peace and figuring will he be home again?” - (As Newo finishes getting ready for the day, she decides to go to the Kilgannon home to talk to Claudio. At this point she still hasn’t read the letter, and so Claudio is still very much part of her heart. In fact, one could even surmise that if ‘home is where the heart is’, then Claudio is Newo’s home and when Newo goes to look for Claudio, she’s actually going home. As she walks to her car, she daydreams and wonders if he’s ok, if anything is wrong, and if she will ever see him again.) ”(Signal loss and stereo) With wide open windows will she be waiting for…” - (Even though Claudio and Newo can’t read each other’s minds, it’s as though they are thinking in stereo, since they are both thinking about each other and of their potential of meeting again in the future. While Newo wonders if Claudio will ever come back to her, Claudio wonders if Newo will welcome him when and if he returns “home” to her. In fact, Sanchez goes far enough in referring to their relationship as their home as to refer to Newo’s open arms as open windows.) ”(The sounds surround the overpass) with severed arm placement when the day's dark, old and dead.” - (Newo is so lost in her own daydreams of Claudio that she barely even notices the sounds of the outside world. She’s so worried about him and distraught over the idea of it being over between them that the world feels like all the life and warmth has been bled out of it, just like Claudio’s world was when he ran past the very same overpass after seeing Josie killed.) ”(A dead man against you) we'll write her a letter with long time passing.” - (This line is the most perplexing in the entire song. It’s as though Claudio is finally beginning to meld with the reality of him being something more than a mere boy, i.e., the Crowing. In fact, it’s as though this line is written by the Writer, instead of Claudio himself, which makes me think that Claudio has fallen asleep and has drifted into the dream form of the Neverender. The writer knows that the Onstantine Priest, who is not really alive or dead, but to Claudio probably looked like a dead man, is after Claudio and seeking to kill him. In order to ease Claudio’s mind, the Writer subtly introduces the idea of writing a new letter to Newo so Claudio can tell her everything he couldn’t in the first letter. If this really is the Writer’s influence, then this is how the song started.) ”After the fire (I'll be home to say I love you and I'll be moving on). And I'll be bigger.” - (With the Writer’s subtle introduction, we now have another meaning for the fire. Not only does this line refer to the metaphorical fire that destroyed Claudio’s old life, but now it also refers to the literal fire that is going to consume Star IV in the future, even though Claudio isn’t aware of that future event yet. All he knows is that after he survives this new life, if he survives it, then he promises to return to Newo for a proper goodbye before going away for good. He doesn’t understand why, but for some reason he understands that he’ll never be with her again. This is strong foreshadowing and a good example of Sanchez’s skills at planning ahead in the narrative. Claudio doesn’t know why, but he feels an uncanny certainty that if he survives this current ‘fire’ and the future it holds, then he will be bigger as a result. He just has no idea how much bigger.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This song is one of the more difficult songs to interpret until you realize two things: One: Neverender refers to Space; both Outer Space, and the space within Dreams, and Two: The entire song takes place either through Claudio in Outer Space or in the dreams experienced by Claudio and Newo, essentially making the entire song take place within the Neverend. The subtle and implied introduction of the Writer actually supports this idea, as this is the only realm in which he can easily influence Claudio until ‘The Light and the Glass’ when he begins to break through the Willing Well. The Writer knows that Claudio can’t do his job and truly become the Crowing while being overly concerned with Newo. Claudio needs to be focused on saving his parents, and as a result saving Heaven’s Fence. So, in order to set Claudio’s mind at ease so he can focus on the path planned for him, the Writer gives Claudio the idea that he (they) will write Newo a promise that it’s not her fault and that they’ll see each other again. This song is a result of Claudio dreaming about that promise.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – 33 Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ”33” Fans have always been certain of two things regarding the song “33”. One, it’s that the song is about Patrick McCormick, Josephine’s fiancé. Second, we know that, much like ‘A Favor House Atlantic’, ‘33’ is a chase song. This is due to both the lyrics and the general tempo of the song. While this made my job a little bit easier, there were still quite a few puzzles to unravel once delving into the thick of the lyrics. And then comes the title. This track is definitely the most oddly titled track on the album, since it’s a mere number that is no mentioned anywhere in the comics. All the other track titles can be traced back to the subject matter of the songs with only a little conjecture and acute observation. However, ‘33’ is listed nowhere in the lyrics, nor are there any numbers referenced at all, so why the song title so? As you’ll see at the end of this interpretation, after much thought, page-flipping, and notepad scribbling, I think I’ve settled on a very solid theory as to the meaning of the title. As to my theory involving the song proper, after analyzing the lyrics and the perspective of the narrator, I have come to believe that this song is actually sung by the soul, or ghost, of Josephine. She has recently died but is not at peace enough to move on past the boundaries of the mortal plane. So, instead, she does what any lovestruck-just-deceased ghost would do: she follows her beloved, who is currently running for his life. As she sees Patrick run, she speaks to him and tries to help, but of course he can’t hear her. She’s there to see his end, just as he was there to see her end, and the whole time, in the back of her mind, she once again thinks of the words he said: “Will you marry me?” and “I’ll never let anything happen to you”. -------------------------------------------------------- ”It's not what you have learned but what they said about you under your shirt, you know they never will.” – (Josephine is remarking how her parents never really trusted Patrick. They didn’t pay attention to what was in his heart [under his shirt] but instead voiced that they didn’t really trust him. Even though Josie knows Patrick has learned and grown into a responsible young man, her parents will never see that.) ”They'll make sense of what you gave them and now it's all down hill from here” - (She tells Patrick that they only base their opinion of him based on the evidence they’ve seen of how well he treats Josie. He’s made mistakes in the past, but with this latest fiasco [the Devils raping her] is the worst and with her dead, it’s never going to get better for him. It can only go downhill from here.) ”Well in case you break my fall we're bringing it home” - (Josephine is understandably upset about dying but she is upset about it even more because Patrick just proposed to her earlier that day and it just feels to her like she’s fallen and her world has crashed down around her. She tries to assure Patrick that if he still loves her and doesn’t just drop her and move on to somebody new now that she’s dead, then she’ll try and help him to safety.) ”Patrick, short flip, and outside boundary lines.” - (Josie laments the fact that in only a couple hours Patrick’s live has been flipped completely upside down. In that short time, he’s been engaged to Josie, jumped and beaten, seen her raped, dealt with the guilt, watched her be killed, run for his life and has just watched more friends of his die at the hands of a monster that is out to get him. What’s happening is completely out of line with what he’s used to in life and he feels like he’s going crazy as Josie watches it all from beyond the grave, beyond the boundaries of the living realm.) ”(I'm running you down)” - (As Patrick runs from Coheed, who he thinks will hunt him down, it is in fact Ryan’s ‘Firstborn’ who is running after Patrick. The Firstborn is the very first Mage that Ryan experimented on and turned into an Onstantine Priest and who Ryan has now sent to eliminate Patrick since Patrick witnessed Josephine’s death. As the Priest grows ever nearer to Patrick, Josephine looks on as she follows Patrick.) ”Ooh yeah, well nothing looks right from up here” - (Josephine isn’t used to being dead or the abilities that come with being a ghost. As she floats high above Patrick, she notices how things look different from up here.) ”(Inside out)” - (Again, Josephine is getting used to being dead. She feels very disoriented and unusual since she no longer has a physical body to contain her.) ”I'm still unclear about the things you might have said.” - (She wonders if Patrick was truly serious about wanting to marry her and staying with her forever. If he was so much in love with her, why did he run away without seeing if she was alive or to try and find out what was happening? Why didn’t he listen to her and not leave the abandoned factory? Twice now he was not able to keep his promise to “never let anything happen” to her, so if he can’t keep one promise, does that mean he can’t keep his other promise [to love her forever]? She’s basically saying “What happened to your promise to keep me safe?”) ”In pieces they stagger embedded” - (As Patrick enters a seedy bar in the wrong side of town in order to get a gun from an old friend from Patrick’s less reputable past, the Priest breaks into the bar and begins slaughtering everyone, including Patrick’s friend. Many of them are stumbling around missing limbs and impaled by the Priest. The vision of them staggering around with pieces missing if embedded into Patrick memory.) ”Rush me to the emergency room” - (Josephine hears the injured patrons as they die. Many of them call out for help and she sympathizes with them and relates back to her own thoughts as she died.) ”Flat line equals frantic endeavor but I guess this will have to do now” - (Josephine knows that if they were at a hospital and flatlined there, they would at least know that someone had tried to frantically save them. But, knowing most won’t make it that long, Josephine does what she knows she would’ve wanted done and mourns for them as they die, hoping that will be enough to put their souls at rest. She would like to do more, but she can’t, so she hopes that will do for now.) ”Patrick, short flip and outside we're bringing it home - (Josie tries to encourage Patrick that she’s trying to help him make it through this. Even though she’s dead, she’s hoping they can make it through this together.) ”Hold on to the things you favor most” - (As Patrick runs, Josephine tries to tell him to keeps his hopes up and think about the things he loves most and to think of his love for her.) ”Shift right and let it run down.” - (Josephine encourages Patrick to drive fast and drive true to get away from the Priest. “Drive that car as fast as you can and just let that thing try and run after you.”) ”If my peace could find a way up let go of the youthful honesty.” - (As Patrick drives away and the Priest and Josephine both follow him, she begins to realize that Patrick may not survive. She thinks that is he dies, then they could be together again and her soul could be at peace and could move on. But if that happens, that leave Claudio as the only Kilgannon child left, which means he’s going to have to grow up and let go of his youthful ideas and naïveté, just as Josephine and Patrick have had to.) **After he gets away, Patrick pulls up to a phone booth and tries to call the cops. As he’s on the phone, the “FBI” show up and tell him to drop the gun he got at the bar. As he approaches the agent, it transforms