This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Lost in the darkness
I fade from the light
Faith of my father, my brother, my Maker and Savior
Help me make it through the night
Blood on my conscious
And murder in mind
Out of the gloom I rise up from my tomb into impending doom
Now my body is my shrine
The blood runs free, the rain turns red
Give me the wine, you keep the bread
The voices echo in my head
Is God alive or is God dead?
Is God dead?
Rivers of evil
Run through dying land
Swimming in sorrow, they kill, steal, and borrow, there is no tomorrow
For the sinners will be damned
Ashes to ashes
You cannot exhume a soul
Who do you trust when corruption and lust, creed of all the unjust
Leaves you empty and unwhole?
When will this nightmare be over? Tell me
When can I empty my head?
Will someone tell me the answer?
Is God really dead?
Is God really dead?
To safeguard my philosophy
Until my dying breath
I transfer from reality
Into a mental death
I empathize with enemies
Until the timing's right
With God and Satan at my side
From darkness will come light
I watch the rain as it turns red
Give me more wine, I don't need bread
These riddles that live in my head
I don't believe that God is dead
God is dead
Nowhere to run
Nowhere to hide
Wondering if we will meet again on the other side
Do you believe a word
What the Good Book said?
Or is it just a holy fairytale and God is dead?
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
Right
But still the voices in my head
Are telling me that God is dead
The blood pours down, the rain turns red
I don't believe that God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
I fade from the light
Faith of my father, my brother, my Maker and Savior
Help me make it through the night
Blood on my conscious
And murder in mind
Out of the gloom I rise up from my tomb into impending doom
Now my body is my shrine
The blood runs free, the rain turns red
Give me the wine, you keep the bread
The voices echo in my head
Is God alive or is God dead?
Is God dead?
Rivers of evil
Run through dying land
Swimming in sorrow, they kill, steal, and borrow, there is no tomorrow
For the sinners will be damned
Ashes to ashes
You cannot exhume a soul
Who do you trust when corruption and lust, creed of all the unjust
Leaves you empty and unwhole?
When will this nightmare be over? Tell me
When can I empty my head?
Will someone tell me the answer?
Is God really dead?
Is God really dead?
To safeguard my philosophy
Until my dying breath
I transfer from reality
Into a mental death
I empathize with enemies
Until the timing's right
With God and Satan at my side
From darkness will come light
I watch the rain as it turns red
Give me more wine, I don't need bread
These riddles that live in my head
I don't believe that God is dead
God is dead
Nowhere to run
Nowhere to hide
Wondering if we will meet again on the other side
Do you believe a word
What the Good Book said?
Or is it just a holy fairytale and God is dead?
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
Right
But still the voices in my head
Are telling me that God is dead
The blood pours down, the rain turns red
I don't believe that God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
God is dead
Lyrics submitted by ab0ve, edited by sdr, Bestapia, Sp1derschwein
God Is Dead? Lyrics as written by Tony Iommi Terence Butler
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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My understanding, from listening and what I've read, is that it a reference to the work of German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. In which, he discusses the concept of God as it relates to morality. If God is dead, then morality has no meaning. Specific to this song, it seems to be more of a torment or struggle to know the truth. In one part, the lyrics state, "I don't believe that God is dead"...then going on to repeat, "God is dead...God is dead". The Nietzsche reference is similar to Trent Reznor's (NIN's) song 'Heresy" - While "Heresy" is more of an atheistic exclamation, "God Is Dead?" is clearly more of a question, and not necessarily dismissive of God's existence.
@Yobbo14 Sort OF like the study of metaphysics?
@Yobbo14 It should be noted that Nietzche's quote is often misinterpreted. It's not a statement that God doesn't exist, and it's not just saying God is irrelevant in non-existent in the eye of culture, but that God is DEAD, meaning he's very much a part of culture, but in a very static way. If God were alive, metaphorically speaking, people would still believe in miracles instead of explaining them away with science, that is the point he was getting at.
@Ganondoxon - You're right about that context of Nietzsche's statement. I may not have been entirely clear on that in what I mentioned for his "If God is dead.." remarks. I don't like speaking in generalities, but considering Nietzsche's anti-theistic leanings, it's probably a safe assumption he wasn't a believer :) - I think @FreshOwnageon was more succinct in saying "If God is dead, everything is permitted" - which would seem to be more in line with certain philosophy and not necessarily the meaning of this song (which is more about a basic question of God's existence). With a reference to society, if God is dead, it would point to morality being dead as well. To many, an absent, missing, or nonexistent God means we only have nature and survival of the fittest, which does not provide right, wrong, an answer to life's meaning, love, and much more.
@Yobbo14 <br /> <br /> Nietzche was definitely an atheist, but that's not what the God is Dead quote is about. You need to understand the historical context, where at the time most philosopher's were theists, but they were also naturalists. That's what Nietzche was criticizing, he's saying God had no purpose in their model. In another quote, he said he could believe in a dancing god, as it's the dead god of the philosophers he found absurd, but he was still an atheist.
A few other important things to note about Nietzsche: he was trained as a theologian, which is what informed his ideas about God and why he was so obsessed with the idea of a dead God, and the God is dead quote was actually from a character of his, Zarathustra, though he was using Zarathustra as a mouthpiece. Finally, Niethzche's nihilistic existentialism is a direct result of his atheism, it's interesting to compare his philosophy with Kierkegaard's (a devout Christian) as a result.