Know

I think that one of the basic meanings of this song is that you should "never think you know why, know." Unless you have experience with something and have seen or done it for yourself, don't presume that you know about it, and even then, you should never think that you are for sure right. In reality, we can not be sure of anything, so we should never think we know why.

"I will never feed off the evergreen luster of your heart all because we all live in the valley of the walls"

Evergreen luster reminds me of Eden, so based on that I think this means that he will never shoot down your beliefs because he himself has no idea what happens after death because "we all live in the valley of the walls" meaning we can't see outside of the walls without leaving it aka, we don't know what happens after death. Even if you don't buy the Eden thing, think of it as the happiness and security that you know everything or have a belief.

"When we speak we can peak from the windows of their mouths to see the land the women chant as they fly up to the sun"

I can't figure out what this means. Those are some screwed up cheeks.

"You never think you know why"

It is impossible to know why certain things happen, yet people continue to rant about how they know.

"Books all say different things while people flap their yellow wings"

Books might refer to just the bible or all religious texts. They all say different things about what people should do and more important to the song, what happens after death. Still people "flap their yellow wings" (The yellow wings are the book's, wings are the pages) meaning that both believe in them and try to convert everyone else.

"Trying to soar by being a whore of life and almost everything"

"The sheep that ran off from the herd may be dead but now's a bird able to fly able to die able to fuck your mother's earth"

The sheep that ran off from the herd is the person who is thinking for themselves about what happens after death or simply not worrying about it and because of that he is free. So he is still able to die and I'm guessing fuck your mother's earth is either a sexual reference or a reference to mother earth which I'm guessing means he can do what ever he wants to.

"On the other side"

Death.

"Do you ever try to fly"

Try to think for yourself.

"Have you ever wanted to die"

So that you can find out what happens after death.

no one knows for sure what comes after death, but having faith until your death makes all the difference...

im atheist by the way

Perhaps its about people wanting to know what happens after death. Flying being a metaphor for either suicide or proposed after-death experience of flying towards to the light.

I think this song is about hallucinogenic drugs and getting stuck with flashbacks and tripping - leaving your body on the other side. It also comments on the contradiction of different forms of history and calls upon Nietzschian iedas of the 'herd' and breaking free from that oppressive society.

My Interpretation of the song is what happens after death.

"Know, You never think you know why" -You really dont know what happens after life until you get there despite your religous beliefs

"Books all say different things while people flap their yellow wings" -Not to sure about this one possibly different religons trying to explain the after-life maybe people flapping their yellow wings is them going with the flock or deciding to join a group who believes in a certain persons preachings.

"sheep that ran off from the herd may be dead but now's a bird able to fly able to die able to break your cursed earth (I believe thats wrong sounds more like fuck the mother's heart /shrug)" -The sheep is dead and now realizes whats on the other side of the "city of the walls" which is the physical existence of life.

"Don't ever try to fly, unless you leave your body on the other side, Never try to die," -Dont trust what people tell you about what happens after death there's no real proof, if there isnt except life for what it is dont try to die just to figure out whats next

Thats how I interpret it at least.

I also think it's avout people wanting to know what happens after they die and i agree witht the fuck your mother's heart thing.

Its actually Fuck your mother's earth (via the booklet that comes with the CD) But great interpretation FreeThinker.

ya and i think the whole...

i will never feed off hte evergreen luster of ur heart - this means that he wont believe wat organized religions tell him, in thier fancy way of makin themselves look innocent and good, hence the words used like heart. he says this since they have no real proof or really know and are jus in it for thier own gain

all because we all live in the valley of the walls- this means we live in a world where we dont know wats gonna happen next, hence the valley of the walls. the walls symboloze that we cant see was on the other side, like wen we die. no one can see and no the truth.

wen they speak we can peak, through the windows of her mouth see hte land the women chant as they fly up to the sun - this means wen organized religions like christianity tell u thier belief about heaven and all that, wen they speek and seeing them fly up to the sun, sayin they are explaining to u that u will die and go to heaven if u follow us.

the whole books all say diffrent thing wile people flap thier yellow wings is like wat free thinker said - it means diffrent books say diffrent things about afterlife, no one knows. people flapping thier yellow wings, means all people jumping to conclusions and believin wat they read, hecne YELLOW WINGS, in other words fake wings. they are living thier lives thinkin that the religions are rite, so they are alredy flapping thier wings to get ready to go wen they really dont know.

the rest basically means we try to soar, by believing but then in reality we go out and take advantage of things and the earth, being a whore of life, thinkin that believing is enough to get into heaven and we can be a whore in life. the sheep that run stuff mite support the idea of reincarnation stating that that could be a possibility as well, thats why he says MAYBE dead,,

then the whole u ever wanted to die stuff, thats basically sayin have u ever really wanted to know wat happens and think hard about, but then says, dont ever try to fly unless u leave ur body... saying that no matter how hard u think u wont know untill u actually die (leavin ur body on the other side), and again starts with the, u'll never thinlk u know, stating that all in all, u will never know until u die.

system of a down is not christian by the way or even muslim, they do not believe in organized religion, but follow armenian culture and believe that spirit moves through all things and there is a higher power above all living things, not neccessarily god in heaven, but an energy

Nice work, FreeThinker. Dead on.