into the Priest, which continues to transform into a horrible monster that stabs him through the heart. As Patrick dies, he thinks of Josephine and how ‘his own sadistic end mirrors hers’, as according to the comic. As she sees him die, she again wonders about his promise to love her forever and realizes she’s still uncertain if he meant it or if he can still follow through with that promise after failing to keep his promise of keeping her safe. She wonders if he’ll find her in death and follow through with the words he said and love her forever. As the song finishes, she says, for one final time, “I’m still unclear…”** For those wondering about the title, “33” and how it applies to the song, I have a theory. It’s revealed in the comic that Patrick proposes to Josephine (who accepts) early in the morning before school. Now, if we take it as granted that Hetricus, the planet where all this occurs, has a 12 hour day/night cycle similar to our planet, then we can plot out the timeline of the events surrounding Patrick by following the events as listed in the Bag.On.Line Adventures, since these comics more closely follow the timeline of the album and were done much closer to the album’s release. I believe the Amory Wars, while a more accessible comic, is not completely consistent with the timeline that the original album was written for. The mainly refers to the time leading up to ‘Time Consumer’ when Coheed kills Maria and Matthew. At that point the album and Amory Wars comics begin synch up again. Let’s assume that Patrick proposes to Josephine between 8am and 9am. Now, in the B.O.A. comics, we see Coheed get off work without every actually seeing his family in the morning (he works night shift). This was deemed unacceptable for the Amory Wars because Sanchez wanted a scene with the whole family together to give us a reference of what is ruined in the course of the album. However, the morning scene completely negates the original timeline and I feel that in employing artistic license for the sake of exposition it is not canon to the album’s original written storyline. In fact, the B.O.A. comics more closely reinforce the albums original storyline and track listing overall, so I’m drawing my reasoning from the Tuesday timeline presented in The Bag.On.Line. Adventures more so than that presented in the Amory Wars, though I’ll reference the Amory Wars timeline for Wednesday, since the B.O.A. comics never got that far. So, if Coheed gets off work from the night shift and arrives home after the kids have left for school, then he is not told of Josephine’s engagement (Cambria reads Josie’s mind and finds out later). So, we can assume that the engagement happens at around 8 or 9 in the morning on Tuesday. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to say 9am. Now, the next time we see Patrick and Josephine is during ‘Devils in Jersey City’, which takes place that same Tuesday night. While that is happening, Coheed arrives home at 9:13pm (21:13). We are not told what he does all day between getting off work and arriving home. So, we have a verifiable 12-hour gap between the proposal and when Josephine and Patrick are assaulted. Now, switching to the Amory Wars (which cover Wednesday) We know Coheed kills Josephine at 1am and that Mayo enters the house and the battle break out at 2am, giving Patrick and unaccounted-for hour to run away. We then see Claudio, after running from the Priest, saying goodbye to Newo at 5:03am Wednesday, 3 hours after the battle in ‘Everything Evil.’ At this point we can see it is still quite dark outside, meaning that the sun probably doesn’t rise until around 6am. This is important, since we next see Patrick at twilight or dawn, depending on how you wish to interpret the lighting. However, since we see Patrick visit a bar and there are quite a few people inside, we can assume is it not 6 or 7 in the morning, since most bars aren’t even open that early, much less filled with patrons. So we can assume that the scene at the bar, the car chase, and the scene at the docks where Patrick dies are all at dusk. Now, considering that 9pm is depicted all being well back sunset in both “Devils in Jersey City” and “Time Consumer” in the B.O.A. comics, we can surmise it is at least an hour before that time or more. Judging by the bar’s amount of customers when they were still alive, the bar did not seem very crowded, so we can infer that “Happy Hour” had yet to start, so the bar scene probably took place before or just before 6pm, yet the sun was quite low so it was probably close to 6pm. If we assume Patrick drives away not long before at 6pm, and we can estimate a small time gap (15-20minutes) between his leaving the bar and arriving at the docks then that places Patrick’s time of dying sometime between 6 and 7 in the evening, exactly 33 hours after the projected 8 to 9 in the morning when he proposed to Josephine. So, in essence, it’s been 33 hours since the happiest day of Patrick’s life has become the worst day of his life and his life is ended.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Hearshot Kid Disaster Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hearshot Kid Disaster" This song had me stumped for quite a long time. There are so many theories and personal interpretations on the internet that it’s hard to find any that actually match up into the canon of the story now that the comics have come out. I am firm in my belief that this song is about Wilhelm Ryan in House Atlantic, musing to himself and rhetorically speaking to God just after releasing the Onstantine Priests from their chambers, which explains the screams in the beginning. The opening of the song takes place just after this, as he is walking back to his control room and calls for General Mayo Deftinwolf to go capture Coheed and Cambria from their home. In the comic, this takes place at the same time as the events of “Time Consumer” and overlaps “Devil in Jersey City” and “Everything Evil” (when Mayo arrives at the Kilgannon home). The song begins with Ryan talking to the captive Priests and as the music crashes he releases restraints and sedatives on the Priests and the scream signifies them waking up and breaking out of their chambers. The actual lyrics begin as Ryan is walking to his control room to call for General Mayo as the Priests scream in the background. ”Still searching for your call today,” - (Ryan feels that God has abandoned the Keywork, and more importantly the Mages, and that Ryan is still waiting to hear some sort of sign or word from God in order to confirm that God is still there and still listening.’) ”Sit down, and Structure; will you be the engineer?” - (Ryan tells God to sit down and build something again [to structure, or compose, again], to give some sort of evidence that he is still there. Ryan then asks God if he’ll be the engineer he claims to be by stepping in and stopping Ryan in order to preserve his creation. Ryan feels that if God truly has abandoned him and the Fence, then it is his righteous duty to defy God’s will by altering his creation by breaking the Keywork and in doing so prove that God has indeed gone missing.) ”Still tired and dreaming out against and overboard” - (Ryan muses that God, being so worn out from building the Keywork, has fallen asleep. Ryan believes that God, while suffering a nightmare [dreaming out against] and tossing and turning in his sleep to try and wake up, has metaphorically fallen ‘overboard’ and died. Throughout the album, Heaven and Heaven’s Fence are compared to a boat or a ship, so the image of someone falling overboard and dying fits well into the language of the many metaphors used by Sanchez.) ”When pain kills you'll hate me and wait for ” - (Ryan is now talking to Man and Prise as a whole, telling them that he knows that everyone will hate him for doing what he, in his insane delusions, believes is his duty in making God pay for the pain Ryan has suffered. In his quest for vengeance against God, Ryan has killed countless people and initiated the total genocide of the uncatalogued races in order to fuel the Monstar and destroy Sector 12 and Mariah Antillarea. In their fear, the people of Heaven’s Fence will pray and look to God for help. They will wait for…what? Since Ryan believes God is dead and gone, he asks ‘what will you wait for?) ”Or then call me crazy and pretend I left us discontent and afraid.” - (Ryan also knows that if they do not pray to God, then they will turn against Ryan and call him a madman and blame him for all the suffering and fear that they feel. Ryan uses the word ‘pretend’ because he doesn’t see himself as the cause of their discontentment, but instead sees God’s absence as the reason behind their unhappiness.) ”So what so I'm crazy then send me justice and I'll have Paris in flames” - (Ryan doesn’t believe he’s insane, but accepts that everyone else thinks he is. He is also extremely angry at God for not including the Mage in the Riddle. Technically, due to their lack of mention in the Riddle, the Mage are an uncatalogued race and Ryan has developed an inferiority complex due to this. This would explain his cruel and systematic genocide of the other uncatalogued races throughout the Fence. As we know, House Atlantic, where Ryan lives, is on Paris: Earth and he is having Coheed and Cambria sent there to unleash the Monstar. He sees the Monstar as his way of enacting justice against God’s wrongs against him and pretty much tells everyone who calls him crazy ‘give me a means of defying God and I’ll show you just how serious I am.’) ”Still searching for your faith in the arm that killed the President” - (Ryan refers to God as the ‘President’ because of how Man and Prise look to him for guidance and leadership. He thinks they are foolish in still faithfully searching to God to give some sort of sign that he is still there. They expect God to reach down and cure their ills. Ryan, however, believes that it was God’s very own arm that, in building Heaven’s Fence and causing God to sleep, indirectly caused God’s own death. Essentially, Ryan believes that God was killed by the same arm that he used to Create.) ”Relapse: waiting here for…” - (Ryan already knows that Mayo has relapsed, or failed to complete his mission completely, and Ryan is considering demoting Mayo and replacing him with Crom. In the meantime, Ryan waits for Crom to arrive and to hear from Mayo. After Mayo informs Ryan of the first failure (Claudio) later in the song, Ryan decides to go ahead and demote Mayo.) ”Still searching for your face in the crowd that killed the president” - (Ryan continue to mock everyone as they look to the sky for a sign of God’s presence [his face]. When Ryan says ‘the crowd that killed the President’, he’s actually referring to Heaven’s Fence itself: the crowd of planets that, in Ryan’s mind, caused God to die. Remember, in this universe, when people look up to the sky, they don’t see stars; they see the Keywork and nearby planets.) ”I need Mayo” - (This is Ryan pressing the com. And asking for General Mayo in order to check on the progress in capturing Coheed and in killing the children. Ryan is in a hurry because he sees Coheed not as a living being but as a tool or instrument that is vital in his defiance of God. Ryan considers the Monstar to sort of be his personal Helionaut, or herald of Armageddon.) ”I won't fail you now” - (This is Mayo, telling Ryan that Stage One is complete and he’s heading out to the Kilgannon house, but he still can’t find Claudio. He promises Ryan that he won’t fail; that the boy will be dead by the time Coheed and Cambria reach Paris:Earth.) ”Dear Captain send the S.O.S When we're gonna go down” - (Ryan, once again musing to himself, pretty much tells a rhetorical ‘Captain’ to send off a cry for help when he finally unleashes the Monstar and destroys the Keywork, once again referring to the Fence as a ship. Ryan is essentially challenging the citizens of the Fence to go ahead and pray to God, since Ryan believes God is long gone and will not come to help.) {during second chorus} “I won’t fail you now (We're going down and you're all fucked up for sure)” - (This shows how fanatical Mayo is toward Ryan and Ryan’s cause. He’s telling the denizens of Sector 12 that Ryan will succeed and the Keywork is doomed and that all of those living on Sector 12 are fucked.) ”Wound open and squeezing my heart against this pain inflicts and in passion I bleed for it.” - (This is Ryan looking at and considering the deformities all over his body that he suffered as a result of the Mage Wars. They serve as a constant reminder [squeezing his heart] of how much he’s sacrificed [bled for] for his cause in order to achieve his nihilistic goals.) ”But with this what they gave me this book and flint and a match to go with it.” - (Ryan comments on this fact that in exchange for the injuries he suffered in defeating the other Mages, he not only gained complete control of the Keywork and Heaven’s fence, but he also gained control of a means to destroy that which he gained: Cambria/the Knowledge [the Book], Coheed/the Beast [the Flint, since he is a weapon like a flint arrowhead or spearhead], and Jesse/the Inferno [the match aka the fire starter].) ”Still searching for your face in the crowd that buried New Mexico” - (When they see no sign of God in the sky, they instead look to his appointed Guardians; the Prise, to protect Heaven’s Fence. Sanchez uses New Mexico and the secrets hidden there [Area-51, Roswell] as a metaphor for hidden truth. Basically, Ryan is accusing the Prise of hiding [burying] the truth of God’s Riddle.] ”I'll be waiting here for” - (Much like everyone else, Ryan is waiting for some sign from God. But, believing that sign will not come, Ryan also waits for his justice: the Monstar.) **Ryan contacts Mayo again and learns of the battle at the Kilgannon house and that Coheed and Cambria are being loaded onto the Gloria Vel Vessa. He tells Ryan about Patrick escaping and that Claudio is still missing. Mayo swears that he won’t fail to transport Coheed and Cambria safely to Paris: Earth and kill Claudio. However, Ryan has other plans.** ”Have you ever heard the lyrics he sang?” - (Ryan is referring to God’s Riddle as lyrics in a song. He is asking who has actually heard the Riddle directly from God’s mouth.) ”In his thoughtful transmission the words lost sentence remain.” - (Ryan believes that when God gave out his Riddle, he thoughtfully included the Mages in it, but that the Prise, in vying for superiority over the Mages, hid that part of the Riddle and that it is still middle a sentence that explains the role of the Mages and grants them position as a catalogued race. Ryan resents God for not punishing the Prise for their blasphemy and correcting the Riddle himself.) ”Sing his song, sing his song loud.” - (Ryan is mocking the inhabitants of the Fence for their unwavering devotion to God’s Riddle. He tells them to go ahead and recite it all they want, it won’t change his plans to destroyed the Keywork and separate Sector 12 from the rest of the Fence.) ”Structure, will you be the engineer? Where's your song or have you lost the key or tone?” - (Ryan once again talks to God, this time referring to him directly as Structure [Construct], asking him one last time if he’ll step in and stop Ryan’s plan. He asks God why he doesn’t give forth a new Riddle or Creed. Why doesn’t God speak? Is it because he can’t? Is it because he’s dead?) screamed: “Crom!” -( Tired of Mayo screwing up, Ryan calls for Admiral Crom, whom he plans to replace Mayo as his second-in-command in order to complete the mission. Crom and Mayo have a grudge against each other and Crom has been waiting for Mayo to screw up so that he [Crom] can be promoted to take Mayo’s place.) ”Thank god for your strength will you hold your breath? Waiting for me to exhale in the short life lived.” - (Referring to the phrase ‘don’t hold your breath’, which equates to ‘don’t have faith’, Ryan asks Crom is he will have faith in Ryan’s cause. He also notes that Crom has waited patiently while Ryan faithfully trusted Mayo, but now Ryan has lost his faith in Mayo’s abilities [hence, exhaled], who he does not expect to live much longer.) {the following are hidden lyrics sang at the end of the song} screamed: “Go! Get! Crom!” - (Basically, Ryan is still pissed off at Mayo and calling for Crom.) ”When you left, and you arrived.” - (Ryan is remarking on the fact that Mayo has left and Crom has arrived to replace him.) For those wondering about the title, ‘Hearshot’ is a word invented by Sanchez, but it obviously is similar to earshot, or being within range to hear. ‘Kid’ refers to Claudio. The reason Ryan is so pissed at Mayo is because Mayo left Claudio get away, which is disastrous for Ryan. It’s a disaster because Claudio is prophesied to be the Crowing: the only one who can put a stop to Ryan. It’s inferred that the Crowing is the one who heard God’s Riddle and called [crowed] forth the Riddle for the Prise to hear and convey. If Claudio is the Crowing, then he has the capacity for knowing the truth of the Riddle and knowing that Ryan has broken the pact therein written and thus being deserving of retribution. Since the Crowing was God’s messenger, then it is assumed that if God is not able to help, then Crowing is the next closest one to God to act in his stead. In a sense, the Crowing is God’s hand in proxy: performing God’s will when God cannot or will not get involved directly. This is why Ryan considers Claudio to be such a threat.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Delirium Trigger Lyrics

15 years ago

Ah shit, wrong interp. Sorry, I just finished writing HKD and had it on the clipboard. Here's the ACTUAL revised Delirium Trigger interp: I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Delirium Trigger" This song is very confusing because it’s difficult to know who is narrating and what is reality vs. memory and delirium. My personal opinion is that the bulk of the verses are coming from a crew member who is under the influence of a delirium brought on by Cambria and by Coheed. Also, it is theorized, and I can certainly see why, that Sanchez references the movie Alien by Ridley Scott. And the first two verses definitely do parallel scenes from the movie, such as the Facehugger lurking over countertops and the parasitic baby alien ripping forth from Kane’s chest as he lies on the Mess Hall table. He also parallels the actions and descriptions of Admiral Crom to coincide with those of the alien monster, if the references are indeed intentional. Since Sanchez is an admitted movie addict, watching between 2 and 3 movies each night on his tour bus, it’s quite plausible that the parallels between this song and the Alien movie are intentional. As for the song itself, while many people will argue that the song’s first line opens with Coheed and Cambria still sedated and asleep in their cryogenic chambers on the Gloria Vel Vessa transport ship and the entire song is a dream, I actually think they are already awake and in control of the ship while fighting against the remaining Red Army troops. At the start of the song, there is a short, high-pitched scream. Since a similar scream happens in the beginning of Hearshot Kid Disaster, I believe that it may be used as a sort of herald of the Priests and other tools of Ryan’s evil, such as Crom; letting us know that even as the events of this song transpire, across the Keywork Patrick and Claudio are having to deal with their own problems. The essence, the screams represent the presence terror sent by Ryan. The scream in this song sounds far away and muffled, making me think it’s not something that the characters are immediately aware of, such as Crom secretly boarding their ship. Back to “Delirium Trigger”, though; the song begins with a repeating guitar phrase very much like the music on a carousel, which is reinforced by a lyric towards the end of the song. The phrase repeats, getting slightly faster each time before the drums and second guitar break in. When the music breaks and becomes heavy, that is when Admiral Crom’s ship, the Notting Vezzer, seizes the Gloria Vel Vessa in a tractor beam and Jesse, in the Grail Arbor, begins firing on the Notting Vezzer to try and break it’s hold. When we hear the scream, that signals that Crom has boarded the Gloria and is making his way towards Coheed and Cambria. As he lurks through the ship’s corridors, his power suit begins sucking the energy from the ship and causes the ship’s electronics to begin to short-circuit and malfunction. This is when the actual lyrics start. ----------------------- ”We're now up here alone terror on the intercom. Can someone save us?” - (Coheed, Cambria and the crew fight to keep the ship under control while setting up the explosives so they can kill themselves to keep Ryan from getting the Monstar. They ask for help as Jesse tells them over the intercom that he’s doing all he can to break them free of the Notting Vezzer. The communications channels are all filled with terror.) ”Systems malfunction, blast it, this damn machine!” - (With the explosives set up and ready to detonate, Coheed readies his gun-arm and aims at the explosives. But his arm won’t power up and malfunctions. He curses his arm, not knowing that as Admiral Crom grows nearer his armor is sucking power from Coheed’s gun-arm.) ”Over and out, Captain.” - (As Jesse breaks contact with Coheed and Cambria in order to strap into the Leo, the personal boarding craft attached to his own ship, Mariah patches in to his communicator and updates him that Ryan’s forces have attacked her army on Dil-Ariuth 9 in Sector 12. As she fights for her life and her troops, Jesse tells her that he may not be able to stop Coheed and Cambria from being captured and for Mariah to make her way to Paris: Earth to head them off. As she fights her way toward the airstrip, Jesse tells her he loves her, but the transmission is cut off by her own powerful Mage powers as she attacks Ryan’s troops. Knowing Jesse can’t hear her, she still tells him she loves him too, as a kind of farewell, knowing they may not live through this. Sanchez uses the naval “over and out, captain” as the goodbye since Jesse is the captain of the Grail Arbor.) ”Something lurks, creeps on the counter top somewhere behind you.” - (As Jesse and Crom both make their way towards the bridge of the Gloria, where Coheed and Cambria are, Cambria begins to sense Crom’s evil presence growing ever nearer as he lurks through the ship’s corridors. Coheed is facing away from the door, so she senses that whatever is coming is behind him.) ”Parasitic cyst; I can't stand to watch. It's coming up and out of your chest.” - (Crom finally appears and Coheed and Cambria see him and understand why the ship’s machines were malfunctioning: Crom’s armor is like a parasite, it sucks the energy out of everything around it and feeds it to Crom. He is no better than a parasitic cyst. As Crom attacks and a battle breaks out, Jesse arrives and joins in. Now it is 3 against 1 and they begin to overpower Crom, but before they can, he unleashes a massive blast of energy and sends a broken metal pipe through Jesse’s chest while Jesse is looking the other way. Coheed and Cambria see it happen and Cambria looks away, unable to watch. ) ”Remember when we were young?” - (As Jesse is impaled, he sees his life flash before his eyes and thinks back to the last time when he and Coheed and Cambria all fought side-by-side: back when they were still the K.B.I. anti-terrorist unit under the orders of Dr. Hohenberger. Since the K.B.I. are only 20 years old (as revealed in the Bag.On.Line comics that never saw wide release) at this point, they were indeed young back then, aged around only a year or so after being built.) ”Sit up right on the table. A photograph of Earth feeding me a way back. - (Sanchez uses the images of an autopsy table to symbolizing Jesse’s death and it’s similarity to his birth upon an operating table. Jesse can feel himself slipping away, but suddenly sits up on that metaphorical table (imagine a corpse suddenly sitting up) as he thinks of Silent Earth: 3 and the secrets and hopes they are hidden there and uses that memory, that image, as a lifeline to hold him to life.) ”Frightened I tear alone, or maybe not the only one there.” - (Jesse cries silently to himself, feeling frightened of Death. He feels alone and forgets the world around him as he focuses on the pain of his wound and tries to remain alive. Then, in a fog, he hears the sounds of the battle between Crom and Coheed and Cambria and begins to slowly remember that he’s not alone here.) ”Hello, hello...when it rings will you answer?” - (Sanchez is known to be a big fan of double meanings when he writes and this line is a wonderful example. This is actually two, possible three, different incidents all paralleling. After seeing him impaled, Coheed calls out to “Inferno” in the comic to see if Jesse will reply. At the same time, Mariah calls to “Inferno” over the intercom and also receives no reply, hence, two “Hello’s”. This is possibly also similar to Jesse’s and all the IRO-bot’s searching for their ‘calling’, or purpose, in life. Jesse if the Inferno, the Prise/Prize Fighter, and his purpose is to fight against Ryan alongside Mariah and Coheed and Cambria. If he dies, he cannot answer that call. So, what will he do? Will he die or will he live to answer that call?) ”There, a corner; tall, short stance: it's you! Come on kill me!” - (Coming back to consciousness briefly, Jesse looks over to see Crom, but in his delirium, instead of seeing just Crom he sees a distorted version of Crom that he imagines is the literal being of Death come to take him away. It is crouched low, ready to pounce when the opportunity arises. Jesse, seeing this, silently challenges Crom/Death to go ahead and try and kill him. This is basically Jesse defying Death and choosing to live.) ”You made a good friend to me but while you were outnumbered and torn you made us do things.” - (As he drifts between consciousness and unconsciousness, Jesse remembers the past and talks to Hohenberger in his mind. He remarks that Hohenberger was a good friend to the IRO-bots and was like a father to them for nearly two years, but when the Prise and the spies of Wilhelm Ryan found out about the K.B.I. program and the IRO-bots and Ryan ordered the project terminated, Hohenberger became torn between his obsession with defeating Ryan and protecting the Keywork. He saw no way to defeat the Ryan without destroying the Keywork and decided that the defeat of the Mages was worth such a price and thus created the Monstar virus and implanted within Coheed, the Trigger with Cambria, and the Ciache in Jesse’s keeping [how Ryan obtained it is not known]. Upon learning of his creation of the Monstar virus, the Prise saw Hohenberger and the K.B.I. as a Man-made threat to Heaven’s Fence and thus they felt it as their duty as defined by God’s Riddle to eliminate that threat. Seeing himself targeted, Hohenberger panics and orders the IRO-bots to fight the Prise, who were previously allies of the IRO-bots in the war. This is probably how Jesse came to be known as the Prise Fighter, since he is the only surviving IRO-bot still possessing knowledge of fighting the Prise.) ”Oh dear God, I don't feel alive! “ - (Jesse is in pain and fights to stay alive. He knows he should be Dead, but since he’s not actually human he is able to barely survive what should’ve been a fatal blow. Still, injured as he is, he feels more dead than alive.)” ”When you're cut short of misery will you pray it be the end?” - (This is Crom talking to Coheed and Cambria, asking them that when they are captured and are not allowed to die or even mourn, but are instead forced to become pawns of Ryan’s, will they wish that they were dead?) ”Give a look, surprised wide eyes to me. Then you'll know just what I am: the scare that triggers your fear.” - (Crom tells Cambria to look at him as he begins to absorb all the energy from her and Coheed, sapping their strength. They cannot believe he has defeated them. He tells them to look at him and understand just what he is: He is the force of fright and terror that will lead them to their worst fears: he will capture them and take them to Paris: Earth and force Coheed to become the Monstar.) ”Come know me in a different light now. Come know me as God.” - (Crom sees himself as nearly as powerful as a God. Compared to Coheed and Cambria, he sees himself as God, more specifically as their God, since he could so easily kill them right now. He tells them to look at him and understand just how powerful he is and just how helpless they are against his might.) ”You made a good friend to me, but while you were outnumbered and torn you made us do things to you.” - (Like earlier, Jesse is still barely alive and is talking to Hohenberger, but this time he’s referring to the fact that when Ryan’s forces found the lab and they began to assault and destroy it, the K.B.I. learned that Hohenberger, in making the Monstar Virus, was in fact that very same kind of threat to Heaven’s Fence that they were developed to fight. And so, against their will, their programming forced them to kill Hohenberger. In the end, Coheed was the one who wound up killing Hohenberger, after orders were given to Hohenberger’s associates to wipe the memories of Coheed and Cambria and to give Jesse the key to unlocking the Virus. This way, once Jesse escaped Ryan’s forces, the K.B.I. would no longer be an immediate threat to the Keywork and the Prise would no longer hunt them. It was not known to Jesse or the Prise at the time that Josephine was actually born with the cure to the virus and Coheed only remembers this aboard the Gloria Vel Vessa while unconscious in his cryo-chamber.) ”Run sand hourglass, it's my time. Will I be worth?” - (This is Crom, noting the fact that his time has finally come to serve as Ryan’s top officer now that Mayo has been demoted. He wonders if he will be worthy of such an honor. The image of the hourglass filled with red sand represents the years Crom has devoted to shedding blood in the service in Ryan and now all that blood-stained time has finally paid off.) ”Spin 'round carousel when your horse isn't screwed in.” - (This is one of the most beautiful metaphors in all the Coheed and Cambria albums. In this line, Sanchez, and in essence Crom, compares Time to a carousel spinning around and around (like a clock) and compares Life to a horse on that carousel. In the metaphor, the horse is unscrewed to emphasize just how fragile and unstable life is: at any moment it can come loose and crash to the ground, unmoving. It is essentially Crom musing that even when a life, such as Jesse’s, is taken away, Time will still keep moving just as the carousel will continue to turn even without the horse.) {during the final chorus, in the background} ”(Raise forth lost cause!” - (This is basically in the minds of Mariah, her troops, and the K.B.I.: they are all still showing conviction in their cause to thwart Ryan. Even if it is a lost cause, they will still continue to raise forth the flag of that cause and fight under its banner.) ”Then you'll know just what I am (subtle demise the legitimate cry)” - (As Crom gloats over his victory and mocks Coheed and Cambria, Jesse thinks to himself of how he’d much rather have a more subtle, or peaceful, death instead of this traumatic end he is faced with. He feels justified in this wish and sees it as a legitimate reason to continue to live, if only to have a more peaceful death later in life.) Delirium Trigger is very suited to its title because large portions of the narration come from Jesse as he floats between life and death in a delirium, confusing past and present events. Crom, in injuring Jesse, acted as the trigger for that delirium as well seeing himself as the trigger for Coheed and Cambria’s fears. As the song nears its end, it dips and swells in time with the pace and events of the battle, abruptly ending as Crom defeats Coheed and Cambria and takes them captive and Jesse falls unconscious.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Delirium Trigger Lyrics

15 years ago

*******UPDATED ACCORDING TO NEW AMORY WARS ISSUES****** I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Hearshot Kid Disaster" This song had me stumped for quite a long time. There are so many theories and personal interpretations on the internet that it’s hard to find any that actually match up into the canon of the story now that the comics have come out. I am firm in my belief that this song is about Wilhelm Ryan in House Atlantic, musing to himself and rhetorically speaking to God just after releasing the Onstantine Priests from their chambers, which explains the screams in the beginning. The opening of the song takes place just after this, as he is walking back to his control room and calls for General Mayo Deftinwolf to go capture Coheed and Cambria from their home. In the comic, this takes place at the same time as the events of “Time Consumer” and overlaps “Devil in Jersey City” and “Everything Evil” (when Mayo arrives at the Kilgannon home). The song begins with Ryan talking to the captive Priests and as the music crashes he releases restraints and sedatives on the Priests and the scream signifies them waking up and breaking out of their chambers. The actual lyrics begin as Ryan is walking to his control room to call for General Mayo as the Priests scream in the background. ”Still searching for your call today,” - (Ryan feels that God has abandoned the Keywork, and more importantly the Mages, and that Ryan is still waiting to hear some sort of sign or word from God in order to confirm that God is still there and still listening.’) ”Sit down, and Structure; will you be the engineer?” - (Ryan tells God to sit down and build something again [to structure, or compose, again], to give some sort of evidence that he is still there. Ryan then asks God if he’ll be the engineer he claims to be by stepping in and stopping Ryan in order to preserve his creation. Ryan feels that if God truly has abandoned him and the Fence, then it is his righteous duty to defy God’s will by altering his creation by breaking the Keywork and in doing so prove that God has indeed gone missing.) ”Still tired and dreaming out against and overboard” - (Ryan muses that God, being so worn out from building the Keywork, has fallen asleep. Ryan believes that God, while suffering a nightmare [dreaming out against] and tossing and turning in his sleep to try and wake up, has metaphorically fallen ‘overboard’ and died. Throughout the album, Heaven and Heaven’s Fence are compared to a boat or a ship, so the image of someone falling overboard and dying fits well into the language of the many metaphors used by Sanchez.) ”When pain kills you'll hate me and wait for ” - (Ryan is now talking to Man and Prise as a whole, telling them that he knows that everyone will hate him for doing what he, in his insane delusions, believes is his duty in making God pay for the pain Ryan has suffered. In his quest for vengeance against God, Ryan has killed countless people and initiated the total genocide of the uncatalogued races in order to fuel the Monstar and destroy Sector 12 and Mariah Antillarea. In their fear, the people of Heaven’s Fence will pray and look to God for help. They will wait for…what? Since Ryan believes God is dead and gone, he asks ‘what will you wait for?) ”Or then call me crazy and pretend I left us discontent and afraid.” - (Ryan also knows that if they do not pray to God, then they will turn against Ryan and call him a madman and blame him for all the suffering and fear that they feel. Ryan uses the word ‘pretend’ because he doesn’t see himself as the cause of their discontentment, but instead sees God’s absence as the reason behind their unhappiness.) ”So what so I'm crazy then send me justice and I'll have Paris in flames” - (Ryan doesn’t believe he’s insane, but accepts that everyone else thinks he is. He is also extremely angry at God for not including the Mage in the Riddle. Technically, due to their lack of mention in the Riddle, the Mage are an uncatalogued race and Ryan has developed an inferiority complex due to this. This would explain his cruel and systematic genocide of the other uncatalogued races throughout the Fence. As we know, House Atlantic, where Ryan lives, is on Paris: Earth and he is having Coheed and Cambria sent there to unleash the Monstar. He sees the Monstar as his way of enacting justice against God’s wrongs against him and pretty much tells everyone who calls him crazy ‘give me a means of defying God and I’ll show you just how serious I am.’) ”Still searching for your faith in the arm that killed the President” - (Ryan refers to God as the ‘President’ because of how Man and Prise look to him for guidance and leadership. He thinks they are foolish in still faithfully searching to God to give some sort of sign that he is still there. They expect God to reach down and cure their ills. Ryan, however, believes that it was God’s very own arm that, in building Heaven’s Fence and causing God to sleep, indirectly caused God’s own death. Essentially, Ryan believes that God was killed by the same arm that he used to Create.) ”Relapse: waiting here for…” - (Ryan notes that without God there to guide and with the Riddle corrupted, Heaven’s Fence has relapsed into imperfection and sickness, much like Ryan’s own body, and because of this, everyone is waiting for a God who will never appear.) ”Still searching for your face in the crowd that killed the president” - (Ryan continue to mock everyone as they look to the sky for a sign of God’s presence [his face]. When Ryan says ‘the crowd that killed the President’, he’s actually referring to Heaven’s Fence itself: the crowd of planets that, in Ryan’s mind, caused God to die. Remember, in this universe, when people look up to the sky, they don’t see stars; they see the Keywork and nearby planets.) ”I need Mayo” - (This is Ryan pressing the com. And asking for General Mayo in order to check on the progress in capturing Coheed and in killing the children. Mayo sees Coheed not as a living being but as a tool or instrument that is vital in his defiance of God. Ryan considers the Monstar to sort of be his personal Helionaut, or herald of Armageddon.) ”I won't fail you now” - (This is Mayo, telling Ryan that Stage One is complete and he’s heading out to the Kilgannon house, but he still can’t find Claudio. He promises Ryan that he won’t fail; that the boy will be dead by the time Coheed and Cambria reach Paris:Earth.) ”Dear Captain send the S.O.S When we're gonna go down” - (Ryan, once again musing to himself, pretty much tells a rhetorical ‘Captain’ to send off a cry for help when he finally unleashes the Monstar and destroys the Keywork, once again referring to the Fence as a ship. Ryan is essentially challenging the citizens of the Fence to go ahead and pray to God, since Ryan believes God is long gone and will not come to help.) {during second chorus} “I won’t fail you now (We're going down and you're all fucked up for sure)” - (This shows how fanatical Mayo is toward Ryan and Ryan’s cause. He’s telling the denizens of Sector 12 that Ryan will succeed and the Keywork is doomed and that all of those living on Sector 12 are fucked.) ”Wound open and squeezing my heart against this pain inflicts and in passion I bleed for it.” - (This is Ryan looking at and considering the deformities all over his body that he suffered as a result of the Mage Wars. They serve as a constant reminder [squeezing his heart] of how much he’s sacrificed [bled for] for his cause in order to achieve his nihilistic goals.) ”But with this what they gave me this book and flint and a match to go with it.” - (Ryan comments on this fact that in exchange for the injuries he suffered in defeating the other Mages, he not only gained complete control of the Keywork and Heaven’s fence, but he also gained control of a means to destroy that which he gained: Cambria/the Knowledge [the Book], Coheed/the Beast [the Flint, since he is a weapon like a flint arrowhead or spearhead], and Jesse/the Inferno [the match aka the fire starter].) ”Still searching for your face in the crowd that buried New Mexico” - (When they see no sign of God in the sky, they instead look to his appointed Guardians; the Prise, to protect Heaven’s Fence. Sanchez uses New Mexico and the secrets hidden there [Area-51, Roswell] as a metaphor for hidden truth. Basically, Ryan is accusing the Prise of hiding [burying] the truth of God’s Riddle.] ”I'll be waiting here for” - (Much like everyone else, Ryan is waiting for some sign from God. But, believing that sign will not come, Ryan also waits for his justice: the Monstar.) **Ryan contacts Mayo again and learns of the battle at the Kilgannon house and that Coheed and Cambria are being loaded onto the Gloria Vel Vessa. He tells Ryan about Patrick escaping and that Claudio is still missing. Mayo swears that he won’t fail to transport Coheed and Cambria safely to Paris: Earth and kill Claudio. However, Ryan has other plans.** ”Have you ever heard the lyrics he sang?” - (Ryan is referring to God’s Riddle as lyrics in a song. He is asking who has actually heard the Riddle directly from God’s mouth.) ”In his thoughtful transmission the words lost sentence remain.” - (Ryan believes that when God gave out his Riddle, he thoughtfully included the Mages in it, but that the Prise, in vying for superiority over the Mages, hid that part of the Riddle and that it is still middle a sentence that explains the role of the Mages and grants them position as a catalogued race. Ryan resents God for not punishing the Prise for their blasphemy and correcting the Riddle himself.) ”Sing his song, sing his song loud.” - (Ryan is mocking the inhabitants of the Fence for their unwavering devotion to God’s Riddle. He tells them to go ahead and recite it all they want, it won’t change his plans to destroyed the Keywork and separate Sector 12 from the rest of the Fence.) ”Structure, will you be the engineer? Where's your song or have you lost the key or tone?” - (Ryan once again talks to God, this time referring to him directly as Structure [Construct], asking him one last time if he’ll step in and stop Ryan’s plan. He asks God why he doesn’t give forth a new Riddle or Creed. Why doesn’t God speak? Is it because he can’t? Is it because he’s dead?) screamed: “Crom!” -( Tired of Mayo screwing up, Ryan calls for Admiral Crom, whom he plans to replace Mayo as his second-in-command in order to complete the mission. Crom and Mayo have a grudge against each other and Crom has been waiting for Mayo to screw up so that he [Crom] can be promoted to take Mayo’s place.) ”Thank god for your strength will you hold your breath? Waiting for me to exhale in the short life lived.” - (Referring to the phrase ‘don’t hold your breath’, which equates to ‘don’t have faith’, Ryan asks Crom is he will have faith in Ryan’s cause. He also notes that Crom has waited patiently while Ryan faithfully trusted Mayo, but now Ryan has lost his faith in Mayo’s abilities [hence, exhaled], who he does not expect to live much longer.) {the following are hidden lyrics sang at the end of the song} screamed: “Go! Get! Crom!” - (Basically, Ryan is still pissed off at Mayo and calling for Crom.) ”When you left, and you arrived.” - (Ryan is remarking on the fact that Mayo has left and Crom has arrived to replace him.) For those wondering about the title, ‘Hearshot’ is a word invented by Sanchez, but it obviously is similar to earshot, or being within range to hear. ‘Kid’ refers to Claudio. The reason Ryan is so pissed at Mayo is because Mayo left Claudio get away, which is disastrous for Ryan. It’s a disaster because Claudio is prophesied to be the Crowing: the only one who can put a stop to Ryan. It’s inferred that the Crowing is the one who heard God’s Riddle and called [crowed] forth the Riddle for the Prise to hear and convey. If Claudio is the Crowing, then he has the capacity for knowing the truth of the Riddle and knowing that Ryan has broken the pact therein written and thus being deserving of retribution. Since the Crowing was God’s messenger, then it is assumed that if God is not able to help, then Crowing is the next closest one to God to act in his stead. In a sense, the Crowing is God’s hand in proxy: performing God’s will when God cannot or will not get involved directly. This is why Ryan considers Claudio to be such a threat.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Delirium Trigger Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Delirium Trigger" This song is very confusing because it’s difficult to know who is narrating and what is reality. The song is about a delirium, after all. And to make thing even more confusing to those who catch it, the entire first two verses refer very specifically to the movie Alien by Ridley Scott. My personal opinion is that the bulk of the verses are coming from a crew member who is under the influence of a delirium brought on by Cambria and by Coheed. When I say he refers to the movie Aliens, I mean that he definitely references some specific scenes from the movie, but these references are not literal nor are they necessary to enjoy or understand the song itself but are instead an added bonus to those who are familiar with the movie and catch the references. They are there to give reference point for the general tone and emotional base of the scenes during the song. Much like the movie itself, the song is about being scared and feeling alone in the deep dark of outer space and confronting fears and demons within that lonely expanse. While many people will argue that the song’s first line opens with Coheed and Cambria still sedated and asleep in their cryogenic chambers on the Gloria Vel Vessa transport ship and the entire song is a dream, I actually think they are indeed asleep at the very beginning of the song and Coheed wakes up at the point where the music becomes heavy and we hear a scream. That scream is in fact a shortened and distorted version of the scream in “Hearshot Kid Disaster”, leading me to believe that the screams are placed to let us know that both songs begin at the same time in terms of the overall timeline of the story, meaning this song and ‘H.K.D.’” happen simultaneously. Back to “Delirium Trigger”, though; the song begins with a repeating guitar phrase very much like the music on a carousel, which is reinforced by a lyric towards the end of the song. The phrase repeats, getting slightly faster each time before the drums and second guitar break in. When the music breaks and becomes heavy, then that is when Coheed begins to awaken and become lucid. When we hear the scream, he opens his eyes for us to see they are bloodshot and enraged. At the next crash, when the whole band joins in, that is when Coheed shatters the glass of his chamber and Cambria wakes up and begins her own escape. This is when the actual lyrics start. ----------------------- ”We're now up here alone terror on the intercom. Can someone save us?” - (This is in the actual reality of the universe. The alarms have sounded and the communications officer has been alerted that Coheed and Cambria have escaped their Cryo-chambers and he can hear the frightened guards being killed over the intercom and coming for help. He can hear their terror and begins to call in a mayday for help.) ”Systems malfunction, blast it, this damn machine!” - (He’s getting no reply from the mayday call and thinks the communications computer has malfunctioned and he curses the machine for not working. We do not know if the machine is actually broken, or if Cambria is only making him believe it is broken. It’s also possible that someone does hear the cry for help and is under orders from Admiral Crom to not answer.) ”Over and out, Captain.” - (The comm. officer gives up trying to use the machine and tells his Captain that the mayday isn’t working and closes the communicator channel.) ”Something lurks, creeps on the counter top somewhere behind you.” - (Coheed and Cambria have begun to move toward the bridge. As Cambria’s induced delirium sinks in, the officer begins to gain a warped perception of Coheed and Cambria. He begins to see Coheed as a literal Beast, similar to the Alien from the movie. He can hear them fighting as they get closer, in a sense, lurking, towards the bridge. He looks at the door, and, in his delirium seeing as alive, says to it that they’re coming from behind it.) ”Parasitic cyst; I can't stand to watch. It's coming up and out of your chest.” - (As our officer looks on, he see’s the energy bubbling up and heating the door as Coheed blasts at it and tears at it with his blades. He sees the middle of the door give way and instead of seeing the door burning away and Coheed shove his bladed arm through and rip the door open, he see’s it as some kind of monstrous parasite ripping its way through the blast door’s “chest”.) ”Remember when we were young?” - (This is Cambria talking to Coheed telepathically. She’s asking Coheed how far back he can remember now that he dreamt of the past while in the cryo-chamber. The reason the line is so quiet, drawn out and echoed in the song is because the point of view shifts from the crew member to that of Coheed. As he begins to remember, he shifts into his own delirium within the memory. ) ”Sit up right on the table. A photograph of Earth feeding me a way back. - (Recalling his dreams from the chamber, Coheed remembers back as far as he can. He remembers sitting on a table, most likely an operating table in Hohenberger’s lab, and looking at a photograph of Silent Earth III. He feels strongly attached to the photograph in the memory, as though by remembering it, it can present him a way to regain all of his memories.) ”Frightened I tear alone, or maybe not the only one there.” - (Coheed is frightened and feels very alone. We can assume that this is right after he learned that the Monstar virus is implanted inside him and was forced to kill Hohenberger and that right now he’s waiting to have his memory erased. Brought on by his strong emotions of fear and sadness, the virus begins to activate stage one [the increased strength and the blades] and he can feel it shifting within him, coursing through his veins. He then wonders if maybe he’s not as alone as he thought, but that maybe the virus may be in some way alive; that maybe he’s not alone at all.) ”Hello, hello...when it rings will you answer?” - (This is actually Coheed imagining the virus talking to him. It is asking him that when “it” [being the trigger for Stage Two] is shown to him [rings], will he answer the call and transform into the full Monstar?) ”There, a corner; tall, short stance: it's you! Come on kill me!” - (Feeling threatened by its presence within him as well as its intention, Coheed [both past and present], in his delirium, begins to visualize the Monstar as some form of actual monster and imagines seeing it standing in the corner of the room, crouched and ready to strike. He screams at it in his mind, tell it “Come on, kill me!” so that it can be over and done with and he can be release of the burden of carrying the Monstar.) ”You made a good friend to me but while you were outnumbered and torn you made us do things.” - (This is Coheed talking to Hohenberger in his mind. He remarks that Hohenberger was a good friend to the IRO-bots and was like a father to them for nearly two years, but when the Prise and the spies of Wilhelm Ryan found out about the K.B.I. program and the IRO-bots and Ryan ordered the project terminated, Hohenberger became torn between his obsession with defeating Ryan and protecting the Keywork. He saw no way to defeat the Ryan without destroying the Keywork and decided that the defeat of the Mages was worth such a price and thus created the Monstar virus and implanted within Coheed, the Trigger with Cambria, and the Ciache in Jesse’s keeping [how Ryan obtained it is not known]. Upon learning of his creation of the Monstar virus, the Prise saw Hohenberger and the K.B.I. as a Man-made threat to Heaven’s Fence and thus they felt it as their duty as defined by God’s Riddle to eliminate that threat. Seeing himself targeted, Hohenberger panics and orders the IRO-bots to fight the Prise, who were previously allies of the IRO-bots in the war. This is probably how Jesse came to be known as the Prise Fighter, since he is the only surviving IRO-bot still possessing knowledge of fighting the Prise.) ”Oh dear God, I don't feel alive! “ - (As Coheed experiences the sudden resurgence of lost memories and comes to full realization of his existence as an IRO-bot and not a human, he cries out inside his mind.)” ”When you're cut short of misery will you pray it be the end?” - (This is Cambria, who is watching all of this telepathically, asking Coheed that since he was deprived of his chance to properly lament and feel guilt for the crimes he committed in the past if he would rather have died back then.) ”Give a look, surprised wide eyes to me. Then you'll know just what I am: the scare that triggers your fear.” - (Coheed hears Cambria and her harsh reply to his pain, he looks at her and suddenly comes to a full understanding of what she is and what her given purpose as an IRO-bot is: she is the trigger to his greatest fear: becoming the Monstar. She phrases it as “scare” because the transformation into Stage One is triggered by strong feelings of fear and anger.) ”Come know me in a different light now. Come know me as God.” - (Cambria asks Coheed if he sees her differently now. She asks if he understands that in a way, she is his God, for it is her existence and her presence that defines whether he is Human/IRO-bot or Monster/Monstar. If Coheed is introduced to the Ciache, Cambria is the only one who can define his existence.) ”You made a good friend to me, but while you were outnumbered and torn you made us do things to you.” - (Like earlier, Coheed is talking to Hohenberger, but this time he’s referring to the fact that when Ryan’s forces found the lab and they began to assault and destroy it, Hohenberger ordered the K.B.I. to kill him. In the end, Coheed was the one who wound up killing Hohenberger, after orders were given to Hohenberger’s associates to wipe the memories of Coheed and Cambria and to give Jesse the key to unlocking the Virus. This way, once Jesse escaped Ryan’s forces, the K.B.I. would no longer be an immediate threat to the Keywork and the Prise would no longer hunt them.) ”Run sand hourglass, it's my time. Will I be worth?” - (This is basically Claudio accepting the years he lost when his memories were erased. He’s telling the hourglass to go ahead and let that time pass, because now if his time; now is his second chance to repent. But is he worthy of that chance? Will he be able to live up to the task given him?) ”Spin 'round carousel when your horse isn't screwed in.” - (This is one of the most beautiful metaphors in all the Coheed and Cambria albums. This is Coheed basically saying “Come what may, let this thing keep going. I’m going to keep riding this thing and finish this, no matter what the danger, even if it kills me.” He’s comparing life as a whole and this endeavor of trying to stop the virus to riding a carousel with the horse not screwed on. He may fall off and get hurt or even die, but he’s going to stay on until he’s finished this.) {during the final chorus, in the background} ”(Raise forth lost cause!” - (This is basically Cambria and all her mind-controlled crew reinforcing Coheed’s conviction to continue his cause, even if it is a lost cause.) ”Then you'll know just what I am (subtle demise the legitimate cry)” - (In the song, you the primary lyric and them immediately after that you hear “subtle demise, the legitimate cry” sang melodically and somewhat sadly in the background. ‘Subtle demise’ is essentially a subdued, peaceful death, such as dying of old age. This is a legitimate cry because in the back of their minds, Coheed and Cambria regret not being able to live a long life and die a subtle death. They feel justified in wishing that they could have avoided this chaotic end and could’ve instead died peacefully. Though they will gladly give their lives in fire and violence to save the Keywork, deep inside they’d rather not die this way.) ”Come know me as God (raise forth lost cause).” - (Once again, Cambria is making the controlled crew shout their support for Coheed and herself as a reminder that as far as the crew is concerned, she is indeed their ‘God’, as well as Coheed’s, to an extent.) Delirium Trigger is very suited to its title because the entirety of the song takes place during a delirium suffered by both the Communications Officer and Coheed. During Coheed’s delirium, he remembers a massive portion of his past and finally grasps an understanding of Cambria’s existence as the trigger for the Monstar.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Everything Evil Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria’s studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Everything Evil" Everything Evil is one of the most confusing tracks by Coheed and Cambria to analyze and there are many versions of how it coincides with the story. This interpretation is my own personal version of how I think it coincides with the comics and the overall story. Much of the song is actually speculation by two FBI investigators who are trying to find out what happened at the Kilgannon house the next day. In the comic book (volume II, issue #2), one of them actually guesses very correctly, though they are only involved in one verse in the song, In a very Quentin Tarantino-esque move, the verse in which the investigators speak is actually a flash forward. In relation to the whole of the story at this point, their scene are happening the during next day and won’t be in the present until the latter half of the album. The parts they don’t understand and thus don’t speak during (the beginning and the end) are told in present-tense directly by the characters as the events happen. The primary structure of the song is broken into two parts and deals with two separate events; General May Deftinwolf’s assault upon and capture of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon and then Claudio finding the body of his dead sister Josephine and the Onstantine Priest finding him, respectively. At the start of the song, Mayo and his Red Army are outside the Kilgannon house, waiting for the deadline to run out and to see if the Kilgannon’s finished killing all four of their children. The first part of the song is told from his point of view, much of it being internal monologue. It’s safe to assume that Mayo saw Josephine enter the house while Patrick hesitates by his car after driving Josie home. Mayo then sees Patrick run inside to apologize and explain and then immediately run out of the house screaming in a panic. At this point, Mayo begins speaking, both to his subordinates and his quarry. This is where the song begins. ------------------------------------------- “Wait for… Everything evil in you comes out.” - (Mayo, rhetorically speaking to Coheed, is urging Coheed to wait and be patient a while longer, as he will see the Beast within revealed soon enough.> ”I'll stay when we'll only motivate sound instead, Sergeant.” - (Mayo tells one of his sergeants that he will not wait any longer [stay] while there’s prey to capture and taunt [motivate] and that the only way he would stay still is if the house was empty and silent.) ”Make for the table...” - (I assume this is Mayo telling his men to grab their weapons and gear off the supply table in the van.) ”In hopes that I won't be afraid again.” - (This seems to be Mayo speaking to himself, trying to calm himself with the reminder that he will be armed and so will his men. It is revealed in the comics that when Mayo first meets Coheed after work and tells him about the virus and what must me done, Coheed gets angry and begins punching Mayo, revealing him [Mayo] to be a cyborg with the skin on the left side of his head and face missing. Perhaps the previous incident frightened Mayo more than he let on and is trying to calm himself before confronting Coheed again.) ”Call when enabled.” - (Essentially can be read as Mayo saying “tell me when you’re ready” to his troops.) ”And send the leader out against...” - (Mayo orders the leader of the squad to start moving toward the house and against whatever may wait inside. Mayo follows a few seconds later.) ”I will Stage a reenactment in a false pretense.” - (As he walks toward the house, Mayo reflects on his plan of action. He intends continue the ruse of needing the children eliminated for the safety of the Keywork, which we know is a lie.) ”Exist: inflict Unworthy unconsciousness.” - (Mayo reminds his men that the reason that the reason they are at the house is to capture Coheed and Cambria alive, which means forcefully inflicting unconsciousness if necessary.) “Why debate when the actions suppressed?” – (Mayo has met Coheed and Cambria in their house and has begun to detain them. Coheed voices his concerns and guilt about killing Maria, Matthew and Josephine, and his reluctance to kill Claudio or tell Mayo where Claudio is. Mayo reminds Coheed that he’s already killed three of his children and that his actions have ensured that their lives have been suppressed and can’t be brought back. Since he’s already killed three of them, why not just go ahead and kill Claudio and get it over with instead of debating with himself.) ”Then kill the acquitted.” - (Coheed probably acknowledges that what Mayo says makes some sense, but before he can voice his continued doubts, Mayo says “Then kill the boy”, referring to Claudio who is still free and innocent and thus acquitted from the guilt of his parents.) ”Listen to the sounds that remain in question In hopes to solidify a truce.” - (Cambria reaches into Mayo’s mind and realizes that Mayo has no intentions of letting Claudio go or making his death easy and instead intends to hunt him down and kill him mercilessly. Cambria begins to beg Mayo to have mercy, to try and find some kind of compromise or agreement, but Mayo just ignores her and tunes out her pleas. Cambria also see’s that Mayo knew the children were all innocent and mentally conveys this to Claudio, who begins to become enraged, as shown soon.) ”Amongst the children, and the jury that stands the verdict; alive Here among the dead” - (This is either spoken by Mayo to Coheed and Cambria as a taunt or it could be another internal monologue. I personally interpret it as being spoken to Coheed in order to remind him where they are: the parents on trial with the Red Army and Mayo as the jury, all of them alive in the house where Coheed’s dead children still lie.) ”Evolve Monstar! Show me the things that I've never wanted done.” - (At this point, Coheed begins going berserk and starts to transform into the Beast. Cambria, seeing this as a possibility for both vengeance and escape, urges him to continue to evolve into the Monstar so that he may inflict vengeance upon Mayo, despite the fact she never wanted bloodshed before now.) ”Evolve Monstar! Do to me the things I never wanted done...” - (This line belongs to Coheed who, seeing what is happening to him and the power this transformation affords him, encourages the virus in his body to transform him into the Beast so that he can avenged his dead children. Neither he nor his wife fully understand yet that it is Coheed’s own body, not the virus, that is causing this transformation.) ”I... I felt much better than this before.” - (As Mayo defeats Coheed and detains him and Cambria. As the sedative begins to set in, Cambria thinks about what a horrible day it has been and how she was so much happier the days before all this happened.) ”If they find out to avoid Then the accident’s kept hidden away But if they stay...” - (As she begins to fall asleep, Cambria hopes that Claudio, who is out on a date with Newo, is smart enough to see that something is wrong at home and to stay away. If they find out something is wrong and know to avoid, they might not learn of what has happened and be able to escape. But if they stay on schedule and on course and Claudio comes home…[she’s falls unconscious before finishing].) {begin flash forward} ”Blood hungry, cannibalistic unfit family ties” - (One of the inspectors, reading the file on Coheed and Cambria, muses on their history as being part of the K.B.I. and the virus that has infected that the whole family is infected with. ‘Blood hungry’ refers to Coheed and Cambria’s history of killing during their time with the K.B.I. and “cannibalistic unfit family ties’ is a reference to the virus that connects all the members of the Kilgannon family and was the cause of the family’s assumed demise.” ”In a series of knocks To the young girl's head side.” - (Knowing that the twins were poisoned with a very rare and volatile chemical, one of the inspector hypothesizes that Coheed, not wanting Josephine to suffer like the twins did, decided to kill Josephine quickly and hit her from behind in the head with the hammer.” “Come write me a letter and paste it on my refrigerator door” - (It has been theorized that as they were leaving, Mayo had one of his mean forge a confession note that incriminates Coheed in going insane, slaughtering his children, kidnapping Cambria and running away. Mayo had the note posted in the refrigerator so whoever came to the scene could see it. In the line, one of the inspectors notices the note and ponders the convenience of such a letter.) ”Inspected; inspector, I think we've found something over here.” - (The investigator who found the note inspects it and then calls his partner over to see it for the piece of evidence it is.) {end flash forward} ”I... I felt much better than this before. If they find out to avoid Then the accidents kept hidden away But if they stay...” - (This could be Josephine’s either ghost, recently risen but slow to move on, or it could be Josephine herself and she’s regained consciousness but can’t move and is dying fast. Either way, this line is her pretty much mirroring Cambria’s thoughts. My reasoning for believing this is her is revealed below) ”Jesse! Just come look at what your brother did! Here He did away with me.” - (At some point during his time as her father, Coheed had to mention having a brother named Jesse. Even though he had no direct memories of Jesse, he did know of Jesse and know that they were brothers, perhaps even having a photo of him to back up the validity of his implanted memories. So it’s safe to say Coheed’s children know of Jesse being Coheed’s brother. Josephine never learned of the virus or the perceived necessity of killing her and the twins, so she’s very likely extremely upset and angry at being killed by her own father. She may not have risen in time to see her parents get taken down and hauled away, as we do not know how long of a time gap happened between then and now. At this point, she’s probably still stuck inside her dying body, fuming over her death and basically addressing Jesse in order to accuse her father and express her anger at him.) ”Stay until Wednesday, And write me a child-like letter, pretending. At war here in Thursday. Let's make this our last day at home by the fence.” - (There is a massive amount of debate on what this section of the song is about, but my personal opinion is that Claudio finds Josephine on the floor and when he reaches out and touches her, she’s still just barely alive. He begins asking her to tell him what happened but she can barely speak. As she tries to tell him about the Devils and Patrick, all she can think about is how she wishes he could stay with her until the dawn of Wednesday [it’s inferred that all this happens during Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning] and how he could write her a letter letting her know it was all a dream and that come Thursday, they could all be back warring with each other like any other siblings. She wishes that she could stay alive for at least a day longer; to have just one day alive at home within Heaven’s Fence.) ”Would you run? Would you run? Would you run down past the fence? Would you run? Would you run? Would you run down past the fence?” - (As she continues drifting in and out of thought, she begins thinking of Patrick, who ran away at seeing her killed and is still on the run. She looks up at Claudio and thinks she’s speaking aloud when she asks him if he’ll run away like Patrick to the ends of the world and beyond the horizon [the fence].) [Screamed in the background] “F.B.I.!” - (This is actually Patrick, still on the run, looking for help and calling out to the authorities. F.B.I. is mainly just a term used to generalize any police force or force of authority in the world of the Amory Wars.) {finale verse} ”And she screamed, Claudio! Dear Claudio!” - (Josephine, on the edge of death, see’s an Onstantine Priest (an enslaved and corrupted Mage) creeping up behind Claudio. She draws all the breath and tries to scream for Claudio to run. But her scream only comes out as a whisper and as he sees the Priest, she says “Claudio! Dear Claudio!”.) ”I wish, God damn it, we'll make it if you believe!” - (As Claudio runs and Josephine heads toward death, she thinks of how strong Claudio can be and of his potential and tries to tell him as he runs away that she believes in him and that ‘we’, being Man [humanity as a whole], will make it if only he can believe in himself.) {finale verse repeats and fades} As the song ends, Josephine’s final words repeat and fade out and segue into a signature piano refrain that is essentially used throughout the albums to signify an indeterminate passing of time. I see this as symbolizing Josephine’s final passing and her becoming part of the Keywork peaceably as opposed to forcibly, as Ryan’s victims usually do. At the end of the song, Coheed and Cambria are in Mayo’s custody, Josephine and the twins are dead, Claudio is on the run from the Onstantine Priest and Patrick is on the run from Coheed, who he thinks is a murderer.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Time Consumer Lyrics

15 years ago

I’ve decided to do in-depth analysis’ of all of Coheed and Cambria studio tracks in chronological order so that myself and others might have a better idea of the story line of the universe and how the songs and the comics connect to each other. I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of each song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time Consumer is an extremely sad song to analyze. It’s increasingly painful if you’ve read the comics and have the visual aspect there to accompany the events of the song. The song itself is told primarily from the viewpoint of Coheed Kilgannon, but also from the viewpoints of Cambria and Jesse Kilgannon. It covers the events happening within the Kilgannon house during and immediately after the events of “Devil in Jersey City’. -------------- “The young stale memories of play: the role to your part.” – (This is Claudio reliving memories of Matthew and Maria, his youngest twins, playing and being happy and pretty much fulfilling the role of kids at that age. The memories, though young, are already stale because there will never be any fresh memories again since the twins will soon be dead.) “Librarian find me the pole, the one that kicks your head in. – (This line is arguable in what it means, but it’s generally considered that librarians are people who are very knowledgeable and capable of giving advice. A lot of time, librarians will use a pole with a rubber gripper on the end to reach books at the tops of tall shelves. I imagine this is Claudio reaching out to anyone listening, asking for advice about what to do or at least the means (the pole) to find that advice, even if that advice is painful to hear. To note, it is also speculated that with Cambria being called ‘the Knowledge’, Coheed may be referring to her directly when he says librarian.) “To my own time, role your own innocence by” – (Despite the accepted lyric being “role”, I feel that this is a play on phonetics as well on words themselves, i.e. ‘roll’ as a verb and ‘role’ as a noun. This really isn’t that far fetched when you really consider how complex Sanchez can be. I think this is essentially Coheed coming back from his reverie and back to the here and now [his own time], and seeing the twins being happy and innocent and basically living to their role as kids. Seeing them roll around and playing, it’s essentially a slap to his face, since he knows what he must do and that he’ll never see their innocence again; it is instead just passing him by.) “Grab on to my sleeve, the one that grabs at your ankle.” – (The poison is starting to take effect and the twins are beginning to convulse and spasm in pain and Coheed realizes just how horrible an end he’s given them, so he holds them steady and asks silently that they just grab onto him and let him hold them until it’s over. As he watches them die, he desperately doesn’t want them to go but all he can do is hold on as we watches them fall away from life.) “Debate to understand that we all have a flaw” – (The children are looking at Coheed with scared and bewildered expressions on their faces. They don’t know what’s happening and they don’t know why it hurts so much, and worst of all they don’t know why Daddy isn’t doing anything to help. He whispers and shushes them and tries to comfort them, but they keep asking [debating] ‘Why?” and Coheed just wishes they could understand why this had to happen, that it’s not their fault they were born with the Sinistar virus [the flaw] inside of them.) “Then fail to represent your life as you know it.” – (Coheed can’t stand to watch as they die. The twins are wracked with pain and die with expressions of hurt and anguish in their faces, not at all a representation of the happiness and innocence that they embodied while alive.) “God grant you one wish: to turn back the time” – (This is a line being thought by Coheed and Cambria together. Coheed is wishing that when the twins meet God, that if he could grant them one wish, that they would wish that time be turned back to before they had to die. Cambria is essentially thinking the same thing, but is instead directing it at Coheed, who is in so much pain right now that she wishes God could just grant that wish for Coheed just so he wouldn’t have to hurt like this.) “Correct and create, making sense of . . .” – (This is Coheed and Cambria essentially saying, even promising, that if God would only turn back time, they would find a way to make sense of everything, to understand and find a way to cure the virus so that the Kilgannon children would never have to die.) {chorus} “Me and my star, Matthew good night You know by law when you'll be forgiven.” – (This is Coheed saying goodbye to his children. We know it’s him because he says ‘Me and my star’ as opposed to ‘Maria’. This means he’s there with Maria and Matthew directly. We can even envision him holding the children, one in each arm, and looking from Maria and saying “Me and my star…” and then looking to Matthew and saying “Matthew, goodnight.” And after this he promises that they will be forgiven, since they were so very innocent in every way. But since this is Coheed, he swears to the law, since he considers himself to be very lawful and just.) “Maria my star, Matthew goodnight. You know my lord when you'll be forgiven” – (This is Cambria, in the kitchen. Being a powerful psychic, while she is watching Josephine and Patrick in trouble [see: “Devil in Jersey City”] she is also watching what is happening upstairs to Coheed and the twins. She sees them go and says goodbye to each of them, referring to Maria by name since she’s not up there with them. She also swears their forgiveness, but instead of swearing on the law, she swears on God.) {end chorus} “So they pulled your confidence down with those verbal discrepancies.” – (Now we shift to Jesse, in deceased narration, talking to Claudio. We know it is Jesse because of the last line of this verse. This line is basically Jesse acknowledging the pain and alienation Claudio suffers at his high school and how a lot of the other students pick on him and verbally bully him, pulling his confidence down as a result.) “Now and then you'll gain what they've lost through a challenge of unpronounced.” – (I feel that despite popular opinion, ‘unpronounced’ is not coupled with ‘pain’ in the next line, but that instead the challenge in question is quite literally unpronounced by both Claudio’s. It’s basically, and literally saying, ‘a challenge of unpronounced…‘what’?” What this line is saying is that occasionally while Claudio will feel a lack of pride and confidence by only responding to the other students’ jeers and harassment with silence, he also gains courage and support by having Newo, his outgoing girlfriend, pronounce the challenges that Claudio can never seem to say himself. Whenever she does this, even when he doesn’t ask her to, he gains a loyal love for her, a kind of love that the other students have lost by now.) “Pain is only a pulse if you just stop feeling it You might be able to use the very things that make us up” – (This line is actually an overlapping couplet. It is basically two lines that overlap and merge together, in effect mixing the meanings. The first part is “Pain if only a pulse if you just stop feeling it.’ Claudio is known for giving into the pain he feels and constantly blaming himself for the things that are wrong in his life and because of this he often feels powerless and inadequate. What this line means is that Jesse is telling Claudio that all the pain he feels can actually be a source [pulse] of power to him if he could only stop giving into the pain. The second part is “If you just stop feeling it [pain], you might be able to use the very things that make us up.” This is Jesse telling Claudio that if he could learn to use pain as a power source instead of giving into it, then Claudio might be able to use the powers of the Stars [and eventually become the Crowing]. “-things that make us up” refers to the saying that everything and everyone in the universe is made up of stardust. This would actually be more significant in the Amory Wars universe, since the Keywork is a visible example of the life-sustaining power of the Stars. Simplified, these two lines basically say “Claudio, if you would just stop being a wuss, you could become very powerful.”) “Wait, now, here, when will you believe me? I'm merely asking you to help me, when did I say to murder? Wait now, here, please hear me out.” – (This is Coheed talking to Cambria through telepathy after he’s come back downstairs to see that Josephine has returned and is crying [see: “Devil in Jersey City”]. He picks up a hammer and Cambria, realizing he means to use it in Josie, asks him to not use it. He asks her to believe him when he says it’ll be easier this way. Cambria looks into his mind and feels the horrible pain the twins felt as they died and finally agrees to distract Josie so Coheed can use to the hammer to kill her quickly and painlessly.) “Time consumer, time consuming, consume me.” – (This is Coheed’s thoughts as he prepares to swing the hammer. This moment is probably the longest in his life. The coming death consumes time, causing it stretch out into an eternity. Coheed thinks that he wishes he could die instead of Josie and asks that the Time Consumer [Death] consumes his life instead of hers. Of course, it can’t.) “Down and out, now”. – (He swings the hammer and Josie is quite literally “down and out, now.” The end was quick and painless, unlike that of the twins. As you can see, this song is all about death. In it, Death, as an entity, is referred to as the “Time Consumer”, hence the name of the song.

submissions

Coheed and Cambria – Devil in Jersey City Lyrics

15 years ago

Ok, this is one of the few songs I have a really good understanding of, so I'm going to give a line-by-line (omitting repeated lines) of my interpretation of the song and explain how it corresponds to the comics. The song is told through a combination of Patrick’s, the Devils’, Josephine’s, and Cambria Kilgannon’s points of view. -------------------- “Hehee, Shabutie” - (Maria and Matthew, the two youngest Kilgannon children, say this to their father, Coheed, right before he poisons them [see “Time Consumer’]. All this is for is to let us know that, in the timeline of events, the events of this song and “Time Consumer” happen simultaneously.) “New Jersey bound when sound asleep they'll find you at your most vulnerable Poll position” – (Patrick and Josephine are driving to Jersey City. Josephine is dosing in the passenger seat when Patrick parks the car in an empty lot by an abandoned factory. Poll position refers to a racer’s position in the pack. The most ‘vulnerable’ poll position is when a car is completely stopped.) “Speak up, let out” – (Josephine voices her dislike of where they are and her desire to leave) “When down the street the corner boys fuck shit up.” – (The Jersey City Devils gang are causing trouble nearby, just around the corner, while Josephine and Patrick are talking and making out. In terms of “corner boys”, imagine the archetypal image of old 50’s era hoodlums in leather jackets leaning against the wall of a street corner. Sanchez employs a lot of metaphor and imagery into his lyrics.) **The Jersey Devils attack** “Scream loud,” – (Sayonara is Japanese for saying a formal goodbye. This is basically Cambria, in seeing the scene as a vision while Coheed is upstairs, telling Josephine to scream for help.) “-scream Sayonara!” – (This is Devil’s taunting Patrick and Josephine by telling them to “Say goodbye” as they get assaulted.) “Sweet Josephine, will you follow me home?” – (This is Patrick. He is essentially ask him if she’ll still marry him [make a home with home] and follow him after he let this happen to her.) “Sweet Josephine, will you fuck me back home?” – (This is Patrick as well. Now he’s thinking about his intentions when bringing her here and the fact she’s being soiled and raped because of him. He’s wondering if she’ll ever make love to him on their wedding night. I say wedding night because of the previous allusion to ‘home’ being marriage. Also, it is indicated later in the song she is a virgin at this point.) “Let's fire it up, haha now. Let's fire it up haha now, Sayonara!” – (Both these lines are the Devil’s enjoying this and taunting Patrick and Josephine.) “Don't let them scare you when you're down on the floor bleeding, bastard!” – (This is Cambria watching and trying to soothe Josephine and then trying to soothe Patrick, but she can’t help but lash out at Patrick because he is the ‘bastard’ who let this happen to Josephine. While the ‘bastard’ is directed at Patrick, the rest of the line is directed to both him and Josephine.) “You'll be getting home real soon and I'll pray for you, ‘high health!’” – “Cambria again, still encouraging and soothing Josephine by ensuring Josephine that this will be over soon and she can then come home and that her mother is praying for her in the meantime. ‘High health’ is actually a toast, such as one given at a celebration like a wedding or announcement of engagement like the one earlier that day.” “Speak up let out,” – (Cambria telling Josie [short for Josephine; my fingers are getting tired] to continue screaming for help and to speak up against her attackers.) “- caught in the crossfire.” (It is revealed later in the story that Patrick has some past history with some less-than-savory types of people and goes to an old associate to procure a gun. The Jersey Devils may actually know Patrick [and his car] from his delinquent past and thus this whole thing might be fueled by an old feud and Josie is only caught in the crossfire of that feud.) “Compared to the step to the bone that might break.” – (Patrick is being kicked and beaten while he’s down and he’s basically in a contest comparing the strength of his bones [and hence his conviction] to the strength of the thugs’ kicks [steps].) “It's too late to find a better way out of this.” – (Josie and Patrick realize that Patrick missed his chance to drive somewhere safer and that this is all his fault.) “With the finest regards that I lost in the cracks of this street” – (This is pure speculation, but it’s known for a fact that Josephine is raped by the Devils. I think that “finest regards” refers to her virginity [one of a woman’s finest gifts she can give to a man] and that this line is her referring to her virginal blood she loses to the cracks in the street.) Basically this song is a mult-view narration and commentary on Patrick and Josephine being assaulted by the Jersey City Devils. Like any interpretation of a C&C song, most of this is pure speculation based on things hinted at by the comics and by Sanchez himself.

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